Darby & Non-Fiction

Nope, not a fan. Given a choice, I will choose a novel every time. Even my immediate choice for our non-fiction book group was Night because of it's narrative style.

Do I ever read non-fiction? Of course I do. When I scroll through social media, I click on a dozen articles every night. Things that draw my attention are professional, political, mindfulness, environment, but truthfully, I scan these pieces looking for the most saliant bits of information.

As a student, I remember the first research paper I had to write in 6th grade. It was on sheep. I was in 4H at the time and my family had just acquired a couple of sheep, and we were all about raising them. I remember the stack of books I took home. Frankly, in class, the larger the stack, the more impressive. Encyclopedias, old books with yellowed pages and black and white photographs. They even had a funny smell. Using the table of contents, the index, trying to take notes on the most important pieces. It all seemed important. The most useful book want called Raising Sheep the Modern Way. Again I was most drawn to the pictures and diagrams of different breeds, how to build feeders and hay racks, and fuzzy lambs grazing the hillside, but for the most part it was dry and uninteresting. I read it because I had to and I could make some connection to what was in my back yard.