Well, I pick up gardening books and enjoy them when doing research into gardening, sometimes read cookbooks for fun when I should be making supper, and I will pick up the occasional history book after being intriqued to learn more after reading an historical novel. I like biographies. But I wouldn't pick up a political book like the one written by Obama, or Clinton, or Rush Limbaugh. I won't read books about how the (fill in the political party/religious entity/socioeconomic group of your choice) have (ruined/saved) America. Books about current educational theory usually make me fling them wallward after a few pages. I've done a lot of "reading to learn" in books I "should read" in my life, and still do for work-but not for fun.
When I'm reading for recreation, it's almost always fiction. Recreational reading is about taking me someplace else-a village along with the Scotland Yard detective, Paris between the wars, Egypt in the 1900s, the forest with a changeling. Deep thinking is not requirement, although sometimes it creeps in. I cry when favorite characters die, but can close the book and move on.

suzanne, excellent topic! While my shelves are filled with fiction, I have one whole wall dedicated to non fiction. Usually its history (esp medieval or renaissance), or travel, tho I do have some science, some current events and a few biographies.

Whats funny is how fiction and non have always lead to each other for me. I love learning new things, and fiction is often the doorway to that. I can read a book like Sharon Kay Penmen's Here Be Dragons, which led me to Thomas Costain's Plantagenet series, which led me to Anya Seton's Katherine, which led me to discover some Chaucer.

Right now I am reading Michael Paine's Crusade, and on my table I have Franklin and Winston, which is a book that needs to be read bit by bit. I also have in the wings A Sense of the World: how a blind man became history's greatest traveler by Jason Roberts and Twice a Stranger: how mass expulsion forged modern Greece and Turkey by Bruce Clark. I also have Douglas Brinkley's Deluge, about how our government handled Katrina.

Fiction, always fiction. I feel as though, as much as I love books, I can find any non-fiction information I need on the internet. I would much rather lose myself in a good plot than read anything 'real'. The only exception are travel books. I read about a destination as much as I can, crossing between the Rough Guide and Lonely Planet, before I arrive. Then again, I read about a place online, too ... I think you can find out more about the 'real' aspects of a place via the net than you can in a guide book.

>I can find any non-fiction information I need on the internet

True, to a point. But for one thing, and this shows my age, I don't always trust what I see on the net, and sometimes its difficult to check sources (tho I can see how younger folks see no problem with it) But I often can get what I need, no question. With a book tho, you often are given more of a flavor of the topic, how it relates to the whole world, how the author took the research and gives his voice to it. An excellent example is Simon Winchesters 'The Professor and the Mad Man'. If you told me that I would be reading a history of the Oxford English Dictionary, I'd roll my eyes. But the book is much much more than that.

As far as travel books - I have found too many guide books that were just flat out wrong. That is one thing I use the internet for. But when I refer to travel books I mean travel narratives, not for the facts as much as for the stories.

BTW, I am assuming we are not talking about text books. In my mind I am talking about non fiction written for the general reader.

I am so glad to see this topic. I read non-fiction almost exclusively and find myself very alone among my friends. Try to find a book group that focuses on non-fiction. I should qualify what I say by noting that history and especially historical biography, autobiographies and memoirs are my favorite.

Right now, I'm reading a biography of Edith Wharton tho I have never been able to get into any of her books except "Ethan Frome". However, I am very interested in women of her era. Before that, I recently finished a biography of Beatrix Potter (must get to the Lake Country--soon) and another of a wealthy young Belgian woman who married into the Chesapeake aristocracy soon after the Revolution. It was based on her letters home to her family--really excellent.

ginny, I finally got around to reading a few of her works this last year: House of Mirth and Age of Innocence.

I've never been big on memoirs or bios. Usually I read them after I have discovered an author like Dawn Powell. But I often hesitate because the author either puts the subject on a pedestal, or spends the time dragging in the dirt. That being said, I have read some excellent ones. My favs are on Freya Stark and Gertrude Bell, two British women who traveled in the Middle East at a time when it just wasn't done (Bell btw is often called the Female Laurence, as she worked with the Brit government to draw the lines in the sand setting the modern Middle East borders in WWI)

I read both fiction and nonfiction. I don't read much recent fiction, though.

In the last six months, though, the only fiction I've read has been recent--Alice Munro's Runaway and a collection of US and Canadian short stories from 2004.

I also read a pilot's memoir, The Shadows of War by Thomas Childers, a biography of Henry James, Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners, a memoir by Ring Lardner, Jr., and a memoir by Virginia Kelley, President Clinton's mother. When I read nonfiction, it tends to be biography and autobiography.

