(no subject)

[skygiants]

First, an OFFICIAL-TYPE ANNOUNCEMENT for fma_ladyfest types: genarti reminds me that we are halfway through the writing period, and probably should make mention of this! And thefore I would like to take a moment to remind people that there are two weeks left to finish (or start) your brilliant assignments and send them in to us. A few people have already sent stuff in; Gen and I are united in thinking that these people are AWESOME and also being a little bit terrified of them. (But, you say, as mods, surely you guys should already have your fics done and betaed well in advance and be prepared to dive into the process of being responsible and organizational! I think we would also be united in responding to you with hollow laughter.)

Something in which Gen and I are not united: our reading habits. Every few months Gen and I have the same discussion, and it goes something like this:

BECCA: Well, I will read this book that you recommend to me next time I have a slot for it in my reading quota system, which should be . . . hmmm, approximately four book from now.
GEN: I find your reading quota system strange and lolarious.
BECCA: See, if I did not mentally schedule my reading, I would pretty much just always read YA fantasy and never read nonfiction at all. And I want to read nonfiction, because learning things is useful and interesting, but it has less immediate appeal to me when I am grabbing the first book to catch my eye.
GEN: I do not understand this problem of yours. Nonfiction catches my eye all the time, it is enormously appealing! It is much more guaranteed to be interesting than fiction.
BECCA: But . . . plot! And characters! Make things much easier to read! Boring nonfiction is a lot harder to get through than boring fiction.
GEN: But if a novel is boring or frustrating, then it's just pointless and I don't care. At least in nonfiction you are guaranteed to learn some facts!
BECCA: BUT WHAT IF THEY'RE BORING FACTS, GEN. WHAT THEN.

Despite giving myself the last word in this fictionalized version of our debate, I think Gen probably has the moral high ground in this argument. But I stand by my position all the same.

As a partial result of these differing literary worldviews, pretty much every time Gen and I see each other, I foist some fantasy off on her and she foists some nonfiction off on me. The most recent trade ended up in me reading Women in the Middle Ages: The Lives of Real Women in a Vibrant Age of Transition. Fortunately this is not the kind of nonfiction book that is full of boring facts! The first half is pretty 101 on The Middle Ages, These Were Women's Roles, They Were More Interesting Than you Might Think; the second half is more specific, and traces the documented lives of some actual ladies, ranging from politically powerful noblewomen to guildswomen suing their employers to upwardly mobile merchant's wives defending their lands from siege by their neighbors. I wouldn't recommend it to the medievalists on here, but for someone who doesn't know that much about the era - or would just like a better idea of some of the scope available for a lady at that time period - it's pretty interesting. I don't really have that much more to say about it, though, so, instead: a poll!

[Poll #1622741]

Comments

[nevacaruso.livejournal.com]

HEDONIST AND PROUD.

[skygiants]

*HIGH-FIVE*

[rowanberries.livejournal.com]

It would be mostly fiction but for the lure of books about things like the History of Courtesans in England with CASE STUDIES OMG and I like case studies!

I am a massive dork.

[skygiants]

I am totally beginning to discover the joy of case studies! I will admit - while I still gravitate much more towards fiction on my own, the more nonfiction I read (one in five, baby! That's . . . almost like a lot . . .) the more I find myself learning about super-interesting facts.

And I would be interested in the history of courtesans in England, if you happen to have a rec that way. I'm just saying. >.>

[aamalie]

Growing up, I wouldn't touch nonfiction unless I was under duress to do so. These days, I have gotten so stingy about my fiction that new things rarely catch my interest. It's a sad life! Fortunately, some of my favorite authors are prolific and I am also not opposed to rereading things voraciously. And then, well, fanfic.

I also then realized that there are topics out there that I am actually interested in reading nonfiction about. So that helps!

So basically, I read both. TAKE THAT.

[skygiants]

Haha, man, I have such a long to-read pile of stuff that's either new books or backlog books by authors I like, or books that people have recommended to me, or books I've read intriguing reviews of online, that I don't even have time to reread stuff as often as I want to. ALTHOUGH I WANT TO.

[dynastessa]

*cough*

If nonfiction can just pick up some plot and characters and MAKE IT SOUND EXCITING I'm pretty sure I'd read so much more nonfic.

As it is ... FICTION ALL THE WAY.

I like pretty prose and characters to root for! I CANNOT RESIST.

