new club: non-fiction

March 8, 2019 3:56 PM

So I read a ton of non-fiction and I bet a lot of other mefites do too, so I've created a non-fiction club to start discussing them. I'm aware this is going to be a pretty broad category, but I kinda like that. I already posted a thread on "Our Native Bees" by Paige Embry, and I hope other people will post more on Non-fiction books too.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis (7 comments total)

Thanks for starting this! I put the bee book on hold, will hopefully read it in a few weeks. I'm generally interested in not-pop-sci books; I like something that really dives deep into its subject and is okay with its readers doing some extra homework, so anything like that you come across would be great.

Where are you seeing this going? Biographies? Travelogues? Got a list of books roadmapped you want to talk about?
posted by curious nu at 8:14 PM on March 9, 2019

I don’t generally read biographies but that totally falls under the category of non-fiction, so while I might not post about any, please feel free to! I have just shelves and shelves of non-fiction both read and unread that I collected and was gifted and bought on sale while I was in college, and of course I had to read books for class first so there’s a bit of a backlog. I have read a good amount and I hope to post on the ones I’ve read and spur others to post on their favorites and motivate myself to finish some of mine. I’m hoping to post on Kurlansky’s Milk next which is, like all of Kurlansky’s food books a really good read. I have a few older non-fiction books that are favorites of mine I hope to post on- those are more medical/forensic in nature.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 12:12 AM on March 10, 2019

Sounds good.
I myself am focusing on non-fiction for a while. And I've seen a lot of askmefi posts on non-fiction recommendations. So there should definitely be demand for non-fiction posts.
I do wonder though: what do you mean that you created a non-fiction club?

I'd be interested in posting some non-fiction book posts myself.

Although I'm still struggling with the asynchronous nature of fanfare: it seems only posts on books/films/tvseries that a lot of people are seeing right now/have seen get some traction. And it's not very gratifying to post about something that you're quite full of and there's hardly any response to your fanfare post about a movie/book/tvseries.

Another puzzle is the utter diversity of "non-fiction".
For instance I myself am Dutch and live in Europe. Any books on let's say food related stuff from a US perspective, however well written, are for me somewhat off topic because there's so much less regulatory supervision in the US, and hence more concerns, compared to the EU.

Any ideas how to deal with that?
posted by jouke at 11:50 AM on March 12, 2019 [2 favorites]

This is what I mean about a non fiction club. on fanfare you can join clubs and then you'll know when there is a post! I would be really interested in your book recommendations- You can just tag your fanfare posts with non_fiction_club and they'll go into the category! I'm going to post soon on food related US stuff that highlights how bad the regulatory environment is, and I'd love to read a book on a similar topic from the EU perspective. Also the Milk book is a Kurlansky book which is from a much more global perspective, if that's what you're worried about. I can't wait to see your posts!
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 12:08 PM on March 12, 2019

There are clubs on fanfare. How can it be that I didn't know?
Ok, live&learn.

Sorry. I just meant the food related as an example.
I'll come up with a non-fiction post.
posted by jouke at 1:55 PM on March 12, 2019 [1 favorite]

Every book you've posted so far has made me go, "Oh, I want to read about that!" My library holds list is now very, very ambitious.
posted by mixedmetaphors at 7:38 AM on March 16, 2019 [1 favorite]

Cool! I get through books much more slowly these days, but what I do get through is usually non-fiction. Looking forward to getting some good suggestions here.
posted by carter at 4:18 AM on May 10, 2019