I too read both fiction and non fiction. In the latter genre, I read memoirs, history--mostly English, medieval and social history (i.e.how women kept house in Victorian times, how children were raised in medieval times, etc.)--science, almost anything about Gypsies, and will pick up any old thing that grabs my interest or that is uncommonly well-written (like Patrick Leigh Fermor's books on Greece).

I'm not particularly interested in ancient history, though lately I've been wanting to read a good general history of the founding of Rome and the Roman republic. Can anyone recommend one?

A funny story about my tastes in reading. Many years ago, my family took a beach house for a week. Friends were supposed to join us and arrived when we were out. They weren't sure they were at the right house until they looked in the window and saw the book I was reading on a table. "I knew we had the right house because only you would have brought a biography of Martin Luther [NOT M.L. King] to read at the beach."

I like fiction if it's exceptionally good; the trouble for me, though, is so little of it is exceptional. A lot of patience is required to follow fictional narratives because many fiction writers -- nowadays, especially -- are not straight shooters. Carrying the firearm metaphor further, I'd say most are shotgun splatterers -- spread enough shot around and some reader will be hit somewhere.

I like the tighter focus of most nonfiction -- especially history, biographies, travelogues, hard science and soft science. I find I can concentrate better reading nonfiction. Also I can pick it up and put it down better: with fiction if I have to pause for, say, more than a couple of days, I'm less likely to want to resume because I've lost the thread.

But it's only since I've gotten older that I've preferred nonfiction. Most of my all-time favorite books are fiction -- books that I have read dozens of times. I can think of only a few nonfiction books that I have wanted to read more than, oh, five or six times.

In 1974 I was newly divorced, depressed and feeling limited in my options in life. I picked up a copy of the book "Dove" by Robin Graham. He was a teenager who sailed around the world solo. It gave me hope and was the first of many everyday-man-has-a-big-adventure type books that I've read.

A quick inventory of my bookshelf shows some trends.

Personal adventures stories -

Everything by William Least Heat Moon:
Blue Highways Heat Moon finds himself divorced and an suddenly unemployed college professor. He loads up his van and heads out to drive across America, chronicling the places and people he meets.

PrairyErth This time he's walking almost every inch of one county. Not only does he walk the land in this dimension but he walks through the communities in time - taking us back in local history.

River Horse - His best. Can you imagine taking kayak, canoe, boat and anything that floats all the way from New York harbor to the Pacific Ocean? Heat Moon accomplishes this dangerous journey loosely following the path of Lewis and Clarke.

My recent reading jag includes everything I could get my hands on about climbing Everest. This interest was sparked by a TV show last season entitled, "Everest - Beyond the Limit". I wanted to know these people and why they risk their life and limb.

The Last Climb Chronicles the 1921 and 1924 British expeditions to Everest and the death of Mallory and Irvine. Stunning vintage photographs are interspersed with text.

Into Thin Air Jon Krakauer's book about the disastrous 1996 climbing season.

Left for Dead - Beck Weather's inspiring story of survival during the 1996 season, after being left for dead twice on the mountain. This book also speaks to the sometimes obsessive and suicidal personalities that are drawn to the danger of the mountain and the impact on their lives and families.

High Exposure - David Breashears. This man is not a hobby climber. He's done a lifetime of hard work and preparation in his quest of making a life and living in the mountains. He's also the director and camerman who climbed Everest with an IMAX camera to film "Everest - IMAX"

Everest - Mountain Without Mercy - Yet another book chronicling the '96 season. This one with fabulous still photos from the IMAX expedition.

Then there are the science books -

The Star Thrower - Loren Eiseley. Also his Firmament of Time and the Unexpected Universe. Eiseley was a naturalist, archaeologist, anthropologist and poet. I can figure out how I got to be 60 years old without reading Eiseley. Most of his books are collections of essays nature.

Almost everything by Carl Sagan.

Then there are the diaries -

This Cruel War - Grant and Malinda Taylor & Blomquist. An unbelievable find, this is an almost complete set of letters written between a husband and wife during the civil war. An enlightening look at life during this time and the struggle of each to survive his five year absence.

Plains...

>anything about Gypsies

Lacey, a friend turned me on to a documentary called Gypsy Caravan. Haven't seen it yet, but its filled with music

>But it's only since I've gotten older that I've preferred nonfiction.

I've noticed this too - not that I prefer it, but I seem to be drawn to it more than before. I suspect that fiction, while its taken me to so many places, pales sometimes when you want to know how the world turns and what makes it tick. And I think you are right - the writing is much more straight forward and you usually don't have to do mental gymnastics to figure out what the author is doing.

