Introducing Is it worth it? 🤷🏻♀️
For people who don't read non-fiction but want to.
I love non-fiction and it’s various sub-genres. Give me a book about someone’s life story, thoughts on the world, or their best tips for being productive, tidy, creative, frugal, resilient, and I’m happy.
However, I also know that a lot of people aren’t exactly making a beeline for the non-fiction titles at the bookstore. Nor are these books usually the hyped up read of the moment on Booktube or Booktok*, and they can often seem boring, irrelevant, or hard to understand. When you can read a truly escapist story with drama, romance, mystery, fantasy or horror, why would you choose a book about *shudder* finance instead?
For most of us who like to read, we might say about someone who dislikes reading or finds it boring that they just haven’t found the right book yet. As a fan of non-fiction, I think the same is true.
While writing this post, I googled ‘Why no one reads non-fiction’ to see what would turn up. A Medium article was the top result. In it the author states that people don’t like reading non-fiction because it is less imaginative, interesting and exciting as fiction. ‘There are no plot twists,’ the author continues, ‘[no] character development, and is less emotional.’ My very mature reply to this is pish posh! My even more mature reply is that I think the author just hasn’t read the right non-fiction books. Many of them have everything that the author argues that they don’t.
But how do you find them?
This is where I introduce the completely-unasked-for-but-I’m-writing-it-anyway newsletter that you’re reading right now.
I think more people would enjoy and benefit from reading non-fiction books, and I’d love to share the ones I think are worth your time (and the ones that aren’t).
From science to productivity, decluttering to memoir, history to (even) finance, I think there are more stories out there that are as interesting as fiction, and often more informative. However, not all books (like in fiction) are created equal.
So, welcome to Is it worth it? where I read the non-fiction books that you (and I) have been curious about but aren’t sure are worth the time and effort. I’ll be the friend who reads it first, gives you a summary, the takeaways, and whether I think you’ll like it or not. Sound good? Good.
Meet me back here next week for our first read - The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt.
A small note - I also love fiction and don’t think there is anything wrong if it’s the only genre you want to read. With this newsletter, I just want to encourage more people to read non-fiction and to help them find titles that might float their boat.
*Book Youtube and Book Tiktok