-
Welcome
to BookAndReader! We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!
Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.
Why read non-fiction?
- Thread starter alfinge
- Start date
pontalba
Well-Known Member
Actually, I can no longer in honesty call them 'piles', as they are up on the shelves in here.steffee said:Which of your piles Pontalba?
Howsomever.......the imagery is too good to change. And to answer your question, wait, I just saw it this morning.....22nd to the right of me on the top shelf...
mrkgnao
New Member
I actually prefer it when I learn stuff from fiction, when it's baked into the narrative. If it's done in a good way, of course! (And I rather enjoy the dimension of having to question it more, because then I can research it further...)
But on topics I'm interested in, I'll read a non-fiction every now and then. For instance, I enjoyed The invention of clouds by Richard Hamblyn, and right now I'm enjoying A short history of myth by Karen Armstrong.
And then of course, there are those non-fiction books you don't read from cover to cover - e.g. encyclopedias of mythology or literature, and cook books &c!
*mrkgnao*
But on topics I'm interested in, I'll read a non-fiction every now and then. For instance, I enjoyed The invention of clouds by Richard Hamblyn, and right now I'm enjoying A short history of myth by Karen Armstrong.
And then of course, there are those non-fiction books you don't read from cover to cover - e.g. encyclopedias of mythology or literature, and cook books &c!
*mrkgnao*
pontalba
Well-Known Member
Autobiography of a Geisha by Sayo Masuda, trans. by G.G. Rowley
I just finished (yesterday) Autobiography of a Geisha. I cannot say enough good things about this book. The woman's story is amazingly terrible, but she manages not to feel one lick of "oh poor me, look what I went thru". No self pity. Nothing maudlin. These are the facts, I lived this way, this happened to me, and guess what.....I survived it.
But it is not dry one whit. I was compelled to finish this book asap. I had to know what happened to her and hers.
An amazing woman in a terrible time. A woman to be admired.
I just finished (yesterday) Autobiography of a Geisha. I cannot say enough good things about this book. The woman's story is amazingly terrible, but she manages not to feel one lick of "oh poor me, look what I went thru". No self pity. Nothing maudlin. These are the facts, I lived this way, this happened to me, and guess what.....I survived it.
But it is not dry one whit. I was compelled to finish this book asap. I had to know what happened to her and hers.
An amazing woman in a terrible time. A woman to be admired.
Carrot
kickbox
alfinge said:Why read non-fiction?
The idea of there actually being fiction and non-fiction is a matter of opinion as Doug Johnson says “some non fiction writers make up just as much stuff as fiction writers” I would add to this the fact that most “fictional” books take place in factual places or with factual people. We get books where the author’s friends and family complain that they appear in the book even though the names have been changed. Most “science fiction” is based on the currently understood scientific principles and even when we get into the realms of “fantasy” the characters still relate to each other in a standard human pattern even if they have 3 heads and are wizardz from the planet Zblarg. Without these factual ties the works of “fiction” would be completely unreadable (unless you are a 3 headed wizard from the planet Zblarg). Also the language that the book is written in ties the story to a purely human perspective thus it has to be based on factual human perception.
On the flip side of this are the “Factual” books. Anything can be stated as a fact but what we normally say are facts are only a consensus of opinion. Even when we say 2+2=4 this is not a fact but only a statement based on general precepts (for starters 2+2=11 in trinery maths). One has only to look to a short time ago and you can find things that were fully accepted as facts that are now considered to be wrong, or might I say fiction.
Add too all this things that are written as fiction but are accepted by some people as facts (Da Vinci code need I say more) and things that are or were fiction and become fact. You end up with such a blurring of the lines that it is difficult to say where the boundaries lie or even if there are boundaries. So in the end is the book a good read or not is the only question. And the only way you can tell that is to read it!
I put all this to you as true but it may not be, it may be a load of old garbage, that is for you to decide and once you have read it you can decide but if you don’t read it you cant and that is the whole point my dear friends.