Shelby & Nonfiction

When I think back to my nonfiction life as a young reader, I am immediately brought to science and social studies classes where I had to read a chapter and answer the questions at the end.  Quite honestly, I found this to be quite painful.  I attended to basic comprehension, but never became overly excited by much of the content.  I didn't ever really preview the text or use text features to help me become more engaged, and I don't believe that I was ever explicitly taught how to.

We read all of the time in our house, but the texts we shared were primarily fiction.  Although, Lindy's posts did remind me of how much I enjoyed the encyclopedias when we got them!  We also were surrounded by my "parent's nonfiction", such as professional reading, newspapers, magazines - Reader's Digest, hunting magazines, National Geoprapic, etc.  However, I don't remember ever really reading those with them.

In school, we also had current event work.  I did enjoy this time because it allowed for the element of choice, not something we were regularly given!  However, I also remember this feeling like the same assignment EVERY week for entire decades at a time!

As an adult nonfiction reader, I really enjoy professional texts.  These come in many forms, such as paper copies, Kindle, Audiobooks, internet based articles, apps, etc.  The possibilities are endless.  I also love historical nonfiction and narrative nonfiction.  I tend to gravitate mostly toward topics of interest, and also to avoid reading texts that are bogged down with heavy academic/scientific language.  Lastly, I've really begun to enjoy books about self-help and making life changes.