Overview
Decided to kick things off with an overview of all the nonfiction I’ve read this year, cos it’s turns out I’ve only read five such books!
- The Great Northern Canada Bucket List: One-of-a-Kind Travel Experiences by Robin Esrock
- The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas
- Money Like You Mean It: Personal Finance Tactics for the Real World by Erica Alini
- Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
- Everything I Need I Get From You: How Fangirls Created the Internet as We Know It by Kaitlyn Tiffany
What was your favourite nonfiction read of the year?
Kaitlyn Tiffany’s Everything I Need I Get from You does not quite live up to its subtitle. Still, the book is a great read that delves into a topic that I’ve been keenly interested in for about a year and a half now. It’s more accurately a case study in how the One Direction fandom grew into various online spaces. Tiffany doesn’t really go beyond the case study like I’d hoped to extrapolate broader conclusions about ‘the Internet as we know it’. She does, however, give enough context that someone outside of the fandom like myself can appreciate the experiences of the 1D fandom that she describes. Andbutso if the social internet interests you, I recommend this book.
Do you have a particular topic you’ve been attracted to more this year?
The topic I have been ‘keenly interested in for about a year and a half now’ is basically the Internet. Since spring 2021, I’ve found myself simultaneously immersed in Twitch culture and reimmersed in YouTube culture and the behind-the-scenes of successful content creation. (I used to be a pretty serious YouTube watcher from about 2007 to 2015.) Internet culture and fandoms, particulary centred around content creation, is a pretty fresh topic for publishing, so I’ve more so been discovering upcoming books to add to my TBR vs actually reading books on the subject.
What nonfiction book have you recommended the most?
…Well. You can guess.
What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?
I hope to find renewed excitement about reading nonfiction and maybe some great recommendations! Other nonfiction topics apart from the Internet that I enjoy reading about include the history of Arctic exploration, Zen Buddhism, language/books/reading, food (especially where it comes from), and anything Tolkien or Tolkien-adjacent. Also, any sort of pop psychology or self-help that catches my eye 😛
What are your plans for Nonfiction November?
What‘s your favourite nonfiction read of 2022?
I actually read a book that made me totally reconsider my use of the internet and social media. See here, under Digital Hell. A major eye opener for me: https://wordsandpeace.com/2022/11/02/nonfiction-november-my-year-2022-in-nonfiction/
Thanks for the recommendation! That one is new to me and looks at the internet from a perspective I haven’t read before. I’ll keep an eye out for it.
I must admit I’m not really attracted to reading books about the internet but maybe I should. This year it’s been a lot about psychology and health, plus memoirs/biography. I’d like to get back to reading more about history and science, plus a good literary book is always good — The Dark Fantastic looks fascinating.
THE DARK FANTASTIC was a little dense for me (it is an academic book) but some of the chapters were quite good. An internet book I read last year that you might enjoy is LURKING: HOW A PERSON BECAME A USER. It has a lot of memoir-style content, while reflecting on changes to online communities over the decades.
I’m quite interested in reading some analysis of social media, especially given twitters implosion. Actually ‘Social Media’ will be a category in next years Nonfiction Reader Challenge which I host 🙂
Thanks for stopping by! I think that is a great choice for a category 😀 There is a book about YouTube that just came out which I would really like to read…
Four Thousand Weeks and The Great Northern Canada Bucket List look interesting. Thanks for highlighting them!
Thanks for reading! 🙂
I’ve been interested in Everything I Need I Get From You since you first reviewed it and I can’t wait to see what else you read on the internet and fandom. That’s a topic that really interests me too!
It’s a bit of a shame I haven’t done any in-depth reviews on the books I’ve read on those topics, as most were read during my big blogging slump, but I do have a list scheduled for later in the month so maybe that will give you a few more titles for your TBR 🙂
As I live in southern Canada, I’d like to read “The Great Northern Canada Bucket List”. Maybe it’ll give me some ideas for some domestic travel.
Ah, a fellow Canadian! 😀 Thanks for stopping by. I would love to spend some time up north as well. I have a dream to cruise the Northwest Passage…
I’m glad you are participating in Nonfiction November. I’ve never thought about reading nonfiction about the Internet, but maybe it’s time I did.
Thanks Deb! It’s a relatively new topic for writers to explore, so I’ve been enjoying reading different analyses about how we use the Internet.
I think I’ve read more nonfiction this year than I normally do but that kind of stopped in the beginning of the year. Most of them are memoirs, which I find easier to immerse myself in sometimes as a story
Memoirs can make fascinating reads – I haven’t read many (if any??) this year, but I do get the appeal of reading someone’s reflection on their personal experiences.
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