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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

TELL ME MORE

Fiction versus non-fiction: which do you prefer?

31/8/2017

20 Comments

 

When my mother took me to the library as a child she always insisted I take out one non-fiction book along with the novels I readily devoured. An obedient child, I did as instructed, but I wasn’t happy about it. Although I can remember one notable title (although I imagine I was quite young when I read The Air Is All Around Us), I’m not sure much was achieved. Even though I loved a series of biographies of the childhoods of the famous (which felt like cheating, as these were stories), very few of the facts have stuck. A half century on, my preference for fiction over non-fiction has not budged.


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Although my reviews of non-fiction are increasing, they’re still the mouse to the mammoth of my fiction reviews. And although I’ve got something worthwhile from each of them, apart from a couple of exceptions (The Examined Life; A Man of Good Hope), they’ve often taken a bit more effort than I wanted to give.
 
I wouldn’t be surprised that, at an unconscious level, I’m still trying to please my mother, or rebelling by reading so few. But I’m also a bit embarrassed (especially in contrast to that fine educator,
Norah Colvin) at my lack of commitment to learning something new. It’s not that I’m uninterested – I read the blurbs and reviews thinking Tell me more! – but the books, when I receive them, often contain more information than I want to consume. Like my response to The Good Soldier, I think this is less a reflection on the quality of the book than on me.
 
Does it matter that I’m not partial to non-fiction? I was interested to read
an editorial in the Guardian recently arguing that the gap between fiction and non-fiction isn’t as wide as contemporary readers and publishers seem to assume. However, rather than giving me permission to immerse myself in novels, the article argues against the relative neglect of non-fiction.

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Of course, life’s too short to fret about my biases, but I’d love to know what you think. Meanwhile, you can peruse my reviews over the past month by clicking on the image of fourteen novels and no non-fiction with an interesting but (at least to me) uninterpretable blue-grey and sandstone complexion.

As for next month, although I do have one non-fiction book on my TBR shelf, I’m a little nervous about the nine novels due out in September. Although I love receiving books in advance of publication and try to post my review, so long as it’s not too negative, close to where it comes out, I might have overcommitted myself this time. Better close down the computer and start reading!

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Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
20 Comments
Derbhile Dromey link
1/9/2017 08:45:37 am

Yes, I do find fiction more compelling. But non-fiction is growing on me. I'm reading a good book at the moment called Another Day in the Death of America, a quiet polemic against American gun culture. I like books that balance fact with story, as this does. They straddle the lines where fiction and non fiction meet.

Reply
Annecdotist
3/9/2017 04:16:09 pm

Thanks for sharing, Derbhile. Yes, some non-fiction is beautifully written and tells a good story, but I’m afraid I still struggle.

Reply
Susan Osborne link
1/9/2017 10:42:26 am

Like you, I have my feet firmly in the fiction camp but always have a non-fiction book on the go, currently Helen Pearson's fascinating The Life Project. Arguably, a good deal of my non-fiction choices - travel writing, biography - may well wander off into fiction territory, all very subjective.

Reply
Annecdotist
3/9/2017 04:18:36 pm

You do better than me, Susan, if you always have a non-fiction book on the go. I suppose I always/often have one on my TBR shelf, but that’s not quite the same thing.

Reply
Jeanne Lombardo link
2/9/2017 05:49:18 pm

I have always loved both. Of course it depends on which kind of non-fiction. I don't suppose you are including memoir in non-fiction, and rightly so as it aligns in many respects much more with fiction. I love a good first person account of a major event. John Krakour's account of the 2006 disastrous ascent of Mt Everest in Thin Air is a book I have read 3 or 4 times over the years. Books about social issues often have compelling stories; I'm thinking of Barbara Ehrenrich's Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. Or crime themes as in the horrific Helter Skelter or Truman's In Cold Blood. Like you, I have put down some non-fiction books before I've finished them. I guess it comes down to story. Wherever there's a good story supported but not overwhelmed by stats, I'll stick my nose in.

