Five things I learned from actively choosing to read nonfiction

Reading is my way of expanding what I know about the world beyond my own limited experiences. There is nothing I love more than being transported into a new world and constantly adapting to ways of thinking that are very different from my own. This year, I’ve decided to confront my fear of nonfiction with a chill reading bingo (join if you wish!), and even just three months into the challenge, I have a lot to say about actively making space for nonfiction in my reading life.

Starting with graphic novels or children’s picture books eased the transition.

I’ve encountered people who think that choosing to read more nonfiction means throwing away all the joy in reading and sticking to dry, jargon-filled blocks of texts. But the world is not always boring, so nonfiction shouldn’t be, too! The easiest way to get into nonfiction is to find something still similar to the fiction I like. For me, this means prioritizing texts written in narrative rather than expository form.

In children’s lit, many nonfiction works are couched in story form, with a fictional central character being guided by an adult mentor in exploring the chosen topic. These picture books are also very short and are great for getting over a reading slump, but make no mistake: Binge-reading children’s books is NOT cheating, and saying so is a disrespect to the many wonderful authors and illustrators whose brilliance does not hide behind hefty word counts.

Some recommendations:

• Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun’s Thanksgiving Story by Danielle Greendeer, Anthony Perry, Alexis C. Bunten, Garry Meeches (Illustrator)
• I Am The Change in Climate Change by Alyssa M. Peleo-Alampay and INK (full text available to read on the CANVAS PH site)
• What Filipino Kids Should Know series by Adarna House

Another way of circumventing the fear of gray walls of text is going for graphic novels and art/photo books, which are beautiful, easy to navigate, and less intimidating. The art goes hand in hand with its storytelling, and these illustrations or photographs are a direct line to seeing the world through other people’s eyes. These books are also shorter and easier to finish, which is a helpful trait to consider if you’re shifting from a page-counting-until-the-end-of-the-book habit like I’ve done.

Some recommendations:

• Wonderful Women of the World edited by Laurie Halse Anderson
• Drawn Across Borders by George Butler
• They Called Us Enemy by George Takei
• MonsterMind: Dealing With Anxiety and Doubt by Alfonso Casas, Andrea Rosenberg

Nonfiction books are not designed to be read in one sitting.

Stagnant progress bars on Goodreads or StoryGraph haunt me, and they push me to make the hard decision of either DNFing a book or pulling all the way through. This ride-or-die attitude has served me well in fiction, where reading book in one sitting helps me experience the thrill and keeps all relevant clues, character names, and other key details fresh in my head as the plot unravels.

But I realized that it isn’t quite the style that works with nonfiction. The titles I start all encourage me to put the book down for a bit, Google unfamiliar terms, and scribble my thoughts. They actively ask me to think of my own examples or even rebuttals to arguments presented by the author. Reading some of these on the train rides to and from the office further compounds the urge to look out the window or at my fellow commuters, making me wonder how we all fit into the same world that the author sees. Am I as privileged as the author? Do we have the same constraints on our time? Is the system presented here applicable to my own context?

Instead of treating books like an escape as I do with fiction, nonfiction grounds me to engage with my surroundings and interrogate my own biases. I can’t ever breeze through a nonfiction book because I feel like I would miss the author’s thought process and lived experiences. In turn, it becomes a dialogue with the author, and slowing down my reading honors this sacred space: their opinions, my questions, their realizations, my solutions.

It’s okay to read several nonfiction books at the same time.

Do you also feel a sense of panic when your Currently Reading list on StoryGraph or Goodreads just keeps getting longer and longer and longer? I feel so anxious and guilty when I see that most of my books are half-read, and I feel compelled to finish everything on my list before starting a new one. But once I’ve accepted that my progress will always be slower than in fiction–and taking weeks to finish is not a bad thing–I have more confidence in starting *yet* another book. Strangely enough, this practice seemingly speeds up my progress because I get to read more pages with a wide variety of content, and it’s so rewarding when I finish them within days of each other.

When I am not yet ready to face some daunting questions posed in one book, I jump into another. When it’s inconvenient to lug around my copy or when I’m not in an environment conducive to giving it the attention it deserves (especially for more academic/scholarly reads), I can opt to read a text with a lighter tone. It reached the point that I have a different book for each platform: an eARC on my laptop, a Kindle book on my phone, a physical book in my work bag, and a last one on my nightstand. To keep me chugging at a good pace, I often have at least one fiction book in the mix.

It is also interesting that sometimes all my current reads “talk” with each other: one author’s reflections inadvertently answer questions posed in another book even when the topics don’t seem to be related at first glance. Maybe the context or perspective needed to expound on a book can be found in the musings of someone else. Add to that my own mass of thoughts gathered from continually pausing and reflecting, and it’s a beautiful whirlwind of emotions, insights, and awe– awe at how wide and deep the world really is.

