Books about Books Week: A call to arms.

Yesterday I reviewed Rick Roche's reading guide Real Lives Revealed (about biographies), and anyone who's had to sit through my painful self-promotion on this blog is aware that I've written two nonfiction reading guides, titled The Real Story (about nonfiction in general) and The Inside Scoop (about investigative and expose writing, such as that of William Langewiesche). When it is published I also hope to review Jessica Zellers's Women's Nonfiction guide. All of these books,* thus far, have shared a common series editor: Robert Burgin, a professor at North Carolina Central University's library school and editor of the titles Nonfiction Readers' Advisory and The Reader's Advisor's Companion.

I thought Robert was a fabulous series editor, which now scares me a bit, because with his recent retirement, I've been offered the opportunity to be the Real Stories series editor. Which is really cool. But also scary, because I have some big shoes to fill.

But there's no time like the present, right? Have you ever dreamed of writing a nonfiction reading guide? Do you know someone who has? It's helpful if you have library experience, as these books are written primarily to help library staff (and I mean all staff--I know that a lot of people on the front lines on libraries aren't necessarily "librarians"), but I don't know that it's absolutely necessary. If you have any interest, or questions about these books, please do write me at realstory@tds.net. The more the merrier! Alternatively, if you'd like to see what's involved before emailing, do check out Libraries Unlimited's proposal guidelines.

*If you're more familiar with the Genreflecting guides, written for fiction, these are very similar, except they cover nonfiction.

Comments

[Melanie]

Congratulations. You'll do a fabulous job.

[laura]

Congratulations! I think you'll do an excellent job!

[Citizen Reader]

Thanks Melanie, Thanks Laura!
That is very kind of you to say. I'm mainly hoping not to embarrass myself (it's never happened before, but I can hope) and to help get some more nonfiction resources out there!

[Venta]

Along with everything else, I still have crime on my mind - in a helpful nonfiction resources kind of way.

[Heather]

That's fantastic! Congratulations!!

If you ever need to write a reference guide on zombie movies and the such, I'll help.

[Citizen Reader]

Don't worry, Venta, we'll keep chatting...

And thanks, Heather! We may have bigger problems if we start seeing enough zombie nonfiction books to write about...but if we ever switch gears to covering movies you'll be at the top of my list!

[rick roche]

Congratulations again. I look forward to all the great titles to come. Maybe I can help with some. (There, I've said that I'm interested in writing more books but don't don't tell Bonnie because she has to edit them before they leave the house - which is actually what saves them.)

[Robert Brown]

Hey! Congratulations! Maybe this will help the working from home agenda? I have green eyes today, but merry ones.

[Citizen Reader]

Thanks, Rick,
I too look forward to a lot of great new nonfiction guides--chock full of new ways of looking at nonfiction--and can't wait for you to write more of them! (I'm still recovering from reading your first one, Real Lives Revealed, wowza.)

Bert,
That's the plan, my friend, that's the plan. String enough things together to never leave the house again, sigh, it's my dream. Thanks for the merry (even if green) eyes.

[Sarah]

Just HAD to throw the Langewiesche-word in there, didn't you?

Those of us with attention problems (nicer than saying getting old) - I suppose a book covers a LOT of titles on a subject, right? Not just, like, enough for a glom? I get into the "six degrees of the wars of the roses stuff" just by reading Philippa Gregory's latest.

[Citizen Reader]

I don't have to throw in the Langewiesche name, it's fully optional but I can't stop myself. :)

The secret of these books is to throw a lot of gloms together, Sarah. I still say you've got one in you--history, perhaps??!?!

How is PG's latest? I've never been a big fan but I've been curious about this new one.

[maggie]

What genres do you have available?

[Citizen Reader]

Maggie,
We're pretty open to ideas right now. We're particularly interested in travel, true crime, adventure, history, and maybe even pop culture or regional NF? The sky's the limit!

[maggie]

Do you mean southern states regional non-fiction? I'll pull out your book tonight and see what best fits my reading style, but a southern would be easy to work into the newspapers. *leaving excited*