NonFiction November Challenge and TBR

This will be my 3rd year doing NonFiction November. I participated in 2016 and last year. What's NonFiction November you ask? Run by Booktuber abookolive, the aim isn't to read only nonfiction but to read more nonfiction than you usually do. So if don't read nonfiction, then reading just one nonfiction book will suffice. If you read one a month, try to read two and so on and so forth. There are also 4 one word prompts for you to try complete as well. The beauty of the one word prompts is that it's open to interpretation, you can bend the meanings to fit your own reading habits and likes. Olive does a great job of going through the prompts and their meaning so you can check out her video here if you'd like. The prompts are as follows:

1. Design
2. Sport
3. True
4. Voice

Here are some of books I'm thinking of reading for these prompts

Design

-Semicolon is unsurprisingly a book about the semicolon, one I wanted to read a few months ago as it was a Book of the Month for the Rick O'Shea Book Club. I thought it suited the prompt as punctuation is a design element of language.

-Microtrends Squared is something I'm kinda twisting to fit the prompt to be honest. Mainly because I'm reading it for Book Riot Read Harder and need to get it finished by the end of the year! But economics and trends can shape the world we live in the how things are designed to work.... yeah it's a stretch but I'm keeping it!

-Sex on the Moon is about breaking into a NASA centre to steal moon rocks, I'm sure there's plenty about the lead up and design of the heist!

-Toast and Marmalade is by Emma Bridgewater, who designs pottery. The cover has some of her designs on the front too!

Sport

-Not going to lie, this is the hardest one for me as I'm not a big sports fan and while I had a few ideas, I ran into hiccoughs like the books being hard to get or the reviews not being great. While making my list the other day I Am the Secret Footballer went on sale on Audible for 99p so I decided to just get it!

-Inverting the Pyramid is one of the only sports books I own, purely because the book was on the free book table at work. I'll either find this book on football tactics incredibly interesting or really boring!

-Walking's a sport right? I'm counting it! London Overground is a walk around the Overground system in London. If it's not counted as a sport in the physical sense, then it most certainly is in the adventure/fun sense.

-If walking around London doesn't tickle my fancy then maybe Circle Line, a book on sailing around London will appeal to me?!

True

-The Library Book is about an arson in a library, I picked it mainly because I need to read a nonviolent true crime book for Book Riot Read Harder (Sex on the Moon will also count for this)

-Something I can not get enough of is stunt journalism, doing something for the pure fun and thrill of it. I picked up A Chip Shop in Poznan while in London back in July.

-I already have The Book of the Year 2019 on preorder and can't wait to listen to all these true facts!

-If you're a book lover and haven't heard of Educated then you're head must be in the sand as it's such a hyped up book, the true story of Tara Westover and her family

Voice

-Last year I read Feminists Don't Wear Pink and this year I'm thinking of reading It's Not OK to be Blue, essays and accounts about depression and mental health

-No One is Too Small to Make a Difference is such a great book for this prompt, one person's voice on climate change, that inspires people and proves that one person can make a difference

-Notes to Self are essays from Emelie Pine which I've heard so many good things about and I've really been enjoying reading books about women and their life experiences

-Talking as Fast as I Can is a memoir from Lauren Graham and I liked the fact that it had talking in the title too!

Obviously I won't be reading all these books in November, I'm good at reading but not that good! I chose these books most because I own them! But also because they fit some other challenges I'm doing and I think there's a good mix of different types of nonfiction. I have other books I might chose instead, especially audiobooks as I love them when I'm commuting and crafting. I also have some books due to come in to the library but I don't think they fit these themes.

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.