Welcome Armchair BEA’ers! The topic of the day: Nonfiction books!
Do I read nonfiction? I love nonfiction.
Why do I like reading nonfiction books so much? Because I’m very fond of learning. When I come across a new fact or an interesting tidbit I get all excited. Seriously. Annoyingly so.
Nonfiction books teach me. That is the only reason I need for all the love I feel for them.
Nerd:
an unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept person; especially : one slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits
See also: this
I’ve recently started putting together a monthly wrap-up post and realized that I read 7 nonfiction books in May! Even I was surprised by that.
These are my two most recent nonfiction reads (both were fantastic):
Do you read nonfiction? Do you love it? Want to marry it? Want to make babies with all of the glorious nonfiction books out there? Tell me one of your favorites!
My introductory and giveaway posts. (In case you missed them and are dying to go back and read more!)
Thanks for visiting me, I hope to see you around again!
The Relentless Reader 
Love it! Don't read as much of it as I should, but the non-fiction books I pick in any given year usually turn out to be highlights. I LOVED The Professor and the Madman. It's such a quick read but so full of KNOWLEDGE and WEIRDNESS. I had to read it for a class in grad school and thoroughly enjoyed Winchester's writing. Need to read more of his stuff.
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It's awesome how many nonfiction books turn out to be great reads! You'd almost expect them to be too dry to enjoy. NOPE! :)I just finished The Professor and the Madman yesterday 🙂 Yes! Knowledge and weirdness! Those are perfect words to describe it, lol. Simon Winchester, his name is so familiar to me for some reason but I looked up his books and I think this is the only one of his that I've read. I need to fix that!
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I love learning new things from non-fiction books, and then telling EVERYONE ALL ABOUT IT. It's almost as if I feel like I'm doing them a service, and thankfully they politely let me do this to them. I really want to read Zuckoff's new book – I really liked Lost in Shangri-La.
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Haha! I do the very same thing. My poor family has to hear all the interesting facts I learn. I know that they are rolling their eyes at me but I CAN'T STOP! I haven't read any of his previous books but if they're anything like his newest I sure want to!
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Wow, Professor and the Madman sounds disturbing and intriguing. One of those my curiousity might get the better of me. I've really enjoyed non-fiction lately, there's a vast array of things to learn and people who write about such diverse topics. Sounds like we might need a support group for our families who hear incessant comments about things we learn, but really they could care less about. My oldest son, a bookworm also, will humor me, but I can tell my hubby glazes over sometimes at my weak and ineloquent verbal recollection of the facts (which is why I need to see it, highlight it and write it down)!
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Ooooh, looks like you read some GREAT non fiction – I'm subscribing to your blog so I can get even more titles on my TBR list LOL! Thanks for stopping by earlier!
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I love nonfiction too. It's so inspiring. The young adult fiction category is also great.
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I love it for the same reason as you do – I am a big nerd and always will be!I must read Frozen in Time, as I loved Escape from Shangri-La by the same author.
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I really want to finish that book. Well, start it over and finish it. I had just started it when I landed in the hospital with pre-eclampsia. Soooo it kind of fell through the cracks!
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As you know, I love love love non-fiction too! Although looking through my 2013 reads so far, I'm about half-and-half with ficion & non-fic. My favorite non-fics are anything to do with the mafia, survival against the elements and/or travel, memoirs, food related, and music related. YAY!\”Frozen in Time\” has been on my list for a while… and I just added \”Professor and the Madman\”! I always appreciate your reviews. 🙂
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Yay, I've been waiting to see your post, you've given me so many great non-fiction recs already! I picked up a copy of Frozen in Time at the event I went to last night, so I'm excited to get to it. And I've been wanting to read The Professor and the Madman for SO long.
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I remember for a long long time that I thought everyone enjoyed reading non fiction books from time to time… Who doesn't like to learn? Well, plenty of people apparently. Haha. I don't read a lot of non fiction books, especially not as much as I used to, but that isn't because I don't enjoy more so because I like to recall the stuff I learn and my memory is like a sieve so defeats the purpose, y'know. But occasionally I will pick up a non fiction book, I usually find that to be in the library though. My usual picks? Anything and I mean ANYTHING, crime related, or to do with food and rarely but sometimes travelling. My Book Bubble
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I enjoy nonfiction books for the same reason – I love to learn! And as a memoir writer,I find myself surrounded by lots of nonfiction in that genre. Among the nonfiction that I've read lately, I really enjoyed The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett. This is one I came across while helping my brother-in-law downsize his extensive library. I was drawn to it because of the words \”loved books too much!\”
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Everyone in my \”real\” life goes into zombie mode when I talk books. Thank goodness for this community! The Professor and the Madman was a great read. Very informative, full of wordy goodness and completely bizarre as well 🙂
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Thanks so much Wendy, I appreciate it!! Just what you need, more books for your tbr pile, ha ha.
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Inspiring is a great word for nonfiction!
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Nerds are awesome Sam. AWESOME! I really want to read Escape from Shangri-La now! I'm glad to have discovered another great nonfiction author 🙂
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I know you do, hooray! I haven't read a good mafia nonfiction in a long time, if ever. If you have any good suggestions send them my way!Thanks Kristin!
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I should have recommended some good ones from the past darn it. As I was reading through a bunch of the ABEA nonfiction posts I kept thinking of other great reads. Mao's Great Famine for one..whew.