I loved Dove - read it about the same time you did, and read it several times over. I could see how it would be a hopeful book for you

I also go through trends. Usually I go to these topics from a fictional account. There are a few books of each trend that deserve mention:

Medieval:

>Barbara Tuchman Distant Mirrors

>Wm Manchester a World Lit Only By Fire

>Medieval Miscellany

British History

>anything by Antonia Fraiser

>Plantagents by Thomas Costain

>Eliz I by Alison Plowden

>Eleanor of Aquitain and the four kings by Amy Kelly

Chinese History

>Wild Swan by Jung Chang

>Legacies by Bette Bao Lord

Russian history

>anything by Robert Massie esp Nicholas and Alexander and Peter the Great

American history

>John Adams by David McCullough

>The Kennedy Tapes by Ermest May

>Founding Mothers by Cokei Roberts

WWI

>Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman

>March of Folly ibid

Islamic World

>Islam by Karen Armstrong

>Unexpected Light by Jason Elliot

>The Burning Tigris by Peter Balkan (Armenian Genocide and Turkey)

War

>Eleni by Nicholas Gage

>The Civil War Diaries of Clara Solomon

Judaica

>The Avenger Rich Cohen

>History of Jewish People by Abba Eban

World History and odds and ends

>Professor and the madman by Simon Winchester

>Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea by Gary Kinder

>Eyewitness to history ed by John Carey

>Longitude by Dava Sobel

My collection of travel narratives is huge. I'll have to think about my favs, tho off hand fav authors include Patrick Leigh Fehmor, Tony Horowitz, Pico Iyer, Laurie Lee, Paul Theroux (early works), Colin Thurbon, Eric Newby

I like fiction and non-fiction equally well although I read much more fiction. The non-fiction I like best is usually a memoir which may or may not include travel, gardening and cooking. I read Mariann Pearl's book when it first came out and recently read Barbara Kingsolver's latest and Bob Woodroth's book. I'm not even sure I spelled his name correctly-don't have my books handy. Linda Ellerbee wrote a marvelous memoir about travel and food.
I also occ. read history but not if it's "dry".

I would say that I read and enjoy both equally. But I am very fussy, as the fiction has to sweep me away with its style and characters and landscape descriptions. For about 25 years, I read almost exclusively biographies and memoirs, citing these as my favorite genre. (For example, having been fascinated by the Carl Sagan series on TV years, ago, I quickly sought out his biography when it came out, as I wanted to know more about that great and curious mind. This had been a pattern, for a long while. Likewise, having seen the film "Out of Africa", that act led me to read E. Tryzeblinki's "Silence Will Speak", "West With the Night", and the Thurman biography of Isak Dinesen.

More recently, since frequenting RP, I have branched out more into good fiction, largely upon the recommendation of some posters here. But it has to be very, very well-written, as I am an impatient reader. If I am not swept away by about 20-30 pages, away with it....

I used to read only fiction, now it seems I read much more non-fiction. Like Cindy I go through trends, and usually buy more books on the topic than I can hope to read -- but of course I'm sure I'll get to them all eventually. I've read a lot of gardening books by Beverley Nichols and all sorts of travelogues with Peter Mayle and Bill Bryson being favorites. I also love Tony Horwitz, it doesn't matter what he's writing about. I have probably a dozen books on the Medieval period as well as books on Druids and Celtic history that I have yet to get to, but I will.

Since I read (and please, not too much eye-rolling out there *g*) The DaVinci Code several years ago, I've been reading everything I can get my hands on regarding the history of the church and women within that structure. Karen Armstrong is wonderful, the Thomas Cahill books have been enjoyable, and with luck I may finish Paul Johnson's A History of Christianity before I'm 60.

The only downside I find to reading non-fiction is it takes me SO much longer to read than fiction. If I'm into a good story I can fly through the book, with non-fiction, I'm learning some thing new or making connections to other things and it just doesn't move as quickly.

sheri, one of the good things about the popularity of Da Vinci code is that it sent many people to the library and bookstore for the same reason - they wanted to know more. You might also try Elaine Pagels for information about the tug and pull of different sects within the early Christian times, esp the Gnostics. His theory isn't exactly new, and what is out there is more fascinating (and better written) than what he comes up with.

And I agree about the number of books. I often will pick something up that looks totally interersting and it sits on my TBR shelf forever. Sometimes the idea of taking a week to read a non fiction when I can take two days to read a fiction wins out. But usually I can get to them, eventually

> Sometimes the idea of taking a week to read a non fiction when I can take two days to read a fiction wins out.

