The Nonfiction Blog

I thought it was high time for a blog post on this subject. I know you were all dying of curiosity, thinking how our house must be fraught with tension about this problem:

My sister Meghan is totally a nonfiction person, and I'm fiction all the way. The sad part of this is that Meghan is the one who introduced me to fiction in the first place. Half the books I read are hand-me-downs from her closet, where she hides an extensive library of Susan May Warren and Dee Henderson books that would go unread if it weren't for me.

Don't worry. I am more than happy to rise to the occasion. But.

It's time someone came and laid down the nonfiction law. Which I'm here to do, with my own array of subheads and bulleted points.

Nonfiction is not fiction
The very name "nonfiction" goes to show that those nonfiction authors have nothing worth telling if they couldn't even come up with their own genre name. They had to go and leech off of fiction's! You see my point? Fiction is fiction. So nonfiction is...not fiction? What kind of description is that? It's like they took out an ad in the newspaper and went, "okay everybody! look at us! We're NOT FICTION so you should read us!"

Nonfiction is pointless
What are nonfiction books for? Learning how to solve various problems, whether it's how to live a more purposeful life, how to make money, how to lose weight, or how to fix your garbage disposal. Unfortunately, most nonfiction books spend 350 pages
A) telling you what your problem is
B) convincing you that they, as the author, have the all-inclusive answer as to how to solve it
C) conveniently dropping off the face of the earth before they get around to telling YOU what this elusive secret to having a perfect life is.
(Even Meghan agrees with me on this point, so don't go arguing.)

Nonfiction gives you a big head
People who read nonfiction think they're smart. Hey, I even have a Bible verse to support me on this one: "Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil." (Proverbs 3:8) Okay, I realize that says nothing about nonfiction, but nonfiction in its modern forms didn't EXIST back in Solomon's time. (Whereas fiction DID. Because stories have existed since, like, people started writing them. Ha!) Me? I'm happy reading my fiction and letting people think I'm an airhead.

Miscellaneous Things I'm Right About

- C.S. Lewis is nonfiction, except his fiction books.
- If my name was Clive Staples, I would abbreviate it too.
- Meghan's probably going to come on here and refute this, but don't you worry. I am PREPARED to defend my friend religious fiction.
- Fiction is BETTER.

Disclaimer: Perhaps some people can read nonfiction and not have it affect their heads. Perhaps all this has nothing to do with nonfiction at all. Perhaps it does. Perhaps there are nonfiction books I've read myself that I don't mind because they don't go around advertising the fact that they are nonfiction.

Perhaps there are nonfiction authors out there who are kind enough to let you know what to do when your TV's power button hasn't been working for MONTHS and no one bothers to put new batteries in the remote and turn off the television in order to save your nerves.

Perhaps I'll go write a nonfiction book on why nonfiction is bad.

hearts.

-becca mccann