Reply
Annecdotist
3/9/2017 04:25:15 pm

No, memoir is firmly in the non-fiction camp for me. I know it’s usually about character, story, with lots in common with fiction, but it leaves too little space for the reader’s own interpretation in my somewhat limited experience.
I think I’d be interested in the ideas in the books you mentioned but often a well-written article is sufficient for me. (I remember reading a good one about Nickel and Dimed).
The differences in our reading preferences are fascinating.

Reply
Charli Mills
3/9/2017 07:50:53 am

Funny, Anne, but I consider Norah Colvin to be my top educator online and you are runner up! I always expand my learning each week from you both. With Norah it's many topics that would be classified non fiction and with you it's modern literature. I love reading history in various non fiction forms but I think that's kind of a cheat like biographies. I have a mindfulness book on my desk at the moment...which makes me mindful I should read it. I do have a fair number of Audiobooks downloaded and most are nonfiction recommended by Norah! And many I've enjoyed. There you have it -- she fills my Audible file and you my Kindle! I must be balanced after all.

Reply
Annecdotist
3/9/2017 04:31:06 pm

Thanks, Charli, I’m honoured to be runner-up to Norah and yes you’re nicely balanced between the two of us – certainly a lot better balanced than I am.
Why should reading be cheating, especially when it’s your passion? I’m mindful that I’ve might need to learn more about the 1930s for my WIP, though still hoping I can do it the breakthrough fiction.

Reply
Charli Mills
4/9/2017 07:06:10 pm

Anne, I've discovered rich reads in newspaper archives. When I researched in Kansas and Nebraska, I looked up archives by topics, events and dates. You might enjoy that approach to learning more about the 1930s. But newspapers go beyond topic and reveal more of the psyche of time, place and culture. You can read ads, editorials, cartoons in addition to articles pertaining to your subject. This form of non fiction might prove rich for your next WIP.

Annecdotist
5/9/2017 05:35:00 pm

Thanks for the tip, Charli. And that’s a good point – adverts can be particularly revealing of a culture, although a bit of reading between the lines might be needed.

Norah Colvin link
3/9/2017 12:36:55 pm

Hi Anne, I enjoyed this post, as we seem to discuss our differing reading interests intermittently. Thanks for the mention. I do enjoy fiction too, and I am fairly specialised in my non-fiction reading, with a bent towards the humanities and social sciences. Other things occasionally too - big meaning things. But I have read a number of fiction books due to your recommendation or review, and mostly enjoyed them. I can think of only one I didn't. I had forgotten about A Man of Good Hope, so thanks for the reminder. Ha! I laughed at Charli saying she must be balanced reading some suggestions from each of us. What is she saying about us? Okay, psychologist, don't go too deep. Just kidding. :)

Reply
Annecdotist
3/9/2017 04:37:07 pm

Thanks, Norah, and we do indeed discuss our different preferences from time to time. It’s amazing how we manage to meet in the middle! And I remember the book I recommended that you didn’t enjoy and I know it’s unsatisfactory that I could really explain why I’ve loved it (read before my reviewing days). I didn’t think to analyse Charli’s comment too deeply as I was quite happy taking it as a compliment to both of us. But I’m sure there’ll be more opportunities to explore as I’m trying to do a post on reading at the end of every month.

