Welcome!

I'm qebo (Katherine), freelance computer programmer, LTer since 2007. I'd been thinking I might start a non-fiction challenge group in 2012, but why wait? I have a thread in the 75 books challenge, which I intend to maintain through 2011, cross-posting the non-fiction.

Anyone interested in this group as described, or in expanding its scope (e.g. there's been discussion about increasing the number of non-fiction reviews), please chime in with an introduction and comments!

Hi, I'm Jim, a former physicist now building spacecraft for a living in the DC area. I also have a 75 Book Challenge thread at http://www.librarything.com/topic/104689 and I'm participating in the US Presidents Challenge by reading a presidential biography each month (I'm up to Teddy Roosevelt). I'm always looking for good nonfiction recommendations!

Here's my thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/115690

Hi, I'm Karen, a retired middle school teacher, living in the wet and cold Pacific Northwest of the US of A. I read a good deal of nonfiction as well as fiction. I'll go get my links to my 75 book challenge. Here it is: http://www.librarything.com/topic/105310

I'm looking forward to reading more reviews of nonfiction books.

Hello I'm Bill. I am an attorney living with my wife Maritta in the Atlanta area. The majority of what I read is non-fiction, particularly history. I have a thread going in the 50 book challenge here,
http://www.librarything.com/topic/106193. I will put up a list of my non-fiction on my thread and then start cross posting. Books are fun.

Hello, I'm Bill. I am not an attorney living with my wife Maritta in the Atlanta area. :)

I am an IT guy living in Killeen, Tx. Most of the books I read are non-fiction, or classic literature.

The only "challenge" group I am a memeber of is the US Presidents Challenge. I am not really doing the challange, I started my journey with that subject before that group, or LT, got started. And I probably won't finish it, at least not on time.

My favorite non-fiction subjects are Exploration, especially Arctic and Antarctