My 2023 challenge is that 25% of what I read should be translated into English from another language.
This has been really rewarding, and I’ve enjoyed having a percentage-based challenge. Whether I read a lot or a little, it’s possible to achieve.
I’ve been mulling over what I’d like to aim for next year, and I think I want 2024 to be the year of non-fiction. I am a fiction reader predominantly – my ‘naturally occurring’ non-fic percentage is around 25%. Next year I’ll aim for 50% of the books I read to be non-fic.
With that in mind I’d love your best non-fic recommendations.
————–
These have been some of my favourite non fiction reads in the past, loosely grouped by type.
Memoir:
* test
* “M Train” and “Just Kids” by Patti Smith
* “Stay True” by Hua Hsu
* “I Live a life like yours” by Jan Grue
* “Cider with Rosie” by Laurie Lee
* “Days in the Caucasus” by Banine
* “The book of Puka Puka” by Robert Dean Frisbie
Nature:
* “A shepherd’s life” by James Rebanks
* “The sound of a wild snail eating” by Elizabeth Tova Bailey
Essays/Journalism:
* “Inside the Whale and other essays” by George Orwell
* “Art and Fear” by David Bayles and Ted Orland
* “The Journalist and The Murderer” by Janet Malcolm
Deep dive into an interesting topic:
* “Being You” by Anil Seth
* “Endurance” by Alfred Lansing
Weird stuff:
* “I am a strange loop” by Douglas Hoffstadter
* “On the Line” by Joseph Ponthus
* “Porn: An oral history” by Polly Barton
————–
I am interested in:
* Learning about something I might not have considered at all; let alone considered that it might be interesting
* Beautifully written memoirs. There are a lot of memoirs on my list above, and with the exception of Patti Smith, I had not heard of any of the writers before picking up the books. I want to read memoirs which are good in their own right, not ones which use their author’s pre-existing fame as a crutch.
I am not interested in:
* Trauma porn
* War stories
————–
ALSO I’d love to hear about any little challenges you guys set yourselves to read beyond your comfort zones 🙂
Thanks in advance!
by tofu-weenie
4 Comments
i’m going to write a short story about the history of the russian winter. i’ll call it ” russian winter “. i think it’ll be great.
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Love, Life, and Elephants: An African Love Story by Dame Daphne Sheldrick
Anything by J Maarten Troost, though I recommend starting with The Sex Lives of Cannibals (it’s not weird, I swear lol; it’s a really fantastic travel memoir).
Neil Gaiman’s View from the Cheap Seats
My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward by Mark Lukach is my favorite memoir. It’s so beautifully written and so clearly a work of love. I read it years ago and I still think about it.
Beautiful Boy by David Sheff and Tweak by Nic Sheff are so great to read together. Both are well done and it’s fascinating to get two perspectives to the same story. I would read Beautiful Boy first because I think it gives some good context to Tweak.