Discussion Does anyone here read nonfiction books?

I've been reading a lot of nonfiction lately. I really like mark kurlansky's books especially. Right now I'm reading his Cod and Michael Pollan's The Botany of Desire.

I was wondering if anyone here reads any nonfiction. And if so, what do you like to read about? Any topic in particular? I love reading about histories of little things. Stuff you wouldn't really think about. (I really recommed Paper Paging Through History because of this, because for some reason I've always assumed paper was a modern invention? but it's not! I learned so much from reading this book omg I really recommend it.)

Anyway, if you are reading any good nonfiction books or have any recommedations please tell me about them! I really would love to know hehe

 

I've had to read nonfiction for school, like This is Your Brain on Music, etc.

But outside of school... not really.

 

Does reading dictionaries count as reading non-fiction?

 

How about history, science, and engineering book? Does it count as reading non fiction?

 

Yes, those count as non-fiction.

 

Primitive tech to research isekai. I used to read more history, but listen to kings and generals or epimethius's YouTube channel nowadays during work.

The topic of "The Botany of Desire" reminds me of an old SF story of a botanist whose thesis was that humans had been mastered by grain plants, ultimately conquering new world for their carb bearing masters.

 

Mostly history books. Or about psychology or sociology. Sometimes political studies books. I bought them for my uni but I do enjoyed reading them

 

I mostly read about the English history (and other history), Greek and Egypt mythology, physics and the study about astral. I also read theology and demonology cause I enjoy reading about the demons and their origin.

 

Mostly books for school, outside of school not really.

 

Not my fave but I used to read them. Mostly about business, social skills and personality improvement.

 

Whenever I read time travel or Isekai. I always try to verify if it’s possible to do the same or to get a better idea what the author is talking about. I’ve read things like The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli or The Art of War by Sun Tzu. I’ve also read The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marks. I’ve also seen many How Things Work and other simple techniques. With lots of history and technology. In the end I always ask myself could I do it too. So yes I read a lot of non fiction

 

Started reading Frozen In Time and Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage this month. The progress is slow because I'm not used to it but it's nice.

 

Well I was reading Ravenor, finished book 1 and it's pretty good. At the time I thought I ran out of fanfiction to read but then I found many more so now who knows when I'll get back to it, I have like 3 million words of fanfiction on my plan to read list lol.
Oh Ravenor is one of Warhammer 40k books, I didn't play the game, just read crossovers with WH40k and found the universe very interesting.

Before that I've read Bobiverse and Daniel Black series, waiting for sequels but paperback/epubs I read sporadically.

I thought the thread was about western paperback novels.

 

Epitome non ficta

 

Our teacher just gave us her inventory of reference(?) books as a parting gift so I've been reading that. I've also found out that our textbooks actually suck at explaining things.

 

So many famous books!! You have my respect!!

 

I wish I could say I understand it all, but sadly it isn’t the case. Especially when you dealing with cultural, languages and even time. I usually skim it. I always try the original authors work translated, but often times I look to other authors and their take on it. So I’m not all that impressive, but thanks for saying so

 

I think just attempting it and doing so much to try to understand it is already impressive in and of itself. After all, I'm sure many in the masses... like me... would prefer to just bury themselves in fiction and never even bother trying to read all the great classics. You've done much more than that

 

Thanks. Your very kind to say so

 

Non-fiction probably makes up 10-20% of what I read. I love reading about financial crime and white collar crime. Billion Dollar Whale is a I-can't-believe-this-is-real hoot. I love memoirs too, and medical non-fiction like stuff by Atul Gawande.

If I were to recommend a non-fiction book to someone I don't know, I'd probably go with Educated by Tara Westover.