Non-fiction – Business or Pleasure?

[LtBroccoli]

I love a good story, whether it's fiction or non-fiction. History, science, math, and philosophy books fill my library, but there's something to be said for a good creative non-fiction story. There's the old phrase attributed to Mark Twain about truth being stranger than fiction. That's because fiction has to make sense.

[KittyUmbrass]

I read mathematics and science for pleasure. Also a lot of history, philosophy, comparative religion, politics and the like. Also very interested in meteorology and climatology.

Then for things like worldbuilding, as well as those topics I pay attention to things like geology, economics, and things like that so I can make things make sense.

[Verbal13]

Much has been said that I relate to. Strong tendency towards nonfiction in my adult life, I recall enjoying fiction in high school. Something about University, huge readers. Dense subjects that often outstripped my interest in plowing through. One thing I've fallen into lately is AUDIO BOOKS. Value of listening to something while having to do something else. Cleaning up, driving places, right? Apps like Hoopla and Libby. So much to learn, I schooled myself on blood glucose and diabetes in like 48 hours or less. On occasion I even get good ol fashioned books... yes from a library. I gotta say Berkeley public library is wonderful; hope it doesn't fall out of fashion with younger people. Things like NPR, wikipedia and internet archives are priceless, imho. And yet.... Funding is always scarce.
Speaking of nonfiction, I recall I researched and found an academic paper that examined in detail the theories on why women seem to frequently have rape fantasy despite the counter intuitive nature of it on the surface. I can find it and post if anyone interested, was from the 70s (go figure) but nobody in their right mind would engage such open discussion these days-- or so I would think. I even saw folks whine on reddit and was tempted to school some shallow thinkers. Yet I refrained. Why stick my neck out. I know I am an oddball, fair enough. Amazing how bitching and moaning can go viral on occasions. Defending freedom of speech, contrary opinions. uh oh.
Can you imagine the clusterfuck of haters? I can
In the end, gotta love fiction though. Words can do so much more than mere info transmission. Reading can be a pleasurable business, I'll leave it at that.

[HumiliationInc]

Susan Cain's Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking helped me understand my own introversion better and spoke to a part of my soul.

Big fan of Quiet. I'm often super critical of journalists and generalist writers trying to tackle scientific research topics as they almost always muff it up or treat one unpublished working paper as Gospel, but Cain did the scholarly research justice in Quiet. And also as an introvert in a society that rewards extraverts, Quiet felt like 10,000 types of affirmation to me. Finally, someone explaining us to the rest of the world!

[Claire]

Big fan of Quiet. I'm often super critical of journalists and generalist writers trying to tackle scientific research topics as they almost always muff it up or treat one unpublished working paper as Gospel, but Cain did the scholarly research justice in Quiet. And also as an introvert in a society that rewards extraverts, Quiet felt like 10,000 types of affirmation to me. Finally, someone explaining us to the rest of the world!

One thing she did in particular for me was to explain the difference between introversion and shyness. As a teenager, I would have called myself shy because I didn't know better. I learned through her book that shy didn't describe me well. And I liked especially what she had to say about school and the constant group assignments that annoyed me to no end back when I was in school.