Thursday, April 5, 2012

Entertaining Non-Fiction Coming Soon!

It's been a while, but here I am again to tell you about something exciting happening at the library.

When Paula Coutts joined the library in late 2010, she told Sharon and me about a section in a library she'd used to work at:  ENF - Entertaining Non-Fiction.

We'd never heard of it, and Paula started to explain.  Non-fiction falls into two broad categories:  informative, and entertaining.  A book that contains recipes, instructions on tying your shoes, or general facts falls into the former.  The book may be interesting, and probably does contain valuable information, but is generally read for the purpose of learning rather than for enjoyment.

Entertaining non-fiction is different.  It's still non-fiction, and is still based on facts, but it's not boring.  Most of them tell a story and draw the reader in.  We've spent chunks of time over the last few months (the last few weeks in particular) pulling entertaining non-fiction books from our shelves so that they can be grouped together with a new, easy-to-see label added to their spines:


When you see this label, it means that the book should be entertaining, not just informative.  Here's a sample of the books we've pulled to create our entertaining non-fiction collection (thanks, Elliott, for picking most of these out to highlight!):

Lager heads - Paul Brent
  • Fascinating history of the competition between Molson and Labatt in Canada, including the origins of Molson's "I Am Canadian" ad campaign and the ongoing competition for new products (dry, draft, and ice beers, etc.)
The Boy who harnessed the wind - William Kamkwamba
  •  The story of an African boy who built his own working electricity generating windmill from spare parts he scrounged.
The Ice pilots - Michael Vlessides
  • Describes the planes and pilots that fly for Buffalo Airways, an arctic airline, and the challenges they face in the frosty skies.
Sasquatch:  the apes among us - John Green
  •  Explores the stories of the legendary Sasquatch and the people who've searched for it for years.
The Bin Ladens:  the story of a family and its fortune - Steve Coll
  •  Still wondering what shaped a man like Bin Laden?  Wonder no longer!  This book talks at length about his family and its origins.
Stones into schools - Greg Mortenson
  •  The author was revealed to have exaggerated/falsified his stories and was ordered to repay money to his charity, but the stories about establishing schools in Afghanistan still resonate strongly.
 The Promised land:  settling the west 1896-1914 - Pierre Burton
  • The legendary Canadian author describes the settling of Canada's west with a series of stories about Canadians of all walks of life.
The Coming global superstorm - Art Bell
  • When the stresses on the Earth are all released at once, what will happen?  According to this book, a storm of epic proportions!

Anyway, the ENF collection should be interesting, so please keep an eye out for it!