Reply
D. Avery link
4/9/2017 06:51:35 pm

Huh. I was going to say that I am more of a fiction person. Then I looked at my bookshelves, recalled my formative reading… if distinctions have to be made, I have definitely read way more nonfiction. I am much less likely to pick up a novel, it has to be very good to get my time. I like to learn something from both fiction and nonfiction, like to think when I read.
I made sure to have all sorts of books from all sorts of genres in my fourth grade classrooms. There were always those students, usually boys, or lefties, that would only open a nonfiction book, the books that just oozed information with a variety of text features, including sidebars and graphics. Fiction for these people had to be very realistic and to be on a topic of interest. And even then, it was resisted. Inference and connotation were difficult tools for these readers to employ, figurative language annoying to them. Sequential and literal, some of these people never became fluent readers by school standards, which meant that their type of intelligence was not always recognized or valued. Meanwhile the fictioneers often wooed ELA teachers and effortlessly baffled all with bullshit. Teachers need to beware of our own biases when it comes to reading and reading choices. (Very tricky, this matter of defining literacy; so I switched to numeracy, the other language) It would be great if all students could have Norah on the one horn, and Anne Goodwin on the other, so that they could be balanced like Charli who rides high between the horns of this dilemma.
And: I really enjoyed the essays in The Far Edges of the Fourth Genre, an exploration of creative nonfiction. Read it, all of you.
Anyway, has the term pan-genre been coined yet? Must there be so many definitions and divisions?

Reply
Annecdotist
5/9/2017 05:45:21 pm

Thanks for sharing your reflections, D. You’ve reminded me of the joy in leaving my job giving away a lot of the books I’d collected, quite a few I hadn’t found time to read, although I did hang onto a few old favourites. And helpful to be reminded that, although I personally find fiction easier, and have always done so, many don’t, especially boys who are just getting to grips with books. It’s a shame if little readers aren’t valued, clear writing is important whether in fiction or non-fiction – it’s not a skill we can take for granted, witness some of the appalling instruction manuals for ordinary household products. I wonder if we’d all go in for genre blending to a degree, but have different ideas of where (not) to draw the line.

Reply
D. Avery link
6/9/2017 01:09:22 am

Your mention of instruction manuals clinches my thinking I need to reread Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Somehow that book seems relevant, but it's been years. I'll get back to this conversation after that reread.I think there already is a fair amount of genre blending and like any blending and bending, it really bothers some people! And even in what is perceived to be or presented to be nonfiction, truth is still not a simple matter, not a given. And fiction can hold so many truths.

Annecdotist
7/9/2017 05:52:08 pm

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance – I have to confess that another non-fiction classic haven’t read (although I have read very good handbook on pedal cycle maintenance!) I agree about truth in fiction – one of my main motivations for reading is to connect with an emotional truth.

Luccia Gray link
5/9/2017 08:36:20 pm

I read a lot of non fiction, too. Some books related to my work on language learning others to interests and motivation, lots on the craft of writing and as research for my novels... I enjoy them in a different way because they don't transport me, they ground me, which is also necessary! I'm reading Talk Like Ted and Homo Deus. I must admit I don't usually review them and I'm not sure why.

Reply
Annecdotist
7/9/2017 05:57:08 pm

Interesting that you don’t review your non-fiction reads – and now I am wondering why I do when my blog is clearly focused on fiction! I certainly feel more confident reviewing fiction than non-fiction, which also now strikes me as a little odd as I recall that many years before I reviewed fiction, and before I had a blog, and perhaps before anyone did, I reviewed the occasional non-fiction book for a small psychology journal. So thanks for raising these points and extending my thinking.

Reply
Norah Colvin link
8/9/2017 11:01:43 am

I'm so pleased I came back to read the comments, Anne. You certainly stimulated a great conversation and got us all thinking about and challenging our reading and reviewing habits. I love that you placed the handbook of pedal cycle maintenance alongside the Zen of Motorcycle maintenance. Except for the word "cycle" I think they have little in common. Thanks for the smile. :) I know you intended it.

Reply
Annecdotist
9/9/2017 03:26:26 pm

It’s a great conversation, isn’t it, so thanks for kicking it off. It seems that, even if they have a preference for fiction, most readers are more tolerant of non-fiction than I am. I suspect that after doing so much studying over the years, I’m burnt out, although others do seem to manage. I also wonder now whether if I were to read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance I might be equipped to write the pedal cycle equivalent :-)

Reply



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