[skygiants]

That is basically why I had to ease my way into reading nonfiction for fun via the biography. I'm better at it now! But CHARACTERS. *___*

[catslash.livejournal.com]

Fiction! I read more nonfiction than I used to, but that's because I actively seek it out more - I can only think of, like, two nonfiction books I've grabbed on impulse. Fiction is still my kryptonite by a landslide.

[skygiants]

Basically, my quota system occasionally makes me grab nonfiction books on impulse, because I occasionally I will realise I currently have no nonfiction in my to-read pile, panic, and go to the library to get the first thing that looks interesting. Which has worked out well for me! It led me to read the awesome magician's history book and the hilarious 1850's dangers-of-New-York-City book. But it's still a thing I'm not very used to doing.

[gramarye1971]

Do politicians' memoirs count as fiction? (I could name a list of a few that should.)

Perhaps unsurprisingly, if you asked me to choose a book I will pick nonfiction over fiction at least 90 percent of the time. Even my fiction choices tend to have some sort of Historical Significance -- off the top of my head, the most recent works of fiction I've read were Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita (Satan visits the Soviet Union), Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now (thinly veiled satire on Victorian financial and political intrigue), and Solzhenitsyn's The Cancer Ward (cancer as metaphor for Soviet power). And that doesn't seem to be changing much if I look at my book queue.

If I had to give a reason why, I think it's because (a) I do a lot of historical research on my own time, and (b) I get my fiction fix through manga and anime. I suppose I should have considered (b) more when making my radio button choice, since it would make my choices more equal, but I consider manga/anime a slightly separate genre from the standard dead-tree book reading.

[skygiants]

I think if I counted politican's memoirs as fiction, I would also have to count half of the hilarious historical autobiographies and 'factual guides' that I read as fiction as well. And that would totally throw off my system! So no. >.>

I am selfishly glad that you read lots of nonfiction, for the record, since it does such good for my nonfiction list. *laughing* I do consider manga/anime a separate genre as well, although I'm not sure why - well, I mean, I count it as separate on my booklist. But possibly that's just because there is not a lot of nonfiction manga/anime, as fa ras I am aware . . .

[futuresoon.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've actually read a nonfiction book that wasn't for class in, like...ever. And I do mean ever. Unless Badass of the Week counts? It is about real people! Admittedly I do not read it in book form, but. Real people! And...I have read things that contain characters based on real people? But I'm not sure the Kuroshitsuji arc guest-starring Arthur Conan Doyle counts.

[skygiants]

That was totally me until I started trying to change my habits a few years ago, with the exception of a bunch of biographies about Badass Historical Queens (I had and still have a thing for Badass Historical Queens) and the Horrible Histories (perhaps the origin of my fondness for lolhistory . . .?)

Sadly I do not think historical guest stars in fiction works count, EVEN THOUGH they are inevitably lolarious. And always make me want to at least Wikipedia that person.

[kattahj.livejournal.com]

Nonfiction has been my salvation from endless loops of re-reading. The fantasy section of local libraries are crap, "realistic" fiction is further from my life than Mars is, and nobody writes fluffy detective novels anymore. So most of what I read that isn't nonfiction is either rereads or YA and children's books. I know lots of fun books for three-year-olds and very few (novels) for thirty-year-olds.

[skygiants]

I keep wishing I could magically teleport books to you from my library systems!

. . . which is not to say that you should read less fun books for three-year-olds, mind, because those are awesome too.

[genarti]

I do totally read a lot of fiction also, for the record! (Mostly fantasy and YA.) But I am very much less likely to pick that up on a whim and a curious impulse, instead of aiming for rereads or things that are specifically recommended to me. My random reading whims are very heavily weighted towards non-fiction. (So are my impulse purchases. Oh used bookstores, your bargain tables are a siren song!)

[skygiants]

Isn't it convenient that some people are constantly specifically recommending things to you, then! >.>

To be fair, I don't actually pick up a lot of fiction books on impulse either, these days. But mostly that's because my backlog of recommended-things and interestingly-reviewed-things and rereads-I-want-to-get-around-to and series-I-have-been-meaning-to-read-forever is SO LONG that I just do not have time!

[kd7sov]

Fiction, most definitely. In fact, mostly science fiction-slash-fantasy. Then when we moved we came to a place where the library doesn't differentiate its hardcover fiction by genre, so I am somewhat annoyed at it.

Interestingly, when it's what I produce (at least within my own head) it's not a lot of characters or plot, but rather Physics/Metaphysics Geekiness.

