I'm having a better reading year this year than last, which is strangely reassuring. Why is it when my reading is 'off' the rest of my world seems a little off, too? Last week Stefanie wrote about how her reading this year seems to have tilted from the norm of fiction to more nonfiction and genre fiction. I seem to have gone the opposite direction. I love nonfiction, but I don't seem to be making much headway in my own pile of nonfiction reads and the books I have started this year have languished or been set aside. I started out with a bang with Antonia Fraser's wonderful memoir My History, thinking this was a good omen and the start of what might be a stellar nonfiction reading year, but as it turns out, I seem to have fizzled.
I've read a few of these (photo above) Penguin Lines editions that celebrate the 150th anniversary of London's Underground (must get back to those . . .), there have been a couple of NYRB subscription books and a few other slender nonfiction reads including a graphic novel, a YA illustrated memoir, a very light biography of sorts about Sylvia Plath and the wonderful but sad When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (a book well worth revisiting as a reminder on how to live life).
However, there have been more than a few potentially good reads that I just have let go (maybe to pick up in the new year?), the most recent and the one I really do want to read, is a book on weaving. But there was a Roger Deakin book on trees that went astray and a biography of Wonder Woman. I wanted to read about Joan of Arc, a memoir by a young woman working in a New York literary agency and at least two other history books--Colonial American history and a couple of biographies of Colonial-era women. I have no idea why I cannot stick with nonfiction these days. I have read several very short books, but anything requiring more time, effort and concentration seems to fall by the wayside sadly. Where has my attention span gone?
And then there are books on my TBR pile, which is a wishlist of nonfiction reads I wish I could commit to:
Les Parisiennes by Anne Sebba, A Revolution in Color: The World of John Singleton Copley by Jane Kamensky, Walking Through Walls by Marina Abramovic, and I still want to read some Colonial American History (more so now than ever--maybe a biography of George Washington or Abigail Adams) and would love to get back to Roger Deakin, or read some books about books or about walking (like Robert McFarlane's The Old Ways).
How do I get my nonfiction reading stamina built back up? In the short term I am going to stick with Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals. It is not terribly long and will be a test of whether I can focus. And what I read was quite delightful. I just need to get back into the (good) habit of daily nonfiction reading. Maybe I should pick up a random essay here and there to get my toes wet?