There are always nonfiction books available for our niche or interest.

When I started crafting my nonfiction bingo, I found it hard to look for titles that I would voluntarily pick up in my precious spare time. I found it helpful to shift the focus from asking “What nonfiction books are *the best* or the most highly recommended to read?” to “Which books can tell me more about my topic of interest?” It doesn’t even have to be originally book-related. Like fashion? There’s a book for that. Bugs? There’s a book for that. This mindset is inspired by the series Reading Like a Writer on The Passive Bookworm. What kind of nonfiction would my WIP need? And if I’m not actively writing, I still engage in worldbuilding by interacting with different aspects and elements of my own surroundings. What books would I need to understand how life really is stranger than fiction?

This prompt sends me spiraling into a wormhole of history, art, critiques, and all kinds of stories of humans who are so passionate about their industry and interests. Sometimes, I stray too far from the path, chase loosely adjacent threads, and end up adding titles to my TBR that I probably won’t find in any other book recommendations list.

Some examples:

• Since I have been researching which texts are available in public domain, I got interested in the stories of people who compiled oral literature and found The Fairy Tellers by Nicholas Jubber.
• When I got too obsessed with watching vlogs of designer bag collections and fawning over BalikBatik and Rags2Riches, I found Worn by Sofi Thanhauser and Habi: A Journey Through Philippine Handwoven Textiles. Hope to read them soon!
• I watched this video about how math hurts our brains, and seeing Sabrina read books about math even though she hates math inspired me to do the same. It got me adding Maths on the Back of an Envelope by Rob Eastaway and Partial Truths by James C. Zimring to my TBR.
• With every new headline, the Philippines feels more like a shithole, yet I still want to restore my faith in the goodness and beauty of this country. I gave in to my Facebook ads and got The Philippines is Not A Small Country by Gideon Lasco.
• In addition to discovering that my mom’s go-to cookbook twenty years ago is still in print (Kain Na! by The Maya Kitchen), I found The History of the Burgis by Mariel N. Francisco and Fe Maria C. Arriola on the same shelf for some reason. I know it’s probably due to NBS and Fully Booked staff haphazardly lumping all local books into one disorganized Filipiniana shelf, but I choose to believe that there is a better, more mysterious purpose for it.

I don’t own copies of half of the titles I’ve mentioned, but they and other nonfic reads are seriously making me rethink the book budget I have set. Thankfully, some publishers have uploaded full texts online and I have enough to sate my curiosity for now. But the more titles I find, the more excited I am to build a library that is both comforting and diverse. Will it not be fun to have a library that truly reflects the way I see the world?

Reading nonfiction introduces us to noticing things we have taken for granted and highlights gaps still untold in fiction.

I love that fiction introduces me to new and interesting topics, but these often don’t get more than passing mentions because they exist to serve the main narrative. It is in nonfiction that I get to really consider the stakes: Who lives? Who dies? What price has to be paid for certain choices?

After deep-diving into topics I love, I realize that many people’s stories have not yet been represented much in fiction. For example, Buy Black by Aria S. Halliday featured amazing Black doll designers who have tirelessly worked to give Black kids toys that reflect their experiences with the same glamour and pomp that Barbie does. Where is the glam girl boss movie for Kitty Black Perkins? Reading the Thousand And One Nights section in The Fairy Tellers made me so FURIOUS for Syrian author Hanna Dyab, whose name has been lost due to Antoine Galland’s credit-grabbing. I would definitely love to read a dark academia story based on him!

I also realized that memoirs published today are by people who have been trusted with power and platform. This thought doesn’t take away the validity from their experiences, but it does make me wonder about the stories that are left to die on the acquisitions desk or that are left unsung by prioritizing survival over art. I know that publishing can be fickle, but it is through the fiction works of many BIPOC authors that I even begin to consider that these events are based on a much more complex and heartbreaking set of historical events.

Reading more nonfiction got my brain buzzing with lots of ideas which I hope I can someday grow soon. Some stories, like those of Kitty Black Perkins and Hanna Dyab, are not my heritage to co-opt. I hope that if more people read nonfiction, then more people will make the fiction we love all the more richer and fuller.

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I initially wrote the points here as part of my progress check-in for the Nonfiction Reading Bingo, but it got too long and deserved its own post. Hope you can join the challenge and choose to read more nonfiction too!

Let’s chat:

• Do you also actively read nonfiction? What is one reason for doing so?
• Are you hesitant to read nonfiction? Would love to hear about your experiences!