My Google Reader has a tendency to excite me with all of the reading challenges on the web thanks to A Novel Challenge. However, today the reading challenge excitement is happening over at The Broke and the Bookish. …And so I announce my participation in the 2011 Non-Fiction Reading Challenge.
One of my goals for the year was to read more non-fiction. I seriously lacked in my non-fiction reading during 2010. What a better way to motivate myself to not only keep up with the reading, but to also explore other types of non-fiction that I don’t read regularly. The different categories for the challenge are:
Culture: Non-fiction books about different cultures, religions and foreign lands; memoirs & biographies count.
– A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Solider by Ishmael Beah is a book I came across at the bookstore sometime last year but have yet to read. I’ve also got one for the religion category called Saving Jesus from the Church by Robin Meyers that my grandmother has suggested I read.
Art: Non-fiction books about anything art related (painters, music, architecture, photography, dance, literature, film, etc.). Memoirs/biographies of any people related to the arts count.
– I’ve got Mark Twain’s autobiography on hold at the library so that will count when I get it.
Food: Food memoirs, anything related to food industry, food lifestyles
– Oh, Anthony Bourdain… Here I come!
Medical: anything related to the medical field–industry memoirs, memoirs about illnesses (mental included) /diseases, etc.
– I read a lot of books about mental illness. It goes hand-in-hand with the whole psych major so I’m going to look for books outside of mental illnesses for this category. Get some variety in the medial reading.
Travel: travelogues, industry memoirs, travel guides, etc.
– I’ve got a few books I’m considering for this category, but no decisions yet.
Memoir/Biography: Self explanatory
– I bought Julie Andrews’ memoir last year and never got around to reading it so I’m definitely looking forward to that. Also Hound Dog, the Leiber and Stoller memoir and a few others that I’ve got on the shelves.
Money: Anything related to finances, economics, history of money, financial improvement etc.
– I don’t think I’ve ever read a book about finances or economics though I admit to having been interested in the Freakonomics book every time I walk by it. Perhaps I’ll finally buckle down and get that one read.
Science/Nature: Anything related to any scientific field, memoirs count.
– I don’t have any clue what I’m going to read in this category yet. I’ve got a long list of potentials.
History: Anything history related– events, biographies of historic figures, etc.
– I scare myself with the fact that I’ve not read a history book in full in… too long. Anywho, motivation to get caught up, restarted… however you’d like to think of it.
My super duper comprehension skills led me astray when I originally wrote this post. I thought that the levels were per category, but the challenge is actually one book from each category. That being the case I’m shooting to read a book from each of the nine categories or the ‘Future Jeopardy Champion’ level.
Books I’ve read that apply to this challenge:
I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali (Memoir/Culture)
Great Philosophers Who Failed at Love by Andrew Shaffer (Memoir/Biography)
Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff (History)
Unprotected Texts by Jennifer Wright Knust (Religion)
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach (Science)
Among Stories 
Thanks for joining with us!! I think I did a really bad job explaining the levels lol. I’m glad you said something about it. What I intended for it to be was that you would read 1-3 books and they all had to be from different categories…so a book from science, medical and art so you would be on the trivial pursuit level and then if you read from the history one you’d be moved up. But if you read another book from science, it wouldn’t count. I think I need to re-word that!
Good luck!!
Thanks for the clarification. I’ll go back and fix that. =]
No problem! I just fixed the post. I’m so glad you brought it up or else I would have never thought about it. Funny how sometimes things make perfect sense in your mind and don’t translate well when you write it out!
I think that I could do that – apart from the food one! I wouldn’t know where to start…..
Haha, it’s not too bad. As for food, it’s all about Anthony Bourdain! He’s awesome!
I Googled Anthony Bourdain – and I *still* don’t know who he is [rotflmao]
Haha, interesting. I don’t know if you saw this, but here’s his wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bourdain, but basically he’s a chef and author and he has a show called No Reservations where he travels to countries around the world eating at the authentic restuarants. I just like his personality, he’s very… forthright.