A Non-Fiction Adventure

Published on by Margaret
NF Adventure

 

I don’t read as much non-fiction as fiction. I find it needs more concentration and so often pick up and read fiction. But I do like non-fiction and own quite a lot of it. I’ve been trying to read more and one way that helps me to focus on reading it is the This Isn’t Fiction Reading Challenge run by Birgit at The Book Garden.

Now, thanks to Bev at My Reader’s Block, I’ve found another way– A Non-Fiction Adventure.  Like The Classics Club this one runs for five years. It’s hosted by Michelle of The True Book Addict. 

The Sign- up is here.

These are the guidelines:

  • Choose 50+ non-fiction books; the number is up to you. Choose 50, 75, 100, 200. It’s entirely your choice.
  • Books must be non-fiction – biography, autobiography, history, memoir, cooking, travel, science, etc.
  • List them at your blog (or on Goodreads or another social media site, if you do not have a blog)
  • Choose your completion goal date five years in the future.

My five years run from 14 August 2013 to 14 August 2018.

My Goal: 50 books, initially choosing from these 60 books: all books I own; there are more, but I think this is enough to start with. I like the idea that your list can change, so this is just a starting point and no doubt I’ll find other books I want to read during the next five years!

Autobiographies/Diaries/Letters

  1. Jane Austen’s Letters
  2. Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years 1969-1979 by Michael Palin
  3. Between the Woods and the Water: On Foot to Constantinople: From The Middle Danube to the Iron Gates by Patrick Leigh Fermor
  4. Great Meadow: an Evocation by Dirk Bogarde
  5. Slipstream: a Memoir by Elizabeth Jane Howard
  6. Trollope: an Autobiography
  7. A Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
  8. The Snow Geese by William Fiennes
  9. A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep by Rumer Godden
  10. Corvus: a Life with Birds by Esther Woolfson
  11. The Mitfords: Letters between Six Sisters by Charlotte Mosley  editor
  12. Chronicle of Youth by Vera Brittain

Biographies

  1. Being Shelley by Anne Wroe
  2. The Wolf That Never Sleeps by Marguerite de Beaumont (Baden-Powell)
  3. The Innocent Man by John Gresham
  4. Mary Queen of Scots by Alison Weir
  5. Victorian People by Asa Briggs
  6. D H Lawrence: the Life of an Outsider by John Worthen
  7. Billy by Pamela Stephenson
  8. The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell
  9. William Barclay by Clive Rawlins
  10. Thomas Hardy: the Time-torn Man by Claire Tomalin
  11. Howard Hughes by Peter Harry Brown
  12. Marilyn Monroe by Barbara Leeming
  13. Shakespeare: the biography by Peter Ackroyd
  14. Charles Dickens: a Life by Claire Tomalin
  15. Dickens by Peter Ackroyd
  16. The Sisters Who Would Be Queen: The tragedy of Mary, Katherine and Lady Jane Grey by Leanda de Lisle
  17. Virginia Woolf: a Writer’s Life by Gordon Lyndall
  18. Mary Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser
  19. L S Lowry: a Life by Shelley Rhode
  20. Agatha Christie at Home by Hilary Macaskill

History

  1. Great Escape Stories by Eric Williams
  2. Big Chief Elizabeth by Giles Milton
  3. Band of Brothers by Stephen E Ambrose
  4. How the Girl Guides Won the War byJane Hampton
  5. The Making of Modern Britain byAndrew Marr
  6. After Elizabeth: the death of Elizabeth and the coming of King James by Leanda de Lisle
  7. Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor
  8. The English by Jeremy Paxman
  9. Shakespeare’s Restless World: An Unexpected History in 20 Objects by Dr N Mcgregor
  10. Wartime Britain by Juliet Gardiner
  11. 1599:  A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro
  12. The Games We Played by Susan Kelleher
  13. Glencoe by John Prebble
  14. On the Trail of the Assassins by Jim Garrison

Philosophy/ Religion

  1. Sovereignty of Good by Iris Murdoch
  2. Think: a compelling introduction to philosophy by Simon Blackburn
  3. Meditations by Aurelius
  4. C S Lewis: the Man and His God by Richard Harries
  5. Islam: a very short introduction by Malise Ruthven

