As a child I remember having a set of encyclopedias at home, but I don't ever remember using them. I think it's because they were such big books and the amount of information was actually overwhelming. I also loved anything relating to geography. I loved maps, pictures, and atlases; anything that allowed me to learn about different places and cultures around the world. Scholastic News days were my favorite days at school. I was only ever interested in specific nonfiction topics as a child- geography and animals. If I wasn't interested in the topic I wasn't going to read about it.
Now, as an adult, I still like to read about animals and geography but I have branched out slightly to include biographies. However, now I feel like a read nonfiction more out of necessity than interest. I need to keep up on the latest teaching practices, I need to be aware of what is happening in the country and world, I need to make dinner. All of these daily activities involve reading and understanding nonfiction. Of course I still like it best when my nonfiction reading comes with maps, graphs, pictures, charts, etc.
I love how much you remember about your childhood. I always have to rack my brain, but then again, I don't remember yesterday! I can connect with you on the part about graphs, maps, pictures, etc. I think for me, I am very visual, so anything that is presented in picture form, I do much better with than just straight text. I like to access non-fiction but in a simplified way. Like for professional articles, I sometimes wish they weren't so wordy, but just bulleted, here is what is important. I really wish Lucy would do that as well!
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