BAND — Bloggers’ Alliance of Nonfiction Devotees — is a group organized to promote the joy of reading nonfiction. We are “advocates for nonfiction as a non-chore,” and we want you to join us. Each month, a member of BAND hosts a discussion on their blog related to nonfiction.
This month we have a first-time host for BAND, Sheila of Book Journey. Sheila writes:
Non-fiction covers everything from memoirs, to facts about anything…bugs, wood, planes, homes, historical truths, you name it… you can read about it…
HOWEVER…
what I would like to offer up as the topic this month is what are those topics in non fiction reading, that you almost hate to say out loud that you enjoy reading about.
I’m not sure if I’d call the kind of nonfiction I’m going to write about nonfiction that I hate to admit that I enjoy. I think it’s more nonfiction that I hate to admit I buy? Or maybe nonfiction that I hate to admit I need? Or nonfiction that I hate to admit I’m too lazy to commit to reading?
Whatever you want to call it, I’ve recently started to buy and borrow a host of self-improvement/lifestyle books that I’m hoping will help me lose some weight, invest my money, and otherwise learn to live like a grown up.
We’ll start with the dieting books, since I know those are the ones I am most embarrassed to admit I’ve bought. The way I can tell that I’m buying a book that I don’t want anyone else to know I own is that I buy it as an ebook, even when I can find gently used paperbacks online for slightly cheaper. In the last year or so, I’ve bought both The Game On! Diet by Krista Vernoff and Az Ferguson and S.A.S.S. Yourself Slim by Cynthia Sass, thinking they’d help give be a kick start to getting healthier and losing weight. Plus, the blogger recommendations for both were pretty good, and I’m nothing if not persuadable. Even though I’ve skimmed through both, I haven’t made any meaningful attempts to try either.
Another book I’ve purchased (a paperback this time!) with a similar healthier lifestyle intent is 52 Small Changes: One Year to a Happier, Healthier You by Brett Blumenthal. This one has an entire year’s worth of small changes — from drinking more water to protect your skin from the sun — that will make your life better. I’m a sucker for year-long projects, but I have poor follow through on most of them, which means I haven’t even started looking at this one yet.
Several months ago, I reached a personal savings goal and got on a kick to start learning how to invest my money better. I immediately purchased Personal Finance in Your 20s for Dummies by Eric Tyson and flipped through the first several chapters. But reading about investing money is… boring. For a more entertaining read about money, I impulsively checked out and started reading All the Money in the World by Laura Vanderkam, a look at the relationship between money and happiness, that is much more interesting (although certainly less full of practical advice).
And finally, books for being more of a grown up. I’m a sucker for these, particularly books that explore what it’s like to be in a mid-20s, transient and uncertainly sort of lifestyle. Sort of what I’m in right now. Two books I’ve bought (and, you guessed it, haven’t read yet) are Life After College by Jenny Blake (a practical look to seeing the big picture and making a life plan) and Emerging Adulthood by Jeffrey Jensen Arnett (a more academic look at the time between adolescence and being a grown up).
I may have stretched this month’s topic a little bit, but I think sharing all these books with you meets the spirit of Shelia’s challenge, right?
What nonfiction do you hate to admit you read?
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I think you have A valid response. All of the books you mention qualify in my mind. I too had that 52 Small Changes book and the Game On Diet and started strong and fizzled on both…. GAH. Doesnt mean I wont find yet another book and try try again 🙂
I think I read about both of those books on your blog 🙂 I really want to do 52 Small Changes, but some of the later chapters look so intimidating it’s hard to start.
Ah, the lure of those darned self-improvement books. Now I’m curious about 52 Small Changes. I’ll have to check it out.
I love the concept of that one, it just intimidates me being so big, I think 🙂
I like self help books. But it took decades to say that aloud! And, now, of course, I get less out of them because there’s really only so much good advice — it gets recycled in new books. But, I still look because I never know when someone is going to say it in just the way that really penetrates my mind and finally gets me to act on it. It still happens just often enough that I keep reading.
It’s hard to admit to sometimes! I imagine I probably have too many diet books that say about the same thing, but they always tempt me 🙂
Good choice of book to write about, I hate admitting about self-help type books too 🙂 When it comes to diets, I’ve always been a bit nervous about all the fad diets, which can be bad for your health, but really loved the book Mindless Eating by Brian Wasnick. It is a funny and interesting non-fiction book about why we eat more than we need and it really helped me get my eating in order with all the eating out while travelling!
Darn it! Now you’ve done it. I just ordered Mindless Eating. I’ve been traveling for work for the last 6 months and have lost control of my diet, so I’m hoping it will get me back on track.
I just finished Why Calories Count by Marion Nestle and Malden Nesheim. It reads like a popular science book, much like Mindless Eating (which they mention several times). It also mentions another favorite book of mine, The End of Overeating by David Kessler — another book on the topic of weight maintenance that isn’t a diet book.
I heard good things about Mindless Eating — I’ve wanted to read that one myself.