It has long been a thought of mine to read more non-fiction. When I was studying for my MPhil, I was required to do a lot of non-fiction reading and although I enjoyed that, I haven’t kept up the habit. I read five non-fiction books last year out of 65 altogether. So this year, in order to ensure I do a little better, I am signing up to The Introverted Reader’s Non-fiction reading challenge.

The challenge is as follows:

The Challenge: Read any non-fiction book(s), adult or young adult. That’s it. You can choose anything. Memoirs? Yes. History? Yes. Travel? Yes. You get the idea? Absolutely anything that is classified as non-fiction counts for this challenge.

I always like levels in my challenges, so here are mine:

Dilettante–Read 1-5 non-fiction books

Explorer–Read 6-10

Seeker–Read 11-15

Master–Read 16-20

This challenge will last from January 1 to December 31, 2016. You can sign up anytime throughout the year.

I am going to sign up at Explorer level – I think 10 non-fiction books is reasonable to aim for. I already have two definite that I am reading for another challenge – The Power of Beauty by Nancy Friday and The Art of Fiction by David Lodge. I also received Patti Smith’s autobiography for Christmas so that is high on the to read list. I’ll add books as I read or decide to read them. This is the list so far,

1. The Hell of It All – Charlie Brooker
2. The God Delusion – Richard Dawkins
3. The Power of Beauty – Nancy Friday
4. We of the Never Never – Jeannie Gunn
5. Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Classes – Owen Jones
6. If this is a Man / The Truce – Primo Levi
7. The Art of Fiction – David Lodge
8. Suffragette: My Own Story – Emmeline Pankhurst
9. Just Kids – Patti Smith