All of a sudden, I'm not interested in reading fiction anymore. What the heck?

[Flaxbee]

All of my life I've read several books a week (unless I was reading a really long book or was very busy with work or whatever); probably 99.9% of which were fiction.

About a month ago, that interest just blinked off. Gone. Now I'm reading history, some biography.

Did your reading habits ever suddenly change? From what to what?

What are you reading now?

I'm sure I'll be tempted one day, probably soon, by a wonderful mystery book (I really enjoy a good mystery/thriller) but not now.

[byeya]

1. Exactly the same with m e - No new fiction. Fortunately, there are excellent science books,

anthropolgy books, etc.
Check out some collected essays - Gore Vidal is a favorite and I end up learning something.
I do go back and reread my favorite fiction, but nothing new.

[Flaxbee]

2. I like Barbara Kingsolver's essays, too...

[MiddleFingerMom]

6. Her novels are incredibly rich.

.
.
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You want interesting/exciting/fun?
.
.
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"Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett
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"Shibumi" by Trevanian
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"Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck (also a QUICK, can't put it down read and the movie, with Nick Nolte
and Debra Winger... is fantastic, too)
.
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"A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
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"The Sheep Look Up" OR "Stand on Zanzibar" -- both speculative social/science fiction by John Brunner
.
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[Flaxbee]

7. I've read Pillars and try as I might (several time) could NOT wade far into Confederacy...

I really wanted to read it. Couldn't. One of the first books I gave myself permission to quit.

But the others you list sound very good -- I'm surprised I haven't read Cannery Row before ... Shibumi sounds fun.

Brunner's books sound like they might depress the hell out of me. I'm a very sensitive soul. But really, I hate reading about how humans are destroying this planet and its non-human residents, even if it is 'fiction'.

[MiddleFingerMom]

15. I forgot Tom Robbins -- his middle stuff.

.
.
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Like you with "Confederacy...", my sister gave me her copy of "Still Life with Woodpecker" so I'd have
something to read while visiting her. I got about 10-15 pages in and put it down, wondering if she knew
the slightest thing about me.
.
Ten years later, I gave it another try and LOVED it (it's still one of my favorites -- Also "Jitterbug Perfume"
and "Skinny Legs and All".)
.
Do NOT read Brunner. There's an undercurrent of positivity in them, but a huge overlay of despair, too.
.
Shibumi is my favorite action/adventure novel... and it is GREAT fun (and funny).
.
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The sequel to "Pillars of the Earth", which I expected to be a big disappointment (how could he keep up
THAT level of excellence) continues the story at THAT level of excellence. I believe it's called "World
Without End".
.
.
.

[DryHump]

24. I think Tom Robbins

is our Shakespeare. No shit - brilliant - Skinny Legs is his opus.

[byeya]

18. I think Cannery Row is perfection in a short novel. I love that book.

[MiddleFingerMom]

29. "Sweet Thursday" was his sequel to that... with the same characters and almost as good.

.
.
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The movie was really, really good and was pretty faithful to the books (it contained parts
from both).
.
The dance scene between Nolte and Winger, neither of whom could dance (but both of
whom thought they could cut quite a fucking rug), would be worth seeing even if the rest
of the film sucked.
.
Frank McRae (who died fairly recently) played Hazel and, if he wasn't, shoulda been
nominated for Best Supporting Actor.
.
.
.
Steinbeck was so good at revealing the potential dignity and nobility in the "commonest"
of human beings -- of glorifying the human spirit, no matter how "lowly" in social stature.
.
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.

[WCGreen]

38. That movie is one of my favorites...

I loved the book as well...

[byeya]

11. I will thanks. Edward R Hamilton and Daedalus Books are both remainder companies and

have 1000s of books between them are very reasonable prices and there are dozens of catagories. I find I can but lots of books for little money. Hamilton has a shipping charge of $3.50 per order whether it's one book or 50.

[Flaxbee]

13. Thanks, I'll definitely look into both of those...

I'm also a 'minimalist' at heart and am trying not to hoard books. My rationale has always been that it is usually very easy to find fiction at the library, but it is much harder to find the wide variety of non-fiction I like at our local small-town library, so one of these days I will probably break down and buy a Kindle.

[arcane1]

4. I love essays too :)

Lewis Thomas and Loren Eiseley are my favorites

[arcane1]

3. That happened to me too

For years I was about 50/50 fiction/non-fiction, but for the last 10 years or so it's been 99.9% non-fiction. Who knows why? It kind of happened with movies too, I watch more documentaries than any other form.

[Flaxbee]

8. I haven't gotten there yet with movies, but the movie has to have something other than super heroes

and/or exploding stuff and/or car chases, though I'll probably watch the new Bond movie when it's out on DVD...

