The Teeth-Brushing Test

A while back, I got on a mailing list for the catalogues publishers send out to advertise books for first-year reading programs. I get the sense that they really push these books hard because if they can get a school to assign a title for a whole incoming cohort of freshmen, it's a sale of 500 books (or in the case of a big school, 5,000) rather than a paltry one-class set of 25. The catalogues are really nice, with lots of descriptions and excerpts and blurbs, and they make it super-easy to get a ton of exam copies. Also, the books are targeted for a general audience, and lots of them are bestsellers in fiction and non-fiction, so they make for interesting reading.

And who doesn't love free books? Strangely, I find myself drawn more to non-fiction than fiction when reading the catalogues. In the past year, I've ordered books about teaching/teachers/schools, food experiments (a year of living on a local food diet, along with some Michael Pollan), the culture of medicine, essays by famous and non-famous people on their personal beliefs, memoirs of living with illness, and other assorted topics. I've read some of them through, and it's odd, but even though the non-fiction attracts me most when I read about it (in the catalogue), it never quite feels the same as reading fiction.

When I'm working my way through a novel, each section I read feels like a segment of highway on a long road trip, and with the best books, I feel like I'm in good company. I always loved driving long distances with one or two good friends, having the opportunity to talk and eat road-trip food and discover local curiosities. Even when I don't like parts of a novel, reading it still feels like miles are passing by--if it's slow, it's like being in construction or on a detour, where I wonder if the time is worthwhile, but I'm still hoping that the trip will ultimately pay off.

Reading non-fiction, apart from a few memoirs that stand out as exceptions, feels more like research. I don't know why, since lots of the non-fiction I've been reading is elegantly crafted and pleasant to read. But somehow, when I'm finished, I mostly remember an argument or two, and when I'm reading, I feel as if I'm on a search for something, and I'd just prefer to find it as efficiently as possible. I don't feel drawn back into a non-fiction book every night the way I do with a novel, and non-fiction rarely calls out to me in such a way that I need to keep reading while brushing my teeth.