Intelligence doesn't equal happiness.

You want a TV example of that, there's an episode of House, MD where a super-genius dumbs himself down because he's happier when he's like the people around him and not constantly being aware of how much stupider they are.

But if intelligence equals happiness, really smart people wouldn't be depressed and commit suicide.

If Charlie were happy, but dumb, I would take that as a win. Because he's going to live the rest of his life happy.

>Wasn’t feeling a lot of warm fuzzies at the end of the movie Pi.

Don't remember it.

I'm much more of a fan of fiction, but I do enjoy some interesting nonfiction here and there.

What you have to understand is that "nonfiction" is a huge umbrella category. It's not "just feeding you knowledge." I mean, textbooks are technically nonfiction as well I guess, but there are plenty of plot-driven novels whose content is written to be as historically accurate as possible. If you go in without the attitude of "I'm here to learn about history," it'll be no different from any other novel. Except, at the end of the day, the things you read are real, and regardless of your intent, you learned something just by enjoying it. Killers of the Flower Moon is about to be a Scorsese film, and you wouldn't skip out on that just because the story is true, right? Why would you treat the book any differently? (Of course, I'm sure they'll take some liberties adapting it to the screen...)

And you can learn from fiction as well. Setting aside language skills, plenty of fiction will have asides—or even core plot points—exploring the very real history of things their characters interact with. Visiting a real place, getting excited talking about their hobbies, fighting a villain whose dastardly plot is built on actual science, or just hard sci-fi in general. And those tidbits within fiction aren't moments of boredom. They flesh out the story and make it more believable!

So some nonfiction books focus in on that, filling the every page with those interesting asides, organized around a central theme. You don't need a traditional plot linking them together; it's just a collection of interesting information. And you found it interesting when it interrupted the plot of a fictional story, so why would it be any less interesting when you read it in What If? Why would it change when those interesting facts are linked around a central theme, like in The Design of Everyday Things? Or when they follow a "plot" that doesn't focus on characters, like in Glock: The Rise of America's Gun?

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>Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Non-fiction. Reads like Indiana Jones with a 007 booster pack.

Mmmm. Unreliable narrator.

Have you read Lawrence: The Uncrowned King of Arabia?

I really enjoyed that one. Especially where the author went in to prove it was doable only to find out otherwise. Because that also tells you something about TE Lawrence.

I put it off for a couple decades, the book seemed so intimidating. Foolish, foolish.

I'm a lifelong learner, I crave new information. I used to read a lot of nonfiction for work, but now that I'm retired I am still reading nonfiction, just different topics.

My ratio of nonfiction to fiction books has changed a lot since I started considering retiring. In 2019 94% of the books I read were nonfiction and in 2022 (now fully retired) it was down to 21%

I love to learn about other cultures and other people's experiences which is reflected in both my nonfiction and fiction choices. I'm currently focused on reading authors from other nations. I also like to read books that make me think, so I read a lot of mysteries.

I find that memoirs and biographies can read a lot like a novel. A well-written political or historical book can also read a lot like a novel.

I'm also a very left-brained person and find some fantasy requires too much imagination which feels hard for me.

I never liked that they tried to modernize a classic, when the mentality of the time was different. The story feels contrived.

I like biographies. I get into mostly Presidential bios and rock n roll bios. Presidents fascinate me because I want to know what makes them tick, what makes them want the job. It seems like a pretty shitty gig.

I love reading about my musical heroes. Their lives are truly stranger than fiction.

I’ve never seen a change to a story that inserts modern politics that I have ever liked.

That's why I love most of the classics that stomp on modern sensibilities. not everyone cares about or follows standard morality and I find it amusing when they change a classic to standard morality and there are people who don't care about that and don't follow it.

People are not necessarily selfless and altruistic, many tend to think only of themselves and their own desires. as much as many books write otherwise.

That's why I never liked Dickins and Victor Hugo. mainly because of the life they led, contradicts the kindly attitude of its protagonists.

They get sales numbers and they still get more than they would with you pirating. Don't pretend you're doing authors any favors by stealing their work.

Not YET, surely it's only a matter of time.

Join us at r/AYearOfMythology. We're reading and discussing The Odyssey in Jan, Feb, and March.

To learn. Currently most of my non-fiction reading is in the area of natural science (I'll read any book for the layman written by a field biologist that comes into my hands) or memoirs about animals. I'll read a few books about contemporary politics and a sprinkling of other things that catch my fancy. But you can track the topics I've been interested in by looking at my bookcases: Old West history, Japan, herb gardening, etc.

Now, that's not to say that you can't learn from reading fiction. I've learned a lot about different eras by reading books either written in that era or about that era. My knowledge of 20th century Britain is shaped by Agatha Christie who (with one exception) set her books in the time they were written, so they show the change from WWI up to the late 60s/early 70s.

I read the Cadfael books and learned a lot about "The Anarchy" (which was a period I'd never even heard of) and life in a monastery. I finally understand the difference between monks and priests because I had thought that all monks were priests.

When Kerry Greenwood writes a Phryne Fisher book, she chooses some topic to study up on in order to include it in the book.

So even in my fiction reading, I prefer stories that I learn from.

I mostly read it to learn more about topics I’m interested in, particularly politics or the economy. Education is expensive, and the library is free. There’s a lot I’ve learned from nonfiction books that I didn’t learn in school. It’s a great way to educate yourself further on certain topics without having to pay to take a class. For example, I’m really interested in politics and social justice, and reading nonfiction books is a great way for me to get diverse opinions from a diverse group of authors. It definitely takes a lot more focus/concentration for me to read a nonfiction book, and while it’s not for everyone, I think that reading nonfiction is a great way to become a more well-rounded, more educated person!

If you have a website that offers affiliate links to vendors (like a blog), then Bookshop offers better terms on commissions than Amazon and you can feel good about where you’re sending folks. This is actually one of the major reasons it was created.

And if you don’t have a store you’d like to support, you can shop without picking, and the store commission goes into a pool shared by all the independent bookstores who are registered with the site.

Why is it worse for HBO to depict a rape scene than one where someone is flayed or eaten alive by dogs or burnt at the stake?

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It’s literally a dream. It makes as much sense as a dream. Which is what is beautiful to me.

To intentionally dumb oneself down to fit in better with humanity seems pretty dark to me. Maybe a better ending for the character, but a damning indictment of humanity.

Wasn’t feeling a lot of warm fuzzies at the end of the movie Pi.

Outside the United States, works published by authors who died in 1952 (Life+70) go public domain.

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University English classes almost broke my love of reading. They would break down literature and offer some ridiculous viewpoints on it.

I read nonfiction to help me be a better, more well-rounded person.

I read fiction to escape from real life.

There is a place for both of them.