So, to ease back into the swing of things, here are five out of 12 books I've read this year - non-fiction. I never used to be a big non-fiction reader, but this has changed vastly in the past few years' time, largely thanks to the other book bloggers. Looking at this selection of books, I realise there is nothing random here. Once I stopped eating meat, my focus also shifted to the other areas of human consumption, and I sought out some reads that seemed interesting.
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| Look at all the tasty non-fiction :) |
I had been planning to read some Krakauer for a long time, but didn't actually get to it until last year after seeing the movie Everest, in which Krakauer is one of the characters and which depicts the same events as Krakauer in his book Into Thin Air (which I inhaled right after I watched the movie - pun intended). So I bought two more of his books, this one and Eiger Dreams, the latter is a selection of essays about mountain climbing.
Into the Wild was not a new story for me, as I had seen the movie a long time ago. Still, the book was enjoyable and poses some very interesting questions/dilemmas about what it means to be an individual in a society.
Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, Elizabeth L. Cline - 3/5
Much like the recent documentary made on the same topic, The True Cost, Overdressed offers a look into where our clothes really come from, how the cycle of a year in fashion has changed, and the catastrophic consequences it has had. Even without learning about this topic I never felt comfortable buying a nearly-for-free piece of clothing from H&M or some other fast fashion chain - not because I'm a snob but because I realised this price has to be paid by someone. Overdressed and The True Cost introduce you to the people who pay for many people's overconsumption tendencies. (For example, the 2013 Rana Plaza collapse.)
No More Dirty Looks, Siobhan O'Connor, Alexandra Spunt - 3/5
The better part of the last year I was struggling with an allergic flare, mostly on my face (fun times!) It was a face wash triggered allergy, which is what led me to read this book about the very dirty beauty industry. Some parts feel a bit dated by now (first published in 2010), but nevertheless it is a good introduction to the topic. I've since bought a few more books on this.
Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser - 5/5
The Best Book so far this year. It had been sitting on my shelf for at least a year until I decided to pick it up. This book is so thorough and so well researched. I usually do not add anything on the Goodreads once I finish the book (aside from the rating), but this I wrote after finishing Fast Food Nation:
Don't
expect this to be anything like Super Size Me. This is a very serious, a
very matter-of-fact, a very well researched book. More depressing than
American Psycho, In the Miso Soup & Requiem for a Dream combined.
... and continuing with "where our food really comes from". Sufficient to say it's also pretty eye-opening, somewhere in the middle I had the thought that soon I will not dare to eat anything... Good thing - it has completely cured me from the bad habit of getting some pre-processed foods from the store, ever. Cos it's not food, really. And I don't want to eat no-food.
