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I am a child (in a grown-up’s body.)
I love a good story.
Spin me a tale and take me far away.
This is the life of a reader of fiction.
I’ve never really been a big non-fiction reader.
Well, wait.
Let me clarify that.
Non-fiction is great, but it does require a lot more…thinking…on my part.
What I mean is, I love to study what I’m reading if it’s non-fiction.
If it’s real life.
Something to learn.
So in other words, I’m a slow non-fiction-reader.
lol.
Well, I pre-judged memoirs without giving them a chance.
I have no interest in reading about one person’s life. Right?
I thought so.
I was wrong.
Because what I thought I was hearing when I heard “memoir” was actually “autobiography”…
I just didn’t realize the difference.
Honestly, I just never gave it any thought.
This chart helped a lot…
I dove into the world of memoirs just this week and found a book called Prognosis. I stumbled across it by accident, to be honest. It was a free book I got for being a Prime Member with Amazon. You get them monthly, how nice is that?
Anyways, it was the best eBook out of the choices I had so I took a chance and immediately loved it. Maybe it’s the subject, I don’t know, but now I’m hooked. I want to read more.
Memoir isn’t the summary of a life; it’s a window into a life, very much like a photograph in its selective composition. It may look like a casual and even random calling up of bygone events. It’s not; it’s a deliberate construction.
William Zinsser, in On Writing Well (2006; 30th Anniversary Edition)
Do tell me, what memoirs have you read that stuck with you?
What memoir do you recommend I read next?
I’m a big BOTM club fan and here is a list of some of their current memoirs.
Have you read any? What should my next pick be?