Nonfiction, a Vegetable?

One of the amusements of idleness is reading without the fatigue of attention,

and the world, therefore, swarms with writers whose wish

is not to be studied but to be read. 

Samuel Johnson

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Reading fiction is one of my special joys. Nonfiction? Not so much. It isn't that I don't find nonfiction enriching, inspiring and growth-producing, but when I have the time to read, I generally turn to fiction. For me, fiction is like cakes, ice cream, cookies and pie all rolled into one. Nonfiction is more like vegetables. I know veggies are good for me, but I far prefer sweets.

Would you choose a plate of salad over a bowl of ice cream?

Last year I decided I needed to add more nonfiction to my ever-growing stack of books and after reviewing last year's reading list, I realized the books that affected me most profoundly were nonfiction. For that reason alone, I intend to hang in there and try to read 1 nonfiction for every 5 fiction books, or maybe 1 for every 10, or 15.

What are your favorite nonfiction reads? Your favorite might inspire me!

Heads Up

Just a quick note.  One of today's free Kindle ebook offers is for She Walks in Beauty by Siri Mitchell.

I reviewed another of Mitchell's books, The Messenger, on my blog this past spring.  Now that's it's getting dark so early, it's time to start building up the winter reading library, and some light reading is always relaxing.

Take advantage of this great offer because I don't know how long it will last.

Reading and Reviewing

Ever since I was a little girl, my dream job has been to read for a living.  After graduating from college I could have tried to get a job with a publishing company, but I never pursued it and my life moved in other directions.

I still think this would be a wonderful job (although I'd also really love to be a lighthouse keeper, but I don't think that job exists anymore).  However, I still don't live in an area where there are publishing companies and I can't just pull up stakes and move as easily as when I was single.

But I am excited to announce a new transition for the Transitional-Woman!

My dream is sort of coming true, that is, although I'm not being paid for it (except in free books - who's complaining?), I have been given the opportunity to read and review three books on this blog in the near future.  My chance to review two of these came about because of the Blogging A to Z Challenge.  How cool is that?

The books are from genres I don't usually read, but I find myself eager to read something different for a change.  Two of the books had online excerpts that sounded great, which is why I approached the authors asking if I could review them.  One of the author's generously sent a copy of the first book in her series so I can read it first before reading book two for review.

Because I've had the chance to read hundreds of different blogs during the Challenge, I've discovered so many hard-working authors laboring over their books trying to get them published.  I respect their efforts and wish these transitional men and women great success.


Today's letter is R in the Blogging A to Z Challenge 


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Still Working on It

Two weeks ago I started to write about my self improvement projects.  I meant to finish talking about it last Monday, but, if you've been keeping up with the blog you know I got involved with the blog comment project and just couldn't keep up with my writing as well as reading over 130 blogs.

The remaining three self-improvement tasks I've set myself involve reading, my spiritual life and my future.  

Reading?  What, she needs to learn how to read?  Actually, it's the quality of reading material I want to improve.  My favorite genre is historical mysteries.  I love history, I love mysteries.  And while I think that’s fine, I know I should read more books of real worth.  I want to, but historical mysteries are like junk food to me.  I can't get enough.  Who want to eat broccoli when you can have cookies?  

This is part of the self-discipline I'm trying establish in my life.  I am lazy at heart and just want to please myself.  Can I get a witness?  

One of my reading goals is to read Winston Churchill's The History of the English Speaking Peoples (four volumes) this year.  Can you guess how far I've gotten?  Confession time,  page 42, volume 1.  Pretty shabby.

I also have started reading The Sovereignty of God by A.W. Pink, twice, (I love his book The Attributes of God, life-changing for me) but haven’t gotten far.

Then, I picked up David McCullough's newest book The Great Journey: Americans in Paris, 1830-1900 from the library.  This book has a two-week loan period.  Am I optimistic or what?  Do I really think I'll read this in two weeks?  Well, I might if I put aside my fluff reading and dig into something a little more challenging.

This segues into spiritual life.  Again, I need to dig in and make more time for prayer and reading and studying my Bible.  I need to stop making excuses about busyness and make the choice to put aside some of my leisure activities in favor of the better thing – God. 

I started reading my Bible-in-a-year-chronological-bible in November because I felt it was time I systematically read through the Bible again.  I don’t plan to finish in a year because my goal isn’t to see how fast I can read through the Bible but to think and study while I read.  My desire was to read it in 18 to 24 months, but I’m only on February 16 of the schedule and have been at it for four months.  Again, I’m not using my time and energy the best way I could.

If reading the Bible isn’t at the top or near the top of my priority list, what is?  Apart from taking care of my family, homeschooling, my part-time business, blogging and homemaking, the answer is doing things that are more fun such as watching TV, messing around on the computer, reading and knitting.

So, something has to change, but it won’t until I stop trying to satisfy my lazy nature and start desiring to please God instead.  All of this self-improvement takes a lot of discipline and requires making a lot of choices.

This post is getting long, so my last self-improvement area, the future, will have to wait for another day.

Exercise update : Exercise has been happening five days a week.  Day 20 of the 30-Day Shred is done and, while I'm not going to lose the 20 pounds in 30 days which is supposed to be possible, I am losing inches slowly, very slowly.  To change things up a little last week, I went to a zumba party at the gym.  Crazy, intense, cardio fun.

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