Nonfiction November: Weeks 4 and 5: Worldview Shapers and New to My TBR

Since I couldn’t manage my time well enough to do my nonfiction November post last week, this week, I’m combining the prompts for weeks 4 and 5 into a single post. (It would probably also be right to mention that I am late on this week’s post too!) Week 4 was hosted by Rebekah at She Seeks Nonfiction and Week 5 by Lisa at Hopewell’s Library of Life.

Week 4 was all about books that have changed one’s worldview or outlook in some meaningful way. While I can’t think of any thing earthshaking in my reading so far, and also feel that nearly every book (fic or non) does bring out something, a new piece of information, an attitude, an emotion which does add that little bit to how we perceive things, there are a couple of books that I can recall which I could put into this category.

A Short History of Nearly Everything (2004) by Bill Bryson: This is engaging, entertaining and humorous (even if not quite ‘short’ at 500 plus pages) with many awe inspiring facts but two points I would attribute to this (in terms of changing my perspective) are one, just bringing home the fact that simply looking up at the sky at night (something I love to do even in my light-polluted city) is time-travel, seeing stars and planets from a few minutes or hours ago to some as they were hundreds and thousands of years ago. The second was the realisation of how little we, a species who are exploring the skies and space, know or rather how much remains mysterious about our own planet, especially the oceans.

The second book is a more recent read A Feminist Theory of Violence by Francoise Verges, a book that argues among other things that to address violence against women, one must focus on violence that is prevalent in general rather than studying it against various different groups as separate phenomena. Another point this book opened my eyes to is how the world we live in is so militarised whether it is different spaces (residential or institutional) with their own ‘security’ which makes it ‘safe’ or the general levels of police, military and violence (even the idea of a ‘peacekeeping force’). This contrasts with the image of civilisation and peace that we project, making it not much more than a facade.

What did I add to my TBR over this Nonfiction November? Well I have tried to ‘behave’ given my already tottering pile and restrained myself to only 10 titles. It helped that I am still catching up with other Nonfiction November posts, as that would (and will) increase this list manifold. So here goes:

The Salt Path by Raynor Winn via Lory at Entering the Enchanted Castle (I want to pick up the second book by Winn too, but let’s start with this one)

Terry Pratchett: A Life in Footnotes by Rob Wilkins: also via Lory at Entering the Enchanted Castle

Packing My Library: An Elegy and Ten Digressions by Alberto Manguel via Karen at Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings

Under the Naga Tail: A True Story of Survival, Bravery and Escape from the Cambodian Genocide by Mae Bunseng Tiang via Anjana at Superfluous Reading

Gilbert White by Richard Mabey via Frances at Volatile Rune

Into the Tangled Bank by Lev Parikian via Margaret at BookPlease

Take Away by Angela Hui vis Liz at Adventures in Reading, Running and Working from Home

The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine by Serheii Plokhy via Brona at This Reading Life

Africa is Not a Country by Dipo Faloyin via Bibliographic Manifestations

A Place for Everything by Judith Flanders via Rebekah at She Seeks Nonfiction

So that’s my (at the moment) short list of NFN titles. Over the coming days as I catch up with more posts, I’m sure this will likely grow much longer, but for now I can pretend to be good!