Hi my name's Ellie and I am a non-fiction failure

A few months ago, before I started blogging, I read The Man Who Broke Into Auschwitz. Without sounding horrendously dramatic, it kind of changed my life a little bit. In fact, it was because of that book and my insatiable need to talk about that book that I started to think about blogging. I forced my parents to read it (no parents were harmed, I had better add), but they just didn't have the same enthusiasm and life-altering reaction as I did. But all that is beside the point. That book opened my eyes to the world of non-fiction, memoirs, biographies etc. Suddenly I really had an urge to suck up ALL THE KNOWLEDGE. Non-fiction can do that for you. It can teach you things, broaden your horizons and generally make you feel like you're getting a little bit smarter with every page. Want to know the best thing about non-fiction and it's general air of intelligence? Reading it in public makes you look really smart (I think so anyway). And I love to look like I'm smart because most of the time when I talk it comes out like 'blaaaahhhhh Star Wars I love books blaaahhh' so people think I'm a tad dense. I mean, I did get through my MA by faking intelligence but random people on the street don't need to know that, right?!

Goodness me, I'm tangent girl today. Back to the point: non-fiction. So, after having my life altering experience I realised that I wanted to read more non-fiction and so I made the decision to do that (are you bored of me yet?). I read a few things, mostly historical, bookish memoirs and arty things. And I bought a few more. I now have a non-fiction pile on my shelf waiting patiently for me to get to it. It's been there a while. After all my pro-active decision making and book buying in preparation for the devouring of non-fiction, I kind of stopped. Hit that metaphorical runner's wall (but a reader's wall) with a giant bang, crash and, potentially, a wallop.

This is where me being a non-fiction failure comes in. I have the books, I want to read the books but I just can't bring myself to choose one over a fiction book. I've even been reading poetry over non-fiction which is practically unheard of for me. I have read a few this year (A Room of One's Own being the one I enjoyed the most) but that pile is still there and in need of conquering. And conquer it I shall! (Bear in mind that it is this sort of fighting talk that got me in this mess in the first place).

The following are books that I have on my pile that I would definitely like to read this year. In fact, I wouldn't merely like to get to them, I WILL be reading them. I am going to try for a non-fiction read every month. That means I will have read  6 (7 including the one I am still finishing off) by the end of the year.

First up, I intend to finish Fifty Shades of Feminism. I have talked about this on here quite a few times now and it is absolutely amazing. I sped through the first 15 or so essays then stopped because I thought I was reading it too fast and not giving myself time to consider each essay and form an opinion on the argument. So then I thought to myself that I'd read one a day but eventually, it slipped to the bottom of the pile and then I had a reading slump and then everything just went a bit rubbish on the old reading front. But now I'm back, I will aim to finish this slice of feminist heaven. Then I'll spred the feminist lovin' with you lot and do a monster review. Who's exited?

My Preliminary Non-Fiction List for the Next Six Months:

1. The Woman Reader by Belinda Jack
2. Shapely Ankle Preferred: A History of the Lonely Hearts Column by Francesca Beauman
3. Between the Sheets: The Literary Liaisons of Nine 20th Century Women Writers by Lesley McDowell
4. Elsie and Mari Go To War by Diane Atkinson
5. What Are You Looking At? 150 Years of Modern Art in the Blink of an Eye by Will Gompertz
6. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

Any ideas of where to go first after Fifty Shades of Fem?

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