Tuesday, February 19, 2008

My Turn at the Non-Fiction Meme

I've been tagged for the non-fiction meme by Bill West, author of the West in New England blog. Each time one of these memes goes around we all reveal a little more about ourselves, don't we? I'm not sure that anything I'll share with you this time around will be as revealing as some of the things I've shared in the past. After all, I had that LibraryThing widget on my blog for the better part of a year so you could have taken a peak at my bookshelves anytime you wanted to. But this meme is about more than just what books I read so here goes.

What issues/topic interests you most--non-fiction, i.e, cooking, knitting, stitching, there are infinite topics that has nothing to do with novels?

Genealogy books and books about Poland's history top my list followed closely by web design books on html, css, Photoshop techniques, etc. Next would be books on digital photography and digital scrappbooking (about even). Lastly would be books on personal finance.

Would you like to review books concerning those?

Reviews on genealogy and digital scrapbooking books, sure. I have no interest in writing reviews on the other topics. I keep meaning to write more reviews on my blog but somehow I never seem to get around to it.

Would you like to be paid or do it as interest or hobby? Tell reasons for what ever you choose.
I'm sure I'd get around to it more often if I was getting paid! LOL! I would love to get paid for my writing, book reviews included.

Would you recommend those to your friends and how?

I've been known to recommend books to my friends in casual conversation although I'm more likely to recommend fiction books than non-fiction.

If you have already done something like this, link it to your post.

I wrote a whole series of articles on using City Directories in genealogy research. I suppose somewhere in there I "critiqued" it. I certainly analyzed it in great depth. And I made a very brief critique and recommendation of Polish Customs, Traditions and Folklore by Sophie Sophie Hodorowicz Knab in my series about Polish wedding traditions. I posted a book review by Robert Postuala on Polish Surnames: Origins and Meanings by Fred Hoffman and another one (also by Bob) on First Names of the Polish Commonwealth: Origins and Meanings by Fred Hoffman on my blog. Does it count if I posted them but didn't write them? No, I guess not. I wrote a brief review on the Federal Street Guide and Directory for Detroit. And I wrote a review that turned into a series of excerpts from Poles in Michigan, Vol. 1. I think that's about it for non-fiction book reviews on this blog.

I'm not going to tag anybody because I can't think of anyone who hasn't already been tagged. Hey, what say the next time one of these memes comes around we each tag 3 people only so that more of us can get in on the tagging?