BAND May Discussion: The Topics You Hate To Admit You Enjoy

Kim over at Sophisticated Dorkiness (my Christmas Card Exchange partner) has another blog that she co-authors titled BAND: Blogger's Alliance of Non-fiction Devotees and if you want to participate, this is what you do...from the About Us section:

How to Participate 

Our main online headquarters is this blog and this is where you can find any updates you need.  

Each month, a different nonfiction blogger will post a topic for discussion, which we’ll post a link to here. To participate, write up a response to their topic — as long or short as you’d like — for your blog at any time during the month. Please also leave a link to your response at the original topic post so the host can write up a wrap-up at the end of the month. 

May's topic

Gah! I like chees-tastic self-help books--there I said it. I like to do the quizzes and then compare my traits with those of my students and peers.

My favorite is Living Your Colors: Practical Wisdom for Life, Love, Work and Play.

I also hate to admit that I enjoy books that mix science and religion, philosophy and/or Pop Culture.

My favorite that encompasses all of those traits is Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy and Religion in The Matrix.

I shamefully like Media Tie-Ins...I like to know the ins and outs of all my favorite television shows and movies.

My favorites of these are The Unofficial X-Files Companion: An X-Phile's Guide to the Mysteries, Conspiracies, and Really Strange Truths Behind the Show and Friends: The Official Companion Book (a book that I received from my dormmates for my 20th birthday in 1996).

BAND April Discussion (in May): Quirky

Kim over at Sophisticated Dorkiness (my Christmas Card Exchange partner) has another blog that she co-authors titled BAND: Blogger's Alliance of Non-fiction Devotees and if you want to participate, this is what you do...from the About Us section:

How to Participate 

Our main online headquarters is this blog and this is where you can find any updates you need.  

Each month, a different nonfiction blogger will post a topic for discussion, which we’ll post a link to here. To participate, write up a response to their topic — as long or short as you’d like — for your blog at any time during the month. Please also leave a link to your response at the original topic post so the host can write up a wrap-up at the end of the month. 

April's topic

I'm just going to focus on one little book called The Secret Life of Beer.

Here's what the back says:

Discover the mysteries of the fermented beverage, revealed at last in this intriguing book of cultural history, poetry, song, little-known facts, and quirky quotes by beer drinkers from Nietzsche to Darwin.

This is one of those little chunky books that you can buy at the front of Barnes and Noble, while you wait in line and it used to sit on the coffee table in my husband's living room before we were married. I, for one, that I was going to skim through some Beerfest-esque beer knowledge. While stuff like that is in this little guy, it also contains pertinent information about how beer influences every aspect of our lives.

I did read it in one setting though.

BAND January Discussion: Books to Support Goals and Resolutions

Kim over at Sophisticated Dorkiness (my Christmas Card Exchange partner) has another blog that she co-authors titled BAND: Blogger's Alliance of Non-fiction Devotees and if you want to participate, this is what you do...from the About Us section:

How to Participate 

Our main online headquarters is this blog and this is where you can find any updates you need.  

Each month, a different nonfiction blogger will post a topic for discussion, which we’ll post a link to here. To participate, write up a response to their topic — as long or short as you’d like — for your blog at any time during the month. Please also leave a link to your response at the original topic post so the host can write up a wrap-up at the end of the month. 

January's topic

This month's post plays right into my need to create lists so I can see things on paper...

I joined 4 reading challenges this year and I'll be using several books to help with those projects. To find out more about these challenges just click here. This year I want to read more classic novels as well as keep and exceed my reading challenge of 55 books, I've downloaded many free books for my third challenge and most of the books needed for the first two challenges. I also know that I'll be reading loads more YA and Middle Grade fiction for my blog and my classroom as we've implemented an Independent Reading Initiative through MRI (Missouri Reading Initiative). From the MRI website:

Missouri Reading Initiative Connection: Middle & High School

Program Overview

Overview

• The Missouri Reading Initiative is a comprehensive approach to professional development in all aspects of literacy. It was first organized in 1998 under the auspices of the Missouri Learning First Alliance, consisting of fifteen major educational organizations. The initial mission of the Missouri Reading Initiative was dedicated to working with Missouri public schools' teachers and administrators to ensure every child would be able to read proficiently by the end of third grade. However, because of the successful results of the program it has been expanded to include literacy assistance at all grade levels.

Goals

The Missouri Reading Initiative works with Missouri public schools to achieve the following goals:

• Provide ongoing, systemic professional development to enhance the quality of literacy instruction leading to improved student achievement throughout all grade levels.
• Examine and disseminate research in reading and writing to educators throughout the state, assisting schools with the implementation of instructional best practices in literacy through modeling lessons, coaching, and collaboration.
• Assist schools with assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation of school improvement efforts in literacy toward a comprehensive model.

So, I guess my list will go a little something like this...YA novel, YA novel, classic, non-fiction book, chunkster, chunkster, blog, blog, blog, YA novel, YA novel, classic, non-fiction book, chunkster, chunkster, blog, blog, blog until we ring in the new year 2013. Should be fun! 

BAND December Discussion: Truth in Non-fiction

Kim over at Sophisticated Dorkiness (my Christmas Card Exchange partner) has another blog that she co-authors titled BAND: Blogger's Alliance of Non-fiction Devotees and if you want to participate, this is what you do...from the About Us section:

How to Participate 

Our main online headquarters is this blog and this is where you can find any updates you need.  

Each month, a different nonfiction blogger will post a topic for discussion, which we’ll post a link to here. To participate, write up a response to their topic — as long or short as you’d like — for your blog at any time during the month. Please also leave a link to your response at the original topic post so the host can write up a wrap-up at the end of the month. 

Decembers' topic

I'm going to answer this first as a teacher and then as a reader of non-fiction, as my answers for each bisect here and there, but are quite different from one another.

As a teacher, I believe that for research purposes a student must take the time to figure out if and how what he or she is reading is truth. And, I'm talking about 'truth' in how they see or perceive something. I'll give you an example. One of my students wanted to write his research paper on the conspiracy theory behind the attack on Pearl Harbor (the theory is old, but the research is new enough that there are very few 'true' books on the subject). For the record, I have a hard time being convinced of a conspiracy, but told him that I do believe that, just like 9-11, people knew and could stop it and told him so. He found some websites that I would not let him use to back up his point as they were radical, inflammatory and didn't really say anything except for to rile up conspiracy and anti-government theorist. He kept on insisting that he be able to use these websites as proof that a conspiracy existed. We went round and round about how to find a reputable site. Finally, I said find a book that says it and use that book. He, of course, sarcastically commented back, "Oh, if it's in a book, it must be true." I said, "No, not necessarily, if I read a book about the Pearl Harbor Conspiracy, I'd still want to do my own research about it's validity." To me it's easy to check if something is true at the level of research, you find a book, you read it, you research the topics of that book, you find reviews to check the validity of the author, you find reputable websites (and, for the students this means going to an online research search engine like EBSCOhost that filters out the crap) and, finally, you use your heart and mind to test it against what you know to be true.

As a reader of non-fiction, my answer is a little more simple. I read about things that I'm interested in, I don't have to check out their validity I know them to be true. I've been reading Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton book for years now, I don't research if what he's saying is true or not, I know enough about Mr. Hamilton to know that what I've read so far is accurate and therefore I assume the rest must be. When I go to Wikipedia to research a topic for it's validity (this happens more in historical fiction, than non-fiction) I believe all the cursory information I see there...really, every time. And, if I want some interesting reading I check out the references and buy books from that list...books that I read and believe whole-heartedly.