[skygiants]

I am torn on the differentiation by genre - on the one hand, on principle, I kind of disapprove, because so much awesome stuff gets exiled to genre ghettos and gets less attention because of it, and a lot of the really cool books cross genre in one way or another in ways that make it hard to categorize. But on the other hand it is kind of convenient to be able to just browse a section if you are in the mood for something. But then you might miss something awesome because it happens to be in a different section, so there are pros and cons.

A lot of SFF short stories do tend to be more physics/metaphysics geekiness, I think. Which is also interesting, if less specific to my own tastes! You get a lot of concept stories, in SF especially.

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

I get enough nonfiction in my daily life. (Granted, some of it feels like fiction...)

[skygiants]

But that's the best kind! At least, the kind you can turn into amusing stories afterwards.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

My nonfiction is generally based on animal stories. And paganism. And weird cultures from thousands of years ago (also known as, "how did they really make such and such weapon in that time period?").

My fiction is generally YA* or mysteries.

...or anything by Tanith Lee.




*Mostly because YA has the fantasy stories I crave and cannot find in the adult section.

[skygiants]

Reading about historical weird cultures is always kind of fascinating! Although . . . the level of fascination for me does sort of depend on the writing style, I'll admit. Like, there's a lot of stuff that is objectively fascinating, but will send me to sleep if written in boring prose.

[oneechan19.livejournal.com]

I am mostly fiction. Occasionally I read nonfiction, although one might call it cheating, since it's mostly mythology books. Or E/J nonfiction. Like stuff with the time eras of American Girls, and The Magic School Bus books.

[skygiants]

I am torn on whether mythology books count. But E/J nonfiction totally counts! As mentioned above, I am totally going back for an epic reread of the Horrible Histories one of these days.

[deutscheami.livejournal.com]

I read metric tons of non-fiction for my classes, so for leisure reading I go almost exclusively for fiction. Occasionally, if something's caught my interest enough, I'll read a non-fiction book about it-- most recently I finished [both] a biography of a German Jesuit priest who was murdered during the Nazi era and [an] authorized history of the MI-5.

edit for confusing sentence structures

[skygiants]

I pretty much started reading nonfiction towards the end of my college career, in the long-ago region of, uh . . . two years ago, when I suddenly had a panic of 'oh no, what if when I leave college, I suddenly become stupid! MUST KEEP LEARNING THINGS. NON-FICTION READING MODE ENABLED.'

This may not have been a very logical panic, but.

Also, both of those books sound extremely interesting!

[rahkan.livejournal.com]

I probably mostly read fiction. I just assume that somewhere in high school they already taught me everything I need to know, and if anything else comes up, I will look it up on Wikipedia. Sometimes I read essay collections or diaries or somesuch thing (but those are basically just blog posts from the past).

But vis a vis the lives of Women in the Middle Ages, I did recently read the Letters of Abelard and Heloise, which was super-sweet. Mostly because, despite being a famous (eunuch, hehe) philosopher and everything, Peter Abelard is totally annoying in his love letters. And Heloise d'Argentuil kicks ass. (I'm sure it must have been somewhere in your book. Abelard was tutoring Heloise in Latin and such and then he slept with her, and then her uncle castrated him, and sent her off to a convent, and then he become totally famous, and she became head abbess, and they started sending letters to each other where he mercilessly berates her, and she's all, you're a huge tool).

[skygiants]

I think blog posts from the distant past count! Sei Shonagon, how very awesome you were.

Oh, I am VERY WELL AWARE of the awesomeness of Abelard and Heloise. (Including the fabulousness that was the very first Terrible Celebrity Baby Name. Poor, poor little Astrolabe.) I haven't actually read the letters all the way through, though, so that's definitely something I need to put on my list.

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

When I am not working, fiction fiction fiction fiction fiction and occasional online nonfiction magazines.

When I am working, it's medieval fiction-equivalents, scholarly criticism and history.

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Also. (http://roz-mcclure.livejournal.com/1059789.html?style=mine)

[bookblather.livejournal.com]

I usually read fiction, BUT nonfiction can grab me just as much. I'm a dreadful John Adams fangirl, for example, and anything with Abigail Adams in it (well, qualification: anything that portrays her as the badass she was) will be magically attracted to my reading list. And basically anything that looks interesting. It must be interesting, though. Life is too short to read boring books.

[skygiants]

Well, I mean, the Adamses were pretty awesome. (I imprinted on 1776 at a young age, it has this effect.)

You've heard about the (fiction) book that's basically Abigail Adam Fights Crime, right?