Exactly! I keep a book list on Bibliophil, and over the past four years I've averaged about 75 books a year. So far this year, because I'm reading primarily non-fiction, I've only read 15 books since January.

I have read some Elaine Pagels and have more on the TBR pile. Another good book recommended by someone here (Vee, perhaps?) was Pamela Norris' Eve: A Biography which I found really interesting. In the same vein, The Gospel According to Woman by Karen Armstrong and The Descent of Woman by Elaine Morgan were also fascinating.

All that being said, I just got the newest Stephanie Plum book from the library this morning and I'm off to read that, most likely in one sitting :))

No Sheri, it wasn't me who recommended Eve although as you know, I do seem to find and enjoy some rather strange non-fiction titles.
Do some of you find that fiction is best NOT read just before going to sleep? If I am reading something with a strong plot, fast moving etc I find it difficult to get the story out of my head and it invades my dreams.
An interesting and beautifully written non-fiction book that is not keeping me awake at the moment is Perch Hill by Adam Nicholson.
You gardening people might enjoy it as AN is the grandson of the famous garden-writer Vita Sackville-West and married to the writer/TV gardener Sarah Raven . . . and Sheri, unlike Beverley Nichols there is nothing even faintly pink and perfumed about him. ;-)
Perch Hill is the name of the run-down farm in the Sussex Weald (an ancient landscape) that Nicholson buys after his first marriage ends.
He admits he comes to farming with little knowledge and describes the help the 'true' locals give him.
If any of you have read Kipling, especially Puck of Pook's Hill Perch Hill is next door to 'Bateman's' Kipling's house and estate.

I loved Wild Swans and Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea. I have MAO the untold story on my bookshelf. Currently reading Jimmy Stewart's Biography. I highly recommend Black Maestro by Joe Drape.I like taking a break from fiction and reading about real life people.

patty, I also have Mao, and tried to read it, twice. Its just too laden with details and I find myself getting distracted from it. Shes such a good writer that I suspect that if I just dove in, it would be worthwhile. But for now....lemme know if you get to it.

>The Gospel According to Woman by Karen Armstrong

Oh, I want this!

Most of the time I prefer non-fiction to fiction but, given how busy things are at work, I've lately tended towards fiction. That being said, I've got Stephen Ambrose's 3 part bio of Nixon waiting for me. I'd also like to re-read Kissinger's Diplomacy. I'm also trying (every so often) to get through Keegan's A History of Warfare. It's actually a very interesting read. Unfortunately, I have it in the car and it serves as a spare book for when I'm out of the house without anything to read!

I'm also considering a re-read of Halberstam's books, specifically The Best and the Brightest, The Fifties, and The Powers That Be. Of course, with all these books, I'm looking at five to ten years before I do it all..... ;-)

Yes, it's ambitious. Realistic? Good question!

I read both fiction and non-fiction. usually have one or two of ech type going at the same time. Often a fiction book will get me to go into more depth of a subject-- ie
i read a bio of jos. banks while reading patrick o'brian's
sea-adventures that master and commander movie was based on.
just one to many references to banks, made me dig up a bio to fit him into the books i was reading-- that lead to reading the botany of desire. right now i'm working on wincheseter's book about the 1906 san fransisco earthquake that i came a cross while looking thru the 'new non-fiction'
section at our library. I read the horatio hornblower novels to compary to obrian's and edded up reading a book about tamenny (sp)hall in new york which caused me to read
a bio of john adams, and because we were going to washington
a read a history of 'clover' adams too.
strange on how books will lead you on a thread of reading. I'm finishing peter tremayne's mystery series of sister fidelma in 7th cent ireland, no idea where that will take me, but it prompted me to pick-up books on celtic knotwork.
so i read and read and read, obscure references lead me from place to place.

diggerb

It was sad to hear of David Halberstam's death not long ago, as his journalism is of the highest calibre. I thought The Best and the Brightest was superb.

What?! David Halberstam's passed away?! I didn't know that! And yes, that's quite sad - his books were always, in my opinion, very well written and very well researched.

He was killed in a car accident on the way to an engagement. Unfortunately the graduate student who was driving him to the event has been charged. I'm quite sure of the particulars, I think he turned when he shouldn't have.

Sigh ........ my favorite non-fiction authors are all dying away. Teddy White's gone. David Halberstam's gone. At least Bob Woodward's still around as is (I imagine) Sy Hersh. Barbara Tuchman's gone as well as Bill Shirer.

And the Duke's gone as well (Hunter S. Thompson). But P.J. O'Rourke's still kicking around! :-)

I must be getting old.