I do not mean ‘put down’ as in the belittling way of describing involuntarily euthanasia for an aged or ill family pet, but as in ‘stop turning the pages’ and go to sleep at night.
Thanks for Your Opinion, Zoe Williams. I disagree.
On the back of Gloria Glaser’s sharp reminder about the existence of reality, done through my favourite medium of exposing the use of words to slip agendas under people’s radars, Zoe Williams imparts the opinion, ‘And that is normally the whole point of non-fiction, that you can put it down.’ This is a personal opinion stated as proven fact. Watch out for these.
I disagree that Non Fiction can be put down. I find fiction easier to slide back onto my bedside table and turn out the light.
Here are my recent 3 fave Non-Fiction Books. They differ from the mummy and midwife orientated book charts. You can see who is reading those can’t you?
1. Gloria Glaser’s Get Real – A witty, sharp, observant and penetrating expose of the way we are unwittingly manipulated with words. It simply tells us to ‘Get Real’ before we get reeled in. ASBObloodylutely.
2. Augusten Burroughs’ Dry – I preferred this to Running With Scissors as nothing beats a ‘tell it like it is’ account from an unreliable narrator. An inspiring thing about Augusten Burroughs is he could inspire youngsters to keep journals through whatever kind of childhood they have as, years later, that could be your ticket to a writing career. Burroughs, as shown in Running With Scissors, didn’t go to school much. I think society needs to know more about what happens in the early lives of people who end up fucked up. Which leads me on to…..
3. Alexander Masters’ Stuart, a Life Backwards. This really ought to be my number 2. I remember my brother going to Cambridge and us walking past the places mentioned in this unique type of book. (Dad with embarrassing new leather jacket and clunky big video camera). in the West Briton newspaper last week, there was a report about a damaged 10 year old who could have been Stuart Shorter, the subject of this book. The WB report was 100% biased to the point of the system. Ignorance and denial are not valid excuses for letting society self-implode, as Masters masterfully reveals in this book.
The next book I might read is A Street Cat Named Bob
Dairy of A Nonny Moose 