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I'm surprised (but probably shouldn't be) by the number of readers who don't read nonfiction. Don't they know how fantastic they are??? 😉 I shouldn't be snobby abou it because there are plenty of genres that I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole, ha ha.Have you read In Cold Blood by Truman Capote? That is one of the finest true crime nonfiction books I've ever read.
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I read that too! I wanted to like it a lot more than I did 😦 The topic was fantastic. I think I was put off by the author inserting herself into the tale too much, if that makes sense? I do love book themed nonfiction. One recent book that I fell for was The World's Strongest Librarian. SO good!
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That first gif made me laugh so hard! I'm not a big nonfiction fan, but I do read a lot of it. Mostly gluten free diet and writing books. Seven nonfiction in one month is a lot! You rock.
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Oh ya! Professor and the Madman is another really great one–definitely for those folks who love Erik Larssen. and we just crossed commenting paths–I listened to In the Garden of Beasts last year (sadly no review). The only one I haven't read by him is Isaac's Storm but I need to! And YESSSSSSSSSSSS I need to read The World's Strongest Librarian!!
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Ha ha, as soon as I saw The Dude rockin' it in his car, I just HAD to get up and put the soundtrack on! AHHH love that movie! (The guy in the second clip, he looks so familiar, it's really bugging me that I can't put a name to him)Seriously?? A book on the making of the Oxford English Dictionary?? That's a big YES!!! from me! I'll have to add that one to my collection. ;)oh and I heard just the other day – hope I heard this right – that Dr Seuss invented the word \”nerd\”? Sounds like one of his!
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Love it, as you know! I've read 11 non-fiction books so far this year, which is about 20% of all the books I've read so far. In past years I didn't even manage 10 in one whole year, so 11 in 5 months is pretty unusual for me. I'm loving the non-fic kick I'm on!
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Love your gifs! I'm not a big fan of non-fiction but my Armchair buddies are opening my eyes!
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I tend to shy away from non-fiction…not sure why. I've read some in the past and have a collection of books on the Kennedy's – all non-fiction – that I hope to one day read. Need to challenge myself to read more.Impressed that you read 7 this month…will have to check them all out!My Non-Fiction Post
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The subtitle to The Professor and the Madman is FANTASTIC. Also, a book about making a dictionary? Sounds just dorky enough to be perfect for me! I may have to stray into nonfiction territory more often…
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The Professor and the Madman looks so good- I will have to look for it!ThanksKerri
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We all have those books and genres that we'd rather steer clear of eh. Actually, on more than one occasion I've found myself in the book shop with In Cold Blood in my clutches, I just never seem to make it to the till point with it in my hands for some unknown reason. Next time, I'll part with cash, on your recommendation. 🙂
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Oh wow, yea that will happen! I hope you're able to get to it again!
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Great! That book was a game changer for nonfiction!
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The Dude abides, ha ha. Thanks!!!
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I haven't read Isaac's Storm either! Adding another book to the list! 😉 The nonfiction posts are killing me today, lol. Yes please read Strongest Librarian! It's great 🙂
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The Big Lebowski is cinematic GENIUS 🙂 That 2nd guy…I know him from a bunch of things but I don't know his name.
You would love The Professor and the Madman, bookish kookiness at it's finest!I had to go look up the Dr. Seuss thing. Yup! From the 1950 book titled If I Ran the Zoo: And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo And bring back an It-Kutch a Preep and a Proo A Nerkle a Nerd and a Seersucker, too!
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And don't you just feel like the biggest smarty after you read one? Jeopardy! Here I come! Ha 🙂
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Thanks! There are some fantastic ones out there Liss 🙂
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Perhaps a nonfiction challenge is in your future Kristin! I'll be posting a May wrap-up post as soon as ABEA winds down 🙂
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Oh man, it's nerdy and fantastic! It's a quick read as well so you don't have to invest a ton of time in it 🙂
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I'm so glad I read it. I only recently learned of it. I requested it from my library as soon as I did 🙂
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Yes, I usually read Christian nonfiction…so it's like Biblically based self-help books I guess? Ways to improve yourself, attitudes, and bad habits, etc. I do like some nonfiction, but it just really varies. I learn best from historical fiction though.
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The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester looks really interesting! Adding it to my TBR! I really like non-fiction but haven't read a lot lately. I liked The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson, though!
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Definitely want to read both of those books! I finally realized that I love non-fiction much more than I thought I did, just needed to realize what it was I loved.
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I picked up the Madman and the Professor when Border's was going out of business a couple of years ago. I've been meaning to get to it! I need to do more non-fiction review posts. But they are so packed with information that I get a bit overwhelmed on how to compact it down to a decent blog post. But you have inspired me to get on it!
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Wow, you really do have a passion for non-fiction! Thanks for coming and visiting my blog 🙂
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I love that gif of Jeff Bridges! HahaI'm definitely not as passionate about non-fiction as you, but you make some very valid arguments for it! I also love to learn, and it makes a lot of sense that non-fiction would be full of useful (or maybe not-so-useful) facts! I'll have to take a closer look at the ones you finished recently 🙂
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Oooo Frozen in Time sounds amazing and right up my alley! Adding to my TBR!
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I enjoy nonfiction, but I don't read that (or classics) as often as I should! I need to work more of them into my repertoire.
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Frozen in Time sounds especially nice right now–beautifully cold.
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the professor and the madman is a fascinating read! hope you enjoy!
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