I also like The Walking Dead, the BBC's 21st century Sherlock, and Downton Abbey. So, fiction still appeals to me, I guess. But I get impatient with it in books.

[byeya]

16. I also watch mostly documentaries, mostly on musical figures like Captain Beefheart and

the Beats: Kerouac, Ginsberg, Corso, Burroughs.

[UTUSN]

5. Yip, at a certain age fiction got frivolous for me. Non-fiction is about as incredible

and that much more intense for being true. Long ago I stopped being able to suspend disbelief required for medical/legal/detective drama with over wrought emotions.


Right now I'm stuck in a Kindle book, "The Early Church."

I just love history of Classical Greece/Rome/Egypt. And when the History Channel dishes out an hour detailing the thousands of bodies impaled by Vlad, what fiction can really top it?!1

[Flaxbee]

9. ooh! I love love loooove religious history. Haven't read a lot of it, but am fascinated by it,

thanks to an exceptional series of classes I took in college.

Author of "The Early Church"? Do you like it?

I want to read something good on the Byzantine empire...

I hate Vlad. He impaled animals, too, the sadistic, evil bastard.

[byeya]

14. You may like reading about the Gnostic tradition in Christianity. Also, CG Jung wrote two books on

Alchemy where he convincingly argued that the alchemists kept the Gnostic tradition alive during the Dark Ages.
(Bollingen series published at Princeton)

[Flaxbee]

17. Thanks a lot - I'll have to do some research (and definitely bookmark this thread)

I visited "Coptic Cairo" in Old Cairo about 15 years ago when I was in Egypt... I should have studied history as an undergrad rather than political science... sigh. Education is wasted on the young.

[UTUSN]

26. It's got the longest (sub)title and the author the longest title EVAH!1

It's a Project Gutenberg ebook, one of those free e-books, not only pre-1923, but this one is 1859, yes EIGHTEEN FIFTY NINE!1

"The Ancient Church: Its History, Doctrine, Worship, and Constitution, Traced for the First Three Hundred Years"

by (get this: )

W.D. (William DOOL) KILLEN, Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Pastoral Theology to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland

********as for how I like it? Well, I did say I am STUCK in it. The first three or so chapters were narrative summaries of the standard gospels. I'm at 14% (location 1378; Kindle doesn't have page numbers that I've found), and I think he is now summarizing the Acts of the Apostles.

That said, there ARE things I didn't know before and he is describing the people as actual persons making choices and agonizing and such, so it IS enlightening.

[Flaxbee]

42. Thanks; sounds interesting...but a bit heavy going

I might start instead with the Penguin history of The Early Church

I find it much more difficult to read 19th-century (and earlier) non-fiction than 19th-century (and earlier) fiction... the language can get very labored and unless the subject is riveting, I tend to doze off.

[Mr.Bill]

10. I've always felt that way.

I don't read as much as I would like to, but I prefer History and Biography.

[byeya]

12. I also read literary criticism of the authors I like. I remember the 150th anniversary of Gogol's

Dead Souls brought forth scads of publications and when they went to remainder, I got a lot of them and learned much and benefitted when I reread Gogol's works.
Same with Gaddis, Beckett, and Proust.

[ismnotwasm]

19. Yup

Science Fiction to philosophy to lay persons physics (like The Elegant Universe) to history to feminist theory to politics to random science topics.

Right now I like certain kinds of urban fantasy. Kind of embarrassing, but at least I don't have to think while reading.

Every once in a while I'll go on a movie phase.

[Curmudgeoness]

20. That happens with me all the time.

I am too old to have been around for the ADHD or OCD labels, so I don't know if that is the problem, but I tend to immerse myself completely in one thing until I am saturated in it. Then all of a sudden, I am done and moving on to something else. This happens with books, hobbies, crafts, cleaning, etc. I always end up rotating back through everything.

So my suggestion, just go with it.

Oh, and MFM's suggestion of Shibumi surprised me, since I rarely run into anyone else who has read it, but it was one of those books that I could not put down, even though it seems to me that I would not like it. Free books, you know, you just feel like you have to read them anyways.

[DearHeart]

21. I do this ever few months

I start with fiction (mostly historical) and then move onto NF and mostly history books (WWII).

Right now, I'm reading 109 East Palace...pretty good so far, but lots of details about everyday life at Los Alamos. If you don't like all that detail, I would not recommend.

Enjoy whatever you are reading, whether it's Fiction or NF!

