Comments on: Non-Fiction Friday

By: Kim (Sophisticated Dorkiness)

Kim (Sophisticated Dorkiness) — Tue, 13 May 2014 00:28:11 +0000

I love super long nonfiction subtitles! I have absolutely picked up a book just because the subtitle was long and awesome. I am hoping to get up a review of Console Wars for tomorrow — depends how long I feel like sitting at the computer versus actually reading tonight

By: DoingDewey

DoingDewey — Sun, 11 May 2014 04:26:06 +0000

By: DoingDewey

DoingDewey — Sun, 11 May 2014 04:24:26 +0000

How exciting! I’ve been slacking on non-fiction too, but have more in my schedule starting after Bout of Books. Inaccurate subtitles are the worst! I agree that the point is to make it clear what the book is about and I hate when you can tell that the publisher just wanted to make the book sound more exciting than it really is.

By: DoingDewey

DoingDewey — Sun, 11 May 2014 04:20:06 +0000

Wow, that’s quite a chunkster! I’ve noticed that since I’ve started blogging, I’m unlikely to pick up longer books at random at the library, instead only reading them if there’s a specific long book I want to read. I’m excited to read your review

By: Sophie

Sophie — Sat, 10 May 2014 14:50:13 +0000

Ooh, I’ve heard good things about The Black Count! I like Gladwell’s books (although I haven’t read one in a while!) but I agree that they’re not the greatest examples of scientific journalism, haha.

By: Shay

Shay — Sat, 10 May 2014 04:10:36 +0000

I’ve been slacking in the non-fiction department lately, but I have two posts to share this week! And speaking of subtitles, one of the books (Bargain Fever) had a totally inaccurate subtitle. It looks like they’re going to change it for subsequent editions from “How to Shop in a Discounted World” to “Our Obsession with Getting More for Less,” which is way more accurate. Those extra-long subtitles are supposed to make the short, witty titles more clear, not less!

By: DoingDewey

DoingDewey — Sat, 10 May 2014 04:06:10 +0000

Agreed! I’m sure narrative non-fiction is difficult to write because of that fine line. One approach I really loved was in The Black Count where the author speculates about people’s feelings, but makes it clear when he is doing so and cites personal correspondence to support his speculation. Of course you can’t know what people are thinking, but some educated guessing clearly labeled as such can enhance a book without the author making things up.

Despite Malcolm Gladwell’s popularity, I’ve really gotten tired of his books and books like them. I feel like he just comes up with some theory that can explain a number of phenomena and then looks for more phenomena that fit his pet theory, but they’re just theories which certainly don’t generalize to everything and aren’t really proven.

I love fun books about science too! They’re my favorite

By: Sophie

Sophie — Fri, 09 May 2014 21:22:39 +0000

Great links again this week, Katie! I think the issues raised by the first two articles you’ve mentioned are really important – there’s a fine line between making things interesting to appeal to the reader, and making things interesting by manipulating the facts in order to appeal to the reader. I read an article a while back about Malcolm Gladwell’s writing style and how it’s a bit deceiving because of the way he gets inside his interviewees’ heads… and I’ve seen other authors write about how an interviewee “scoffs” or “grumbles”, and it always make me wonder if those behaviors have been exaggerated or manipulated to make the written conversation more entertaining/interesting. On the other hand, non-fiction that’s not “embellished”, so to speak, can get really dry and boring.

And I really like Paul Raeburn’s quote in the second link: The art, of course, is in finding the beauty in the facts when that is hard to do. Good science communication and science journalism seems really difficult, and I’m always relieved when I find a fun (and accurate) book about bugs, physics, biology, etc.

LOL there should be a contest for the longest book title/subtitle! Non-fiction books would totally dominate.

By: Monika @ Lovely Bookshelf

Monika @ Lovely Bookshelf — Fri, 09 May 2014 19:19:01 +0000

hahahahahaha re: the really long subtitle

By: TracyK

TracyK — Fri, 09 May 2014 15:21:55 +0000

Some interesting articles there. I liked the one about choosing titles. I finally finished a 692 page non-fiction book… which I will review soonish. Hope to fit in a few more shorter non-fiction books this year.