I’m still participating in book blog events ft. Nonfiction November and Novellas in November
My favourite part of blogging has got to be the events. I love hosting a good read-along, but I don’t have the energy right now. So I’ve decided to throw myself into some events hosted by other, more ambitious bloggers.
Nonfiction November
I’ve never participated in Nonfiction November, despite nonfiction making up a significant portion of my reading (about a third of the books I’ve read in 2021, up from about a quarter in 2020 and 2019). It’s time to correct this gross oversight.
Nonfiction November has been running for many years. Returning hosts Doing Dewey and What’s Nonfiction are joined by newcomers The Thousand Book Project (sounds like we’d get along), Plucked From the Stacks, and The OC Book Girl.
You know I love to dive into book blog lore, and I see someone already tried to piece together the origins of Nonfiction November, tracing it back to 2013 and two defunct book blogs (the sad part of looking into book blog history is how many blogs are abandoned… or in this case, one of them redirects to a porn site, beware!). I also found a podcast where the current hosts reminisce about the origins of this event.
As for me? I’m trying to go all in, which means blogging about each of the weekly prompts, starting with a fairly easy one about your year in nonfic so far. I’m most looking forward to “be the expert” week, where I will choose between my expertise in tech pessimism (finishing up The Ugly Truth as we speak), and Jonathan Franzen’s nonfiction, which I should complete at some point during the month (just his most obscure work, The Kraus Project, to go!)
Novellas in November
This one should need no introduction – I did a whole post on the history of my beloved #NovNov and despite appearances, I’ve never hosted, just participated enthusiastically. Which I hope to do again. Capable hosts Bookish Beck and Cathy of 746 Books have not only created weekly themes, but will host read-alongs for each – this might be too much for me and my pandemic-addled brain to keep up with, but on the other hand, it saves me the trouble of choosing books. Territory of Light has been on my radar… and I can’t quite remember if I’ve read Ethan Frome.
Depending how this goes, I might see what’s happening for December as well, anyone organizing anything?
Reading in Bed 
Wish I could say I was participating but I’m struggling to say “I’m still participating in book blogging”
Same, that’s why my post titles are all worded like affirmations… like yes I AM still blogging (trying to convince myself!)
Thanks for featuring #NovNov and taking part. You could always try to combine challenges by reading nonfiction of under 200 pages!
Two of my favourite blogs are defunct now: one doesn’t exist anymore and the other is still out there but frozen in 2018. I agree it’s sad when blog friends go silent.
Yeah it’s crazy when you look back even a couple years, let alone 5+ years. So many deleted or just stopped updating. A lot of covid casualties, I see lots of most recent blog posts of Feb or March 2020!
So glad you’ll be taking part Laura, NovNov wouldn’t be the same without you…
I took a peek at Ethan Frome, just trying to remember if I’ve read it, and I’m hooked!!
Brilliant! That happened to ne today with Crapalachia!
I’m so glad you’re joining in for Nonfiction November, and I love your ideas so far! Looking forward to your posts, and thanks for sharing some interesting links as well 🙂
No worries, thanks for hosting! The prompts are really good this year.
I always love following the events even if I don’t join in myself. There are some years I’ll join in on something, and the next year it’ll be something else – you just never know where your mood and reading will take you! It’ll be fun reading your Nonfiction updates, and I have always loved #NovNov. (Maybe because it’s an easy one to join since the books are short!)
A couple of great challenges – I will definitely try to join in! 😀
I feel like such a bad blogger, I literally never participate in these events b/c my CBC commitments tend to control what I’m reading. But! I like following along with them and reading about everyone else’s participation, it makes me feel like ‘one of the team’ even though I’m cheering from the sidelines 🙂
I’m doing NovNov too (and AusReading Month) and I’ve managed to overlap both with Nonfiction November (but I’ve not found one for all three!). I love the communal aspect of blogging, too, and although I don’t do many challenges, and only off my TBR, I do enjoy them. I’ve been sort of hosting an Anne Tyler read all year, but there I’ve just posted up a schedule and put up my reviews and encouraged people to join in but not done any heavy lifting – that always seems to work well. I don’t have the energy for anything more fancy!
Thanks for joining us! I’m excited to read your Be the Expert topics. I really like pop psychology books, so books on pessimism seem like my cup of tea. And I’ve not read any fiction or nonfiction by Franzen, so I’m interested to hear what you think 🙂