kingdom praxis | a.k.a. eliacín’s blog

“I can’t believe is not non-fiction: a Reading Experiment”

Posted on | December 2, 2009 |

I must admit I am a book geek. I love hanging out at libraries and bookstores. I do not recall a special gift giving day (birthday, anniversary, Christmas) in which I have not received a book.

Last April I confessed to some friends that my reading pleasures do not include fiction, but only cerebral, academic and dry non-fiction. They were very sad by my confession. They could not believe that I couldn’t sit down with a fiction book and get lost in the story. I think I can count with one hand the fiction books I’ve read in the last 5 years. I just get antsy following a story, I want the meaning, the lesson, the “moral” of that story right away. However I’ve been able to enjoy some works of fiction in which there is no given kernel of truth to be taken away from it. The last fiction book I read was Gilead by Marilyn Robinson, while I do not remember much of the story, a line on that book have become a constant motto for me “to conclude is not in the nature of the enterprise.”

Now, that we are getting to that part of the year in which we set up high and lofty plans for the next one, I’m getting ready for a challenge.  For the next 7 months (December 2009 - June 2010) I’ll submerge in fiction and a few biographies, written by authors or about female, people of color, queer and people from the Global South.

Several years ago I failed on a similar project in which I intended to read only books by Thomas Merton. While I did well in reading mostly books by him for several months, I was not allowing time for reflection and for the richness of his words to sink in. So I stopped.

I hope to be more discipline and focus with this new experiment. I plan to keep a journal and blog about new book findings, stories, characters and my feelings on the non-fiction hiatus. My hope is that I’ll be stretched, provoked and transformed by the stories I’ll read.

If you are a non-fiction nerd like me, I want to invite, heck, I challenge you to join me in this personal experience.

I’ve asked for recommendations via Facebook and Twitter. Friends are beginning to submit what they consider should be on my list of must reads.

These are some of the recommendations so far:

  • Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. And the Xenogenesis trilogy. And FLEDGLING.
  • Zadie Smith
  • Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • Bessie Head
  • Anne Carson
  • Nadine Gordimer
  • Chris Abani - Kalakuta Republic (not fiction, poetry, but totally essential), Becoming Abigail, Song for Night
  • Samuel Delany
  • The Gospel of Mary Magdalene
  • Sherman Alexie
  • Junot Diaz
  • Wole Soyinka
  • Danzy Senna
  • Zadie Smith
  • Junichiro Tanizaki
  • Chinua Achebe
  • Dorothy Allison
  • Walter Mosely - Easy Rawlins mysteries
  • Tony Hillerman - mysteries
  • Leslie Feinberg - Stone Butch Blues (ze id’s as trans)
  • Juan Rulfo - Pedro Paramo
  • Percival Everett
  • Linda Medley - Castle Waiting (graphic novel)
  • James Baldwin
  • Anything by Jessica Hagedorn, “Dog Eaters” is her main one, but lots of great stuff
  • Crescent, Diana Abu-Jaber
  • America Is in the Heart: A Personal History by Carlos Bulosan
  • Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
  • Ake - Wole Soyinka
  • Bless Me, Ultima - Rudolfo Anaya
  • Banewreaker & Godslayer, or Santa Olivia - Jacqueline Carey
  • The Club Dumas - Arturo Perez-Reverte (actually anything by him)
  • The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco
  • Reading Lolita in Tehran - Azar Nafisi
  • Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
  • Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - Barbara Kingsolver
  • An American Childhood - Annie Dillard
  • A History of Reading - Alberto Manguel
Category: Books, I can't believe is not non-fiction: a Reading Experieme, Personal, Uncategorized, reading
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