Reading/ Writing

  1. Virginia Woolf on Women and Writing
  2. A Reading Diary by Alberto Manguel
  3. The Companion to the History of the Book by Simon Eliot & Jonathan Rose editors
  4. How Fiction Works by James Wood
  5. You English Words by John Moore

Miscellaneous

  1. Weeds by Richard Mabey
  2. Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey
  3. Rivers by Griff Rhys Jones
  4. The Penguin Book of Lies by Philip Kerr editor

14 thoughts on “A Non-Fiction Adventure”

  1. This sounds like a “challenging challenge”. I don’t think I own 50 non fiction books. I like non fiction: memoirs, biographies and medical books and then of course gardening, cooking etc.

    enjoy Margaret

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  2. Margaret – Thanks for sharing this with us. You’ve got quite an impressive goal here, and I’ll be looking forward to reading your reviews as you go along. I do like your variety of books, too.

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  3. The only non-fiction I read that hasn’t turned up on one of my book group lists or that I need for research purposes is letters and journals. If you want to add to your selection do try Virginia Woolf’s letters and journals. They are superb.

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  4. Hi Margaret,
    You have certainly set yourself an impressive challenge, I have difficulty thinking five minutes ahead, let alone five years.
    Between us, hubbie and I own several hundred non-fiction books, but I have to confess that 99% of them are his, not mine.
    I am something of a sloth, when it comes to reading non-fiction, it is all too easy to take the easy, non-thinking option and pick up a fiction book!
    If I do delve into the depths of our (his) non-fiction shelves, I will usually select a book of quotes or poetry, something I can open randomly and always find something interesting to read for just a short time span.
    Good Luck with your mission.
    Yvonne.
    If I do venture into the realms of non-fiction

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  5. Diane, I’m treating this as a project rather than a challenge!
    Margot, it’s because I like variety that I’ve ended up with lots of books I’ve really only dipped into up to now. I’m hoping this project will concentrate my mind.
    Alex, thanks for the suggestion. I’ve heard that about Virginia Woolf’s letters and journals – I haven’t got any of them but I’m on the look-out for them!
    Yvonne, I’m not surprised – after all, your blog is called Fiction Books!

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  6. An excellent ‘project’ and good luck with it. A bit similar to my American challenge which I plan to take years over too. Some interesting books on your lists, the only one I’ve read is The English by Paxo, liked it very much. Enjoy!

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  7. I’ve read just a few of these selections. Good luck reading them when there is so much fiction to read too. Time is just so limited. I’ve been trying to read a fat biography of Harry Truman in between novels, but this is taking quite a long time.

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    1. Barbara, that’s the difficulty isn’t it – non-fiction is often long and you have to concentrate to read it. I try to read them alongside novels and it always takes me much longer.

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  8. You will have a non-fiction adventure! I enjoy bios and histories and occasionally science books. I’m impressed that you already have all of these–you will be striking a blow for the TBR effort as well!

    Band of Brothers will be on my list as well–Ambrose is a marvelous writer of history.

    I may join in this challenge–while I do tend to mix it up with non-fiction, so many of my reading challenges these days involve fiction that the non-fiction gets pushed aside.

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    1. Jane, I hope you do. I have so many because I get so enthusiastic about a book and mean to read each one as soon as I get it – but it doesn’t often work out that way – for example I brought home Road to Referendum (non-fiction) and The English Spy (fiction) from the library meaning to read the Referendum book first but once I’d looked at the other one I carried on reading it. Now someone has reserved the Ref book and I’ve had to return it unfinished! I’ve since found a Kindle version at £1.19 so at least I can read it, but now I’m reading The Pillars of the Earth (over 1,000) – when will I get round to reading non-fiction??

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  9. I started the Non-Fiction Challenge back in 2012 at the same time I started The Classics Club. I’ve read a surprising number on both lists. What is happening with my non-Fiction Challenge is I see non-fiction books not on my list at the bookstore, pick them up and read them. I haven’t been taking books off the list as this happens so it just keeps getting longer! I like the challenges, though. It gives my reading a bit of organization, which I enjoy.

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  10. This list looks daunting to me, so good luck! I am into non fiction travel books lately. Memoir types, Denis Hickey has Breaking Free out now and it was fabulous! He’s got The Traveler due out soon and I can’t wait. He has a knack for a great read, http://www.breakingfree-thebooks.com/ for his info. Good for any list I think!

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