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Wednesday, July 11, 2012

My Favorite Genre

As you may know, I am not a big fan of fantasy or sci-fi. To tell the truth (the whole truth, and nothing but the truth), I don't really like fiction either, unless it's classic literature, select historical fiction, or really excellent. So that leaves my favorite genre: non-fiction.

I really hate the fact that the name we use to designate the broad genre of non-fiction is just saying what it is not. As if fiction is what really matters, and non-fiction is just the secondary genre that you have to read occasionally for school or whatever. Non-fiction doesn't even get its own name; it's defined by what it is not.

But I digress. On to more important talk on the glorious nature of non-fiction. Here are...

The Top Ten Things I Love Most About Non-Fiction


10. You might actually learn something. And it might actually be fun. 
Publishers are trying to get books bought and read these days--which is why they publish non-fiction books that are so fun. It's such a wonderful feeling to know that I'm not wasting my time, I'm learning fascinating facts about wildlife in the Australian outback. Or whatever.



9. Non-fiction books always have such beautiful covers. 
That might seem kind of silly, but it's (generally) true. Like I said, publishers are trying to get them published. They're trying to pander to a sophisticated audience who wants to know how guacamole and other classic Mexican foods are made. So they make sophisticated covers. And I love having a beautiful cover on my book. I'll still read books with ugly covers, of course, but I have to always put it down facedown. It's like loving someone without being attracted to them. Not a particularly wonderful experience.

8. It feels more honest. 
Sometimes when I'm reading a fiction book, I keep asking myself, "What is the author trying to get at?" I'm always wondering about ulterior motives. That's not to say that non-fiction books don't have ulterior motives. But at least their motives are obvious. They want you to save the baby seals or stop drinking dairy (speaking of which, here's an interesting article about that). You're not always feeling like the author is spiking your drink behind your back.

The rest of this post will go up...tomorrow!

2 comments:

  1. I disagree with that dairy article! Well, perhaps I agree with the main point, which is that we don't NEED milk, but I disagree with most of the milk-bashing. Just one example of the author's silliness: he claims that two pounds of milk per day is more than we consume of anything else. But he also promotes water; how much water does he drink per day? Most of the weight of milk IS water! Doesn't he drink at least 2 pounds of water per day? If you remove the water (powdered milk), the milk recommendation is pretty low by weight. And if you go by something other than weight, like maybe calories, the milk recommendation is less than some other food groups.

    I could go on about this article, but I think I'll stop. You didn't even say what you thought of it except that it was "interesting." Maybe you disagreed with it, too.

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    1. Ha, ha. I had a feeling someone would comment on that article. I neither agreed nor disagreed with it, but as you noticed, I found it "interesting." After reading it I thought about writing a blog post about it, but didn't have much to say, especially because I sure don't know much about milk or even nutrition in general. So I'm glad you said something about it. :)

      I think I agree with the author's main point which you pointed out. I think the apparent milk-bashing is probably due to his bitterness toward his unfortunate experience with milk, which I can understand. He's trying to prevent others from the same fate. But he's also making it seem like NONE of us should drink milk, even those who don't have a problem, which I disagree with.

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