Non Fiction November kicks off tomorrow. A month-long celebration of the art of memoirs; travelogs; essays and historical; scientific; technical; political and economic writing.
I joined in last year for the first time. Now I’m in a quandary whether to repeat that experience.
Part of my brain says NO WAY. I already feel over stretched with fictional reading commitments for the next month. Plus I promised myself after failing with #20booksofsummer that I wouldn’t embark on any more projects that involved making a list of books to read. I’m clearly not cut out for such projects.
But another part of my brain is saying YES. Non Fiction November would be a good way to kick me into reading the books that I often buy but seldom seem to read.
I have plenty of choices. At the last count my TBR includes 27 books in the non fiction category. There’s One Woman Walks Wales by Ursula Martin which I started reading back in about February but haven’t picked up for ages. The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell, owner of Scotland’s second largest second-hand bookshop is another that I started but haven’t finished.
Then there are at least 2 books on Roman history, 3 on Greek and Roman myths, a couple of biographies and a few books on language and reading. Maybe this will be the year I finally get around to The World is Flat, the book on globalisation by Thomas Friedman or Rachel Carson’s landmark work on the environmental impact of chemical pollution, Silent Spring.
I’m really really tempted. Mainly I suppose because Non Fiction November is simply about reading more non fiction, it’s about discussing non fiction. A new topic each week from “your favourite non fiction book of the year” to ” pairing up non fiction with fiction.”
I see a number of bloggers are already making lists of books to read for this themed month. That way madness lies for me so if I do decide to join in, I’ll take the unplanned approach and read whatever takes my fancy.
NonFiction November starts tomorrow so I don’t have too much time to make up my mind. Watch this space as it were.