In The Case Of Non-Fiction
Posted 19th April 2010
Category: Chit-Chat Genres: N/A
3 Comments
Over the past year I have developed a real taste for non-fiction, in fact my first book of 2009 (the year I decided to start reading again properly) was the hefty 571 page The Six Wives Of Henry VIII by Alison Weir. It may be that I love Tudor history but in the past that kind of academic tome would have been overlooked. As it was I devoured it and contrary to my assumptions before I begun I did not fall out of love with Henry the bigamist, despite his numerous wives.
I am lapping up non-fiction like my dog laps up the left over tuna, I simply cannot get enough. This doesn’t mean I’m reading it all the time because looking admiringly at Antonia Fraser’s Marie Antoinette and wading through it are two different matters, but I’m definitely seeing factual accounts in a whole new light. I gravitate towards them, especially those biographies.
Surprising then that I’ve not read a single one this year. I have the afore-mentioned Fraser, The Princes In The Tower by Alison Weir, and On Gold Mountain by Lisa See. I’m also considering borrowing a Bonnie & Clyde release. Odds are you’ll learn more from a non-fiction than a fiction, no matter the information provided by the latter, so why am I so wary to carry on my “winning” streak? I know that each one will take me a while.
What non-fiction books would you recommend? To make it less general I’ll include this footnote: I don’t like them much, footnotes I mean.