[link:http://www.amazon.com/109-East-Palace-Robert-Oppenheimer/dp/0743250087/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1351987904&sr=8-1&keywords=109+east+palace|

[Flaxbee]

22. lol, for a second I thought you were reading about The Alamo, until I saw Oppenheimer's name

Sounds interesting, actually. Will check it out.

[DryHump]

23. Isn't that funny

suddenly there is the inability to "suspend disbelief". Not a bad thing - just a change.

[riderinthestorm]

33. +1. My fiction tolerance now only extends to historical fiction at best

Welcome to DU! (belatedly)

Somehow the tolerance for crap just evaporates and you want... more substance.

Real life is just too vivid anymore. Can't take bullshit and its easier to "smell" maybe?

[applegrove]

25. I read mostly non-fiction until I was 25. Then I started going through

phases where I read either fiction or non-fiction for months on end. Right now I am reading nothing which is really rare for me.

[Flaxbee]

40. Why do you think that is? Busy? Preoccupied?

I don't go anywhere without a book, but sometimes I'm much more involved in what I'm reading than others.

[applegrove]

41. I think I just need a break. I have other stuff on my mind and need to weed through

all of that. Right now I am passively watching videos when I go to bed.

[cynatnite]

27. I'll read various fiction and then turn to history or religion...

Sometimes I'll sit with a trashy romance. Just depends on the mood.

[Flaxbee]

39. Trashy romance definitely has its place

[femmocrat]

28. Yes! I used to read non-fiction exclusively.

I pooh-poohed fiction as brain-candy.

Then I just lost interest in non-fiction and got rid of a lot of my books. I have a big stack of books (fiction and non-) waiting for me and just can't get into reading right now. Maybe after the election and the holidays, I will find time to snuggle up with a good book.

[Flaxbee]

37. It's interesting how reading patterns and interests can change so abruptly...

I'd like nothing more than to settle in with a few dozen books (or more) for the winter

[OxQQme]

30. Fictionalized history

Neal Stephenson is the author of the three-volume historical epic The Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World). Very deep research into the age of Isaac Newton and science beginning to gain credence after the Dark Ages.

Also a humorous fictional look into the inside of politics at the highest (and lowest) level of 'The Political Life', with a series of books by Christopher Buckley (William F.'s his dad).
Had me in stitches. Had me waiting for Powell's to open their doors the next morning for another.


Also:

The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
The birth of Jesus has been well chronicled, as have his glorious teachings, acts, and divine sacrifice after his thirtieth birthday. But no one knows about the early life of the Son of God, the missing years -- except Biff, the Messiahs best bud, who has been resurrected to tell the story in the divinely hilarious yet heartfelt work "reminiscent of Vonnegut and Douglas Adams"



Follow the muse.
If he/she/it needs some specific knowledge to navigate this phase it will appear as an, "Aha!" moment.
That Aha might happen ten or twenty years from now or the next moment.


We may need new skills/tools/ideas to get through the turmoil of this present time that we don't currently carry.

Gardening, home improvement, animal husbandry, music, alternative housing, Doonesbury collections, photography, ancient history, ....whew I could go on and on...........

[Flaxbee]

36. I know many here really seem to have enjoyed Neal Stephenson..

will have to check out your suggestions. I appreciate it!

I could happily read all day, every day.

[GreenPartyVoter]

31. I lost interest in reading and writing when my Mom passed away. We used to

share books and thoughts.

[Flaxbee]

34. I'm sorry. That must be hard. Anyone else you could share with?

[GreenPartyVoter]

44. I have a friend who might. It's hard, tho. It was such a Mom and Daughter thing.

[kwassa]

32. Reality is far stranger and more interesting than fiction

More complex, too. The things that people actually do and go through and experience are far beyond the imagination of fiction writers.

I haven't read fiction in a decade or so.

[Flaxbee]

35. True, though I really did enjoy escaping into a good story.... and probably still will at some point

I just ALWAYS read fiction - I love "stories" - but somehow now, right now, not so much.

If I get really stressed out again, though, I'll probably escape back into other worlds.

[mokawanis]

43. Same thing happened to me

At age 44 I switched suddenly from reading mostly fiction to reading very little of it. I got heavily into non-fiction, mostly history and adventure/exploration. I assumed I'd return to fiction in the near future but it didn't work out that and now, 10 years later, I still read very little fiction. I probably read 8 or 9 non-fictions for every fiction.

I'm reading a Bill Kuntsler book now. Since you mention mystery/thriller I'm wondering if you've read any of the Amos Walker mysteries, by Loren D. Estleman?

[Flaxbee]

45. I'm in my early 40s, too -

wonder if that has anything to do with it.

Just checked out Estleman on Amazon - looks good; will grab one or two at the library next time I go in. Thanks for the suggestion!