• About

The Dappled Butterfly

~ An everyday miscellany & companion to dappledbutterfly.tumblr.com

The Dappled Butterfly

Tag Archives: Tom Holland

Why read non-fiction?

19 Monday Mar 2012

Posted by dappledbutterfly in Books

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Dee Brown, George Orwell, history, non-fiction, Plato, Rachel Carson, Tom Holland, Tony Judt, Virginia Woolf

I came across The Guardian’s list of The 100 greatest non-fiction books today and it once again reminded me of just how little non-fiction I read. Perhaps it’s because I mostly see reading as escapism and love a good story above all else which is why my default is set to ‘fiction’. With saturation levels of information assailing us every waking minute, I need to have quite a bit of energy level left over at the end of the day to want to take even more on board. The last non-fiction I attempted was Tom Holland’s Millennium which I was really enjoying until I took a break and found it impossible to get into again (although I haven’t given up entirely). It had both escapism and a rollicking good story but there was so much new information I found it a bit exhausting. Wimpy, I know.

So, from The Guardian’s list, I’ve chosen the following to add to my ‘must read’ list:

  1. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
  2. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
  3. Postwar by Tony Judt
  4. Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
  5. A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf (1929)
  6. The Symposium by Plato

Any other suggestions? Does non-fiction reward the extra effort?

Advertisements

Categories

Books Current affairs Film History Poetry Random

Tags

19th century 20th century A Confederacy of Dunces Ancient Greece Anna Karenina Bel Ami blogging book review Catholicism Christina Ricci cinema classics coffee comedy Crime and Punishment e-books e-reader eBook Edward Norton Evelyn Waugh F. Scott Fitzgerald famous for the wrong novel famous novels film food Francis Ledwidge Fyodor Dostoyevsky George Orwell GK Chesterton history humour Ian McEwan idealism Ireland Irish history Italy Joe Wright John Betjeman Joseph Heller Keira Knightley Kindle Kristen Scott Thomas Leo Tolstoy love metaphysics modernism Moonrise Kingdom movies new publication Notes from the Underground novel Oprah Winfrey positive thinking quotation R-Patz reading revolution Robert Pattinson romance Russia Short story summer swimming Tender is the Night the Church The Great Gatsby The Guardian Books theology Thought for the Day tragedy Uma Thurman war War and Peace Wes Anderson youth
February 2019
M T W T F S S
« May    
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728  
Advertisements

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries RSS
  • Comments RSS
  • WordPress.com

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 26 other followers

© The Dappled Butterfly, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to The Dappled Butterfly with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy