(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.

[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. >.>

[skygiants]

*HIGH-FIVE*

[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.

[rowanberries.livejournal.com]

Well-done case studies are my joy - they are like stories, but true!

It is on my bookshelf at home and has a different cover, but I thiiink it is this one (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Courtesans-Katie-Hickman/dp/0007113927").

[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.

[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]

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.

[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]

Iiiinteresting. I shall bookmark! (When I am done laughing at your icon.)

[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 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. *___*

[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.

[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]

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.

[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 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 . . .

[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.

[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.

[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!

[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.

[kattahj.livejournal.com]

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

Thanks! I could always borrow them from faraway libraries, or even buy some now that I'm only a bit underemployed instead of terribly underemployed. But that would require knowing in advance what I want, and I don't. (It doesn't help that fantasy covers are so godawful.)

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

Stina Wirsén and Pija Lindenbaum are my goddesses. (The latter is even available in English!)

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

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

[skygiants]

Yeah, I only ever buy books when I know advance that I want to read it and can't get it any other way, or want to support the author or send a STRONG HINT to the publisher that I will keep giving them money. But again, this is due to having an excellent library system that allows for this.

*makes notes!*