The short answer is: because I learn something.
I read novels, and I enjoy them; mostly they are either escapist (Baldacci, Michael Connolly) or moving, thought-provoking and admirable (Theo of Golden, Julian Barnes, Fredrik Backman, Dickens). I am usually reading at least two books, one of which is fiction and the other is non-fiction. I’m currently reading David Copperfield, which for some reason I never read when younger. Dickens is a beautiful writer, and I am enjoying it. I also love historic London as a setting. Then there are the audiobooks – if I have a long drive, or a long walk, an audiobook is my partner. Most often those are the escapist novels. Reacher stories are fun, as are Harlan Coben or Michael Connolly.
Nonetheless, I prefer non-fiction. It keeps my attention, it makes me think and teaches me. I do have a thirst for life-long learning (maybe I am just running from the Alzheimers that runs in my family) and my taste in non-fiction is myriad. I recently finished Robert Reich’s latest book Coming Up Short and Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger. They were both good and I wrote a recent blog about them. I preferred Reich – he’s fabulous, but Klein is an excellent writer and forces the read to look into a variety of topics. In reading Doppelganger I was intrigued by a passage late in the book about something called Bundism. I had never heard of the Bund movement. The Bunds believed that their home is where they live, and that they didn’t need to displace others to create a new country (i.e. Israel, displacing Palestine). It is in clear opposition to Zionism. I have read several books about the Palestinians in the last year, searching for knowledge about them – having grown up in the USA we are fed many stories about the jews and Zionism – the damage done by the holocaust is inarguable – yet I don’t see how it gives them permission to treat the Palestinians almost as poorly. So I picked up Here Where We Live Is Our Country, by Molly Crabapple, recommended in that passage of Doppelganger. Crabapple says in the Introduction that Jews could never escape their problems by the dispossession of others. Instead, Bundists created the doctrine of “hereness.” I am just starting the book, but you get my point….I learn so much from reading. I enjoy reading fiction, but I don’t really learn from it – reading non-fiction is my continuing education program. I would go back to college if I could, but this is a pretty good substitute.
For what it’s worth, the other non-fiction books I have read so far this year include:
Andrew Ross Sorkin’s 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States.
David Attenborough’s Ocean: Earth’s Last Wildernes
Tracy Smith’s memoir, Ordinary Light
John Green’s Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History ad Persistence
Omar Akkad’s One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
Walter Isaacson’s bio of Elon Musk
As you can probably tell from the above, my tastes are wide-ranging. I have learned about the 1929 crash, tuberculosis, our genocide of the native americans, the ociean, and Elon Musk, who I do not admire, but Isaacson’s biography was fascinating. Avoiding subjects that I don’t agree with is like children who believe the world goes away when they cover your eyes.
A word about book clubs. I don’t usually partake, as I like choosing my own books, thank you very much. However, I did join one in our small town in Maine, because they were choosing some books that I would have chosen for myself. Most recently, someone chose Doppelganger, which I read and admired. We got on our zoom meeting to discuss recently and I learned that I was the only one (of about 8-10 people) who had bothered to finish the book, other than the lady who chose it of course. They took turns saying how boring it was, how they didn’t want to read about topics that make them feel bad (society’s recent and current ills) and I was taken aback. They all seem to prefer novels, which deliver stories that they can enjoy and escape into. While I understand the attraction (I do it as well) I was disappointed that they have no taste for learning from non-fiction. Some of the non-fiction I read is about troubling subjects (covid, the troubles in Ireland, USA politics, Israel and Gaza) but if I don’t stare at these issues and try to understand them better, my head is in the sand. Obviously many people do not agree. That’s okay.
Okay back to Molly Crabapple and Charles Dickens.
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