BAND

Our July topic for the BAND comes from a new host, Marilyn (Me, You and Books). Marilyn asks,
When is an author’s subjective response to a subject not a bias but a legitimate perspective? What nonfiction have you read where an author’s feelings enhance your understanding?
I think this is a fascinating topic, especially as more and more authors of new nonfiction have started to play more with incorporating their own voices and stories into their books. These types of nonfiction accounts aren’t really memoirs, even though the author will often write in the first person and incorporate their experience of reporting and researching a book into the account.

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.

I think what I love most about quirky nonfiction is that it teaches me about something or someone that I otherwise would never learn about. And more often than not, the people or subjects that become the center of a quirky nonfiction book are people who are pursuing a passion with such relish that I can’t help but cheer for them. I always find those books a lot of fun, and a nice break from nonfiction on more serious topics.

Since I hosted the first BAND discussion last July, we’ve passed discussion around to a bunch of awesome bloggers. In my first discussion, I asked about your favorite type of nonfiction. This month, I want to go the other direction…

The host for January’s BAND discussion is Joy (Joy’s Book Blog). Because January is a time of new beginnings when people set goals and channel hopeful energy “into communities around interests like reading 100 books in a year or training for a marathon or taking a photo every day.” Joy asks:
What book or books have you used or are you using to support a goal, resolution, or project?

The host for December’s BAND discussion is Erin (Erin Reads) who is another new host for our discussion group. In her post, Erin writes about she is primarily a fiction reader, in part because with fiction she knows that she doesn’t have to assess validity as she reads.

Do you read nonfiction to help support a cause(s)?
The short answer to this question is yes, I love finding a topic I care about and reading as much about it as I can. I have a particular soft spot for books about the state of women in the Middle East and books about current social issues, social anthropology books, perhaps. But I decided to take a different angle when answering this question and share a book list for a cause I’m hoping to learn more about: the financial crisis.

The host for our October nonfiction discussion was the awesome Ash of English Major’s Junk Food who asked about her favorite form of nonfiction — anthologies — and asked us to share some of our favorites.

I have always wanted to be the sort of person that gets into essay collections. I can’t tell you the number I’ve bought over the years, vowing to start reading them right away, that then take a neglected place near the bottom of my unread books shelf. I’m addicted to buying nonfiction anthologies, but can’t seem to actually read them.

The host for our September nonfiction discussion was Cass of Bonjour, Cass! who opened up a discussion about her love of nonfiction audio books.

I admire people who can listen to audio book while cleaning or doing dishes or folding laundry or working out… but at this point I just seem to not be one of those people.