Non-Fiction

[huntergrayson]

That sounds really interesting. I found out when I worked at the Gap that the company wants every store window in every city to be almost identical. We're losing any sense of what makes a city distinct.

I think I love books about old Hollywood (even though I generally loathe old movies) is because the people who are telling the stories are all old and don't have to worry about their careers, so they dish all the good stories. I get so tired of hearing, "Oh I loved working with Temper McActorpants! He was so passionate!"

Loathing old movies? Wha?? Two words:Lady Eve. Carry on. Yes, I adore books about old H'wood as well, in part due to the fact that I live in LA and go to film school. I recommend the breezy, divine Hollywoodland by David Wallace. I don't care that it may be inaccurate, the gossip and the snark is simply fantastic. I only skimmed through one book of his, but for those craving an in-depth look, Kevin Starr has written a multi-part series on California, with each book covering a decade.

I don't actually read a lot of non-fiction. That said, I highly recommend Faster, about how our society has gotten so darn accelerated. My dad almost only reads non-fiction, including a lot of quirky stuff. He really liked Cosmopolitan, written by the NYC bartender who brought back the Cosmo. I tried his margarita recipe and it was killer.

I want to read Collapse, but our Natural History Museum has an exhibit based on it and it looks like a dense book.

[snacktastic]

I read Collapse.It's entertaining once you get into it. Especially if you read the chapters as separate pieces of work. The other book I really love was Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. A fascinating account of what was a visionary leader.

[Deleted]

How sad, no one here reads non-fiction?

Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James Swanson, is really good and a surprisingly quick read.

[sleepy]

Nonfiction? Pshaw! This site is to indulge my addiction to fluff, not real stuff!

Seriously though, I read nonfiction all the time. I just never feel like writing about it since that's basically what I do for a living. Snore!

[marywebgirl]

I've actually given up on fiction entirely. I gave it one last shot last Christmas with Wicked, but now I'm basically off of it forever. I currently have Freakanomics and Nickel and Dimed waiting for me when I finish No god but God.

[Mutagen]

Any fans of Barbara W. Tuchman here? The only book of hers I've been able to finish is The Zimmerman Telegram, and not coincidentally, it's very short. Really clicks along, and her descriptions of the various spying organizations is quite funny, as is Zimmerman's blunder of publicly admitting to the telegram.

Meanwhile, I've been chipping away at A Distant Mirror and The Proud Tower for AGES now, having read significant chunks of both but never being able to finish them. Tuchman's sentences are so densely packed with information, but the historical stories she tells are so vivid; rather than being upset that I can't finish these books, I see them almost as gifts that keep on giving.

Part of the issue, I think, is that she seems to write about every topic in equally exhaustive detail, which is great if it's a topic you're interested in (in The Proud Tower, I loved the chapters on the anarchist movement and the Dreyfus affair), but is otherwise a bit daunting. Really, each chapter is so chock-full that it's almost like getting five or six books for the price of one.

[chonies]

marywebgirl said:

I currently have Freakanomics and Nickel and Dimed waiting for me when I finish No god but God.

I *ahem* bought No god but God because I saw Reza Aslan[/color]* on CNN. Yes, I bought a book because of raw animal lust. I would have got around to reading it anyway, but really.

I also liked Nickel and Dimed, and Freakanomics. The Working Poor by David Shipler was also really, really good.

*if you have dial-up, don't do it.

[Deleted]

I hated Nickel & Dimed. I liked the idea of it but I just find the author so preachy and snotty that I can't bear to hear her talk about things. I had looked forward to reading that book for so long and I finally bought it and then I just wanted to throw it against the wall so many times.

I read non-fiction every once in a while. I'll go through phases where I get sick of fiction and I read non-fiction for a few months and then get sick of that and go back to fiction. Plus, my book club is pretty cool about choosing a few non-fiction books throughout the year.

We just finished Candy Girl: The Secret Life of an Unlikely Stripper which is the story of the girl who wrote the Pussy Ranch blog about her life as a stripper. Horrid. Not only is she a piss poor writer, she's insane.

[marywebgirl]

I *ahem* bought No god but God because I saw Reza Aslan* on CNN. Yes, I bought a book because of raw animal lust.

Hee. I bought it because he looked so freaking yummy on The Daily Show. He was dubbed Hottie ibn Egghead in the TDS thread at TWoP.

[chonies]

marywebgirl said:

I *ahem* bought No god but God because I saw Reza Aslan* on CNN. Yes, I bought a book because of raw animal lust.

Hee. I bought it because he looked so freaking yummy on The Daily Show. He was dubbed Hottie ibn Egghead in the TDS thread at TWoP.

Oh LAWRD! I found this clip on YouTube. Hottie indeed! When I saw him on Anderson Cooper, it was just as nice. Dare I say "foine?"

Jensational, about Nickel and Dimed, I liked it because she was sympathetic and she very clearly explained her methodology for her research, which I appreciated. However, there was a "woot! I am so down with the poor! I can pass!" vibe that made me kind of uncomfortable. I read it the first summer I was truly broke, so a lot of it resonated with me but like you said, there was some rankling.