I read a lot of non-fiction books - typically several at the same time. Some of these books never get finished and some never understood. But I like having a constant stream of new ideas and perspectives.
One thing I have noticed - and it bothers me - is that most mass-market non-fiction books have only one core idea and the entire rest of the book is fluff around that idea. The better version of these books have their core idea placed near the front, and then repeat it in different ways for the rest of the book. With these books, as long as the idea is neat, you get the payoff early and you can either appreciate the repetition for the rest of the book, or you can stop reading and still feel like the book was worthwhile.
Unfortunately, I seem to have stumbled across several "idea" based books that start the book with fluff and bury the idea somewhere nearer the middle or the end. With these books, I'm left to wonder when and if the idea will ever show up and is there any reason to keep reading. These books often end up sitting buried under something in my car or beside my bed with a dog-eared page about a third of the way through.
One such book is Why Beauty is Truth - A History of Symmetry by Ian Stewart. I am now about 60 pages into this and I'm really starting to wonder when this guy will say something interesting. Clearly the book is about symmetry and beauty and math - it says that on the cover. But all I have read so far are seemingly pointless stories about ancient mathematicians. Hopefully these stories will tie into something eventually, but I may not make it that far.
Another book is The Checklist Manifesto - How to Get Things Done Right by Atul Gawande. I bought this book partly due to the great recommendations on the book cover - probably not a good idea. I have read the first 35 pages and so far the book is a waste of time. All the book has said in 35 pages is the super-obvious "the world is a complex place".
So when do I give up on these books? For novels I have a rule of thumb that says: if I get half way through and I don't care about the characters or what happens next, I say it is OK to stop reading. What about these nonfiction books? Does the same half-way rule apply?
This topic was probably not worth a blog - but these books are ticking me off.
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The entire point of a non-fiction book is to communicate an idea or concept to the reader, isn't it? If the author hasn't gotten to the main idea fairly early as you describe, then I skim ahead to find it and then decide if I want to continue reading the book line by line or not. Some books are just as good skimmed as read page by page. From such books I can get the gist of the argument by reading the intro, the summaries at the end of each chapter, maybe one critical chapter in the entire book, and the usually the last chapter.
ReplyDeleteI listened to the Checklist manefesto on CD in my car and found it repetitious. But in the car I could let my mind wander and return to the book if I heard something interesting. The take away from the book for me was, "People are fallible and checklists help us focus on important items that we may forget in the heat of the moment, or be too lazy to follow when we are tired or distracted."
I have always used a variety of checklists in my personal life (a vacation checklist, and a writing/editing checklist, to name two), and the book has motivated me to use checklists in other areas that I had not before. So I guess the book did it's job afterall.
So I agree. It is better than it seems. But I have not yet adapted to using checklists more. I think it is a habit - one worth developing, though I wonder if my mind is the type that gravitates to this sort of thinking. I suspect not.
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