A word about nonfiction.
07 March 2013
Ever feel annoyed that "nonfiction" is the best word we have for describing everything that isn't, well, fiction? You might want to check out RickLibrarian's very thoughtful article "Proposing the End of Nonfiction as a Label and Organizing Default." It's way more interesting than the title makes it sound, I promise you.
Personally, I've never been all that bothered by "nonfiction" as a label, but I am terrible at organizing stuff.* I don't hate "nonfiction" the way I hate "creative nonfiction," for instance, or even worse, "narrative nonfiction" (which has always implied to me that NF must have a linear narrative story to be a good recreational read). But Rick raises some really interesting points. Let me know in the comments (or in his) what you think on the subject!
In other nonfiction news, the National Book Critics Circle Awards were announced last week, and Swimming Studies (reviewed below) won for Best Autobiography.
*Except for the texts of the books I've indexed. Forcing a book's main concepts into a back-of-the-book index is the only way I've ever successfully imposed my will on anything, which may be why I still enjoy indexing. If I had to title my own (boring) life story I think I'd call it "Confessions of a Largely Failed Control Freak."