Nonfiction November 2018

I like reading nonfiction but sometimes I’m a bit slower at reading it and that makes me hesitant at picking it up. Two years ago I did Nonfiction November and I found it did help me reach for nonfiction books more so when I saw this year’s video by abookolive on my YouTube sidebar, I decided to watch it and it inspired me to take part. Especially as I’m hoping knock out a few of my remaining Book Riot Read Harder 2018 challenges (as per usual, I’m slacking on that!)

The aim of Nonfiction November is just to get people reading nonfiction, even if it’s just one book. But there’s also 4 challenges that you can try complete, for you to interpreter whatever you want.

1. Past time/ Pastime

2. Self/Shelf

3. Wander/Wonder

4. Micro/Macro

Here are my picks for each challenge

1. Past time/ Pastime

I know past time is probably more to do with history but I decided to pick My Thoughts Exactly by Lily Allen which I guess you could twist to say it’s about her life and anything to do with memoirs is technically past time. If that’s too much of a reach, then one of my pastimes is listening to music and I loved Lily Allen’s first album Alright, Still when it came out, it was the soundtrack to my summer in 2006. I got the book on Audible as I thought it would be interesting to listen to Lily narrate it.

2. Self/Shelf

A relatively new addition to my shelf, as I only got it last month, but I thought Feminists Don’t Wear Pink and Other Lies curated by Scarlett Curtis would be a good pick for this challenge as I do consider myself a feminist. And it’ll help me finish the complete the Read an Essay Anthology challenge for Read Harder.

3. Wander/Wonder

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald was one of my choices for the previous Nonfiction November but I never got around to it then. I’m hoping I will this year, especially as I need to Read a Book about Nature for Read Harder.

4. Micro/Macro

Dent’s Modern Tribes by Susie Dent is all about slang used by different professions and groups and I thought it fit in with a micro as it focuses on smaller groups of people. It will also help me complete the Read Harder challenge of Read a Book on Social Science.

I’m also currently listening to the latest book by No Such Thing as Fish called The Book of the Year 2018 and I’m reading Timekeepers by Simon Garfield. There’s a new Simon Garfield book out called In Miniature which would be perfect for the Micro/Macro challenge but I didn’t want to start a new Garfield book without finished the current one! I think the books suit the challenges well, they might even fit some of the other challenges as well (H is for Hawk could be in Pastime as it’s about falconry and Lily Allen’s book could be in wonder about a celebrities life). I’m not sure I’ll get to read them all in November but if not I’ll continue into December to get them finished.

If you have any nonfiction recommendations let me know below in the comments or on Twitter.