I *do* read, contrary to what some might think

[trinityvixen]

I find myself increasingly interested in non-fiction these days. I read the odd fiction book between non-fiction books, but I almost never get as engrossed in fiction as I do in non-fiction. It's weird. When I was in middle and high school, any for-pleasure reading I did was always fiction, usually in the form of binging on one author or another. That trend started with Nancy Drew in fifth grade, which my teacher, bless her, made it her mission to end by expanding my horizons to other books. It worked for a while and then I went right back to sorta trashy books--Christopher Pike books were big for me in middle school. I feel kind of proud that I even graduated up as far as I did to Stephen King towards high school. Once all my lovely friends in Oz got me hooked on Terry Prachett, I couldn't stop.

Except? I sort of have? I binged on him again post-graduation, but I've been sitting on Making Money since February when I got a free copy at Comic Con. I keep getting non-fiction books from the library that I have to get through and I keep deferring to them. I get my book recommendations from blogs a lot of the time, which, being news/progressive types mainly, I guess that explains some of it. My other major sources are Newsweek and Entertainment Weekly, both of which review fiction as much as non-fiction, but it's the fiction that grabs me.

My latest find is Your Call Is (not that) Important to Us by Emily Yellin. It's neither brilliant nor stupid, just a workable sort of book on the subject of customer service. It's part primer on the evolution of customer service and part sociology textbook (minus the laborious vocabulary). There's a lot of psychology running around, not surprisingly, and it's neat to see all points of view on it--from the frustrated customers (hello!) to the people providing the service, to the people providing the tools for that service. The give-and-take of economics and psychology is neat.

And very relevant: AIG could do with a read of this book.

The woman in the picture, Mrs. Sosa, was on Countdown on Monday, and Keith Olbermann made the point that AIG is doing themselves a tremendous disservice by being dismissive of the claims of the passengers from the flight that landed in the Hudson. This is an opportunity for them to show that they were worth the nearly trillion or so dollars we loaned them, and they blew it. It comes back to the balance of opposites in Emily Yellin's book--the corporate profit margin versus is public appearance. Refusing to pay for therapy for children traumatized by surviving a plane crash is not a good PR move even when you're the most beloved company of all time, to say nothing of those companies, like AIG, that are high on the public shit list. It's a failure of customer service, and customers are getting to that point where they are madder than hell and ready to raise some to get better treatment.

I hope they win.

Comments

[saikogrrl.livejournal.com]

I am interested in some non-fiction (like this book on Hikikomori called "Shutting out the Sun"), but I mostly only get really involved in fiction. I like the idea of biographies, but somehow I can't get as engrossed in non-fiction, maybe because it's less escapist because it's real?

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

You know, I'm not reading any biographies. I read maybe one or two, but predominantly, I read issue-centric non-fiction. A great book I just read was The Heartless Stone, about the diamond industry. I'm waiting on a book about the Columbine massacre next.

I can see preferring fiction for its escapism, but to me life is both more varied and ridiculous than fiction. That's what makes it so impressive.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

I feel like, when I was in middle school/high school, I'd alternate the summers when I'd go through 15-20 books with summers when I got through three. Nowadays, since I don't have a commute and I tend to spend my free time reading comics or playing video games, it'll take me four months to get through a novel.

I think I had a similar experience with Pratchett--I discovered him somewhere around sophomore year in college (I think I bought Thief of Time from Penn Books when I missed a train back to Princeton), and read pretty much everything he'd written in the few years following, but then I sat on Thud and Making Money for several months until I had vacations to read them during.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

The lack of commute has totally killed my reading habit. When I commuted back and forth to my job, I could get through a book a week. Now, I'm lucky if I get through half the book before the library wants it back.

It's not like Pratchett's gotten worse, and it's not like I don't still love what he does, just that I've fallen off that for now. I will get to Making Money. Just as soon as I finish this other book...