I Need to Read More Nonfiction: A Thursday Thirteen

I am going to cheat a little--I may list more than thirteen titles, but there will be thirteen related subjects at least.  I love nonfiction, though it is hard to tell by what I manage to finish in a year.  So many things sound interesting and I want to read about them, but I tend to choose up a novel anytime I pick up a book.  Maybe I need to set fifteen minutes a day aside for just nonfiction reading.  So far I have only read one slim volume of essays this year.  I am moving very slowly along in A Woman in Berlin.  It is interesting, but the book keeps getting pushed off to the side.  So here is a list of books I either own (or plan on getting from the library) and would like to read...eventually.  In no particular order:

1. A Venetian Affair: A True Tale of Forbidden Love in the 18th Century , Andrea di Robilant and Vanilla Beans and Brodo: Real Life in the Hills of Tuscany , Isabella Dusi--An Italian scandal and an Australian in Italy (the Dusi book I started reading and then set aside...).
2. Wanderlust: A History of Walking , Rebecca Solnit and Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer , Richard Holmes--Both are about journeys in one way or another.
3. Shakespeare: The Biography, Peter Ackroyd and Age of Shakespeare, Frank Kermode--Ah, Shakespeare, I will know you yet!
4. Marie Antoinette: The Journey, Antonia Fraser and Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution , Caroline Weber--I have been intrigued by Marie for a long time, and these books keep showing up on my lists.
5. The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft, Claire Tomalin and Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark , Mary Wollstonecraft--I have read half of the Tomlin book already and need to finish it.  I still want to read more about Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter Mary Shelley.
6. Strapless, Deborah Davis and Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette , Judith Thurman--The Paris Salon and a Parisienne.
7. Robbing the Bees: A Biography of Honey--The Sweet Liquid Gold that Seduced the World , Holley Bishop and Sweetness and Light: The Mysterious History of the Honeybee , Hattie Ellis--Yes, two books on bees--who would have thought there was that much to say.
8. Elizabeth's London: Everyday Life in Elizabethan London , Liza Picard and Restoration London: Engaging Anecdotes and Tantalizing Trivia from the Most Magnificent and Renowned City of Europe , Liza Picard--I want to read all of Liza Picard's books about London, but I'll start with these two (must read in order of course!).
9. The Diary Of Elizabeth Drinker: The Life Cycle of an Eighteenth-Century Woman , edited by Elaine Forman Crane and Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650-1750, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich--A little something about 18th century American women.
10. A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books , Nicholas Basbanes and A History of Reading, Alberto Manguel--Always something about books and reading!
11. The Anthropology of Turquoise: Reflections on Desert, Sea, Stone, and Sky , Ellen Meloy and Color: A Natural History of the Palette, Victoria Finlay--As weird as it sounds I love anything about colors--their history and sociology!
12. Silent Spring, Rachel Carson and Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America , Barbara Ehrenreich--I need to read more investigative writing!
13. Bowen's Court , Elizabeth Bowen and Walled Gardens: Scenes from an Anglo-Irish Childhood , Annabel Davis-Goff--Biographies of two of my favorite Anglo-Irish writers.

This is enough to keep me busy for an entire year.  I have often thought I need to devote an entire year's worth of reading to one type of book--all nonfiction or only classics, but I haven't quite been able to talk myself into it yet.  I sometimes find it easier to write lots of posts about a nonfiction book rather than a novel.  There is always lots going on in a novel, but it is harder to talk about it without giving everything away.  With nonfiction, I find, it is much easier to share facts and trivia and still have lots left over to surprise new readers!  Now off I go to read a little nonfiction!