New to Non-Fiction? Start Your Journey Here
What are the benefits of non-fiction?
The main takeaway from a non-fiction book for me is that I learn something. There are various ways this can be achieved. Through a self-help book, learning about historical events or picking up some insights from an autobiography.
How Do I Choose the Right Non-Fiction Book?
I have always found it hard to sift through the sheer volume of literature available. How do you know whether what you are about to read is any good?
That is a burning question and one that I still have today. However I have developed some techniques and found some good tools to help me navigate this process.
- Read reviews – pages like this can be a good resource to find out what other people thought of the book and if any of the snippets resonate enough with you to start
- Look it up on Good Reads – this is a good app to view what other people rate the book. It provides a 1-5 star rating and shows the number of people that have rated it
- Other Apps – apps like story graph use algorithms to recommend similar books based on what you have read and liked previously
- Recommendations – a good one for me is recommendations. This could come from friends, books usually reference back to other books, podcasts do the same. Find a person you like and find out what their favourite books are.
What are the Different Genres of Non-Fiction?
- Personal development – the focuses on improving oneself and developing new skills
- History – detailed accounts of historical events, periods and figures
- Biographies and Memoirs – Life stories of notable individuals offering insights into their experiences and achievements
- Philosophy – Exploring existential questions, ethical dilemmas, and spiritual growth
- Psychology – Understanding human behaviour, social dynamics and thought processes
- Health and Wellness – Physical and mental health, nutrition and fitness
Which Non-Fiction Books Should I Start With?
The best place to start are classics. They are highly rated and classics for a reason. These will get your hooked into the non-fiction world.
Some of the classics that got me hooked:
- Mediations – Marcus Aurelius
- The Psychology of Money – Morgan Housel
- The happiest man on earth – Eddie Jaku
- How to win friends and influence people – Dale Carnegie
How Can I Get The Most Out Of My Reading?
This is a key area I struggled with this for years. I would read books and a month later not remember what it was about. That is one of the reasons I started this website. A few key areas that I found help are:
- Note Taking – now it isn’t good enough to just go through and highlight sections. You need to revisit them. Read more about note taking here
- Summarising the book after you have finished
- Actioning something from the book into your life (personal development, psychology style books) – This is a key one. It is all well and good reading a self-help book or thinking that is a great way of thinking about things. However if you never put this into practice then you’ll never benefit from that wisdom
- Reading tracking apps – This is a new one for me. Apps and technology can play a key role in your reading journey. Readwise is an app that links with your eReader. It collates all your annotations and provides them in an email format. Similar to a news feed of a social media app, however it is just your curated reading highlights.
Check out this article about “The Top 5 Habits of Effective Readers” for more tips on how to get the most out of your reading.