A Non-Fiction Kick

I am a literature teacher; thus, I read literature. God bless Goodreads and its bottomless pile of book suggestions as well as means of tracking what has been read and what should be read. Sometimes, however, I feel that while I absolutely adore literary fiction, one can have too much of a good thing, or at least of the same thing.

I don't really like New Year's resolutions. Magic dust does not settle on our heads January 1st and give us motivation to do tasks that would normally make us vomit in revulsion. Nevertheless, this year, I decided to make a resolution: read more nonfiction. It seemed like a doable activity. I like to read; why not add a few more books from different genres to my reading diet?

In all honesty, it's been great fun. Not every book I've read in 2016 so far has been nonfiction, mind you, but my selections have had decidedly more variety. Here are a few books that I especially enjoyed.

1. Why Does E=mc2?

Cox and Forshaw make an idea I really did not care about seem interesting and somehow relevant to life. You are invited to do math problems or skip them altogether, which is the ideal math textbook. It's not a book you should read while half asleep, but it is by no means unreadable. I actually laughed out loud a couple of times!

2. Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain

This book was quite fun. It moves from quirky facts to practical questions concerning the judicial system in America. While law reform may be the point of the bioethics writer, it's interesting to read about the weirdness that is the human mind. Strangely, it's a fast read.

3. NeuroLogic: The Brain's Hidden Rationale behind Our Irrational Behavior

This book was brilliantly enjoyable. I was browsing Barnes and Nobel's book shelves one day and came across this title. As a teacher, I am quite aware that people do strange things for no apparent reason. This book provides a bit of a glimpse into the causes and symptoms of mental illness as well as provide a mirror to our own "irrational" thoughts and actions. If anything, Strenberg allows the reader to learn about behaviors enough to perhaps understand and sympathize with those who have experienced mental illness.

4. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Yes, Cadavers. Mary Roach's book was hilarious, entertaining, and surprisingly persuasive. The reader learns what happens to bodies that are donated to science, and many of these causes are quite important to scientific progress. You will want to sign your body away to science as soon as you put the book down.

5. The World Without Us

This book was a roller coaster of "Oh, wow, that's amazing" and "I couldn't care less about what will happen to the sparrows in Wisconsin," but it still provided a unique perspective on what the planet would become based if humanity quickly died out for whatever reason. I suppose it would fall under speculative philosophical science, so this book was certainly out of my typical genre zone. Some ideas were a little disturbing and not quite humane, in my opinion, but other passages somewhat hit home. This book may not be in my list of all-time favorites, yet it was so different in content, style, and conclusion that one must simply talk about it.

#nonfiction #readinglist #resolutions