[agentclaudia.livejournal.com]

I am about equally likely to impulse buy fiction and non-fiction, but usually when it comes down to time to sit and read, I am more likely to gravitate to fiction, especially whatever is the fluffiest fiction I have around. I am a bad lit snob, sometimes.

[skygiants]

There are definitely times when I really just need to grab the fluffiest thing possible off the shelf. (This is the other reason I don't count comics/manga in my reading quotas - I can always cheat a little by sneaking them in when I need something lighter.)

[furikku.livejournal.com]

I almost never pick up prose fiction. I do buy the hell out of comics and manga, though. But in terms of not-comics, I am attracted to nonfiction much, much more than I am to fiction.

(I think I just have a bad habit of going, "OH GOD I DON'T CARE GET ON WITH IT!" with a lot of prose description, since much of the prose I like to read is heavy on dialog and action and light on saying what things/people look like.)

[furikku.livejournal.com]

(NB: I would often keep school textbooks to read afterward. I am nerdy as shit.)

[newredshoes]

The nonfiction generally happens because I want to write about fiction about it -- does that count for anything?

Also, have you ever read anything by Dava Sobel? I just started Galileo's Daughter, and one of its big selling points is how "fiction-like" it is, i.e., it relies heavily on letters and the relationship between Galileo and his awesome nun daughter.

Also also, Studs Terkel. &oralhistories; FOREVER.

[skygiants]

That totally counts! And often tends to be a way that I find interesting nonfiction subjects as well. Research is totally a good way to get into this stuff.

I never have, but I've heard of Galileo's Daughter - I will definitely add it to the list! Where Studs Terkel has been FOR AGES without me actually getting around to it. Which is a thing I should remedy.

[rawles.livejournal.com]

I am much like you in that unless I specifically schedule myself to read non-fiction, I probs will just sit around reading YA fantasy and whatnot forever.

And I like non-fiction when I actually make myself read it because I love learning about interesting things! It's just that my immediate impulse is not in that direction. Also, like many, growing up there was a somewhat negative association with non-fiction since it was usually compulsory for school. Of course, I rarely minded ANY reading for school, non-fiction or otherwise, once I actually started reading it, but before I started the fact of being TOLD what to read would just irritate me.

Of course, I also constantly read books in my lap during class, so hahaha my biases are clear.

[skygiants]

Yeah, exactly! Like, all the nonfiction books I have read lately have been awesome, and yet somehow in my brain that never actually translates to 'NONFICTION IS FUN, KIDS.'

Haha, I was the same way about reading for school, too. And . . . reading in class . . . (my tenth-grade teacher, who was very sweet and also kind of aware he was a terrible teacher, used to earnestly congratulate me on my dedication to reading when I blatantly sat and read fantasy novels in his class! I think it ruined me. OR MADE ME. One or the other.)

[sublunarfields.livejournal.com]

Mainly fiction, but I do read non-fiction too - about history and languages (and occasionally something about science, like astronomy, or physics.).

[skygiants]

I am much, much better at reading stuff about history and language than about science. *rueful* But sometimes my scientist friends make me! I appreciate their efforts and the learnings, but it's still less my inclination.

[themadpoker.livejournal.com]

It is all fiction, all the time round these parts! And about 80% of it is YA. The rest is fantasy or scifi! =D I think the last non-school literary thing I read was The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Which I specifically picked up because I heard it was awesome about comics. I need a little genre in all my stories. =)

Plus, I just do not have the attention span for nonfiction. Occasionally I will pick up something that looks interesting and read it for a day and then never get around to finishing it. This is why I've had a book on the history of the hiphop movement checked out from the library for months now. I'm sure someday I'll finish it!

[skygiants]

I also like a little genre in my stories - I try to read all over the place, but just about the only thing I can't remember the last time I read that was standard contemporary fiction . . . I AM SORRY WORLD, I THINK MIDLIFE CRISES ARE BORING.

[ojuzu.livejournal.com]

I'm more likely to finish fiction, but I'm more likely to pick up/go looking for/start reading nonfiction. Because if I want novels or short stories there is this great big thing out there called FANDOM to distract me, and it's way easier to tell from the get-go if I'll like nonfiction. Then again, well-known non-European literature interests me more than nonfiction or novels usually do, so hmm. Sei Shonagon ftw!

[skygiants]

I actually don't read tons and tons of fanfic - I mean, I read some, obviously! But much as I enjoy an amazing fic, it never replaces novels in my heart. &novels; *______* SEI SHONAGON FTW ALWAYS. Though I count that as nonfiction. I mean, it's sort of an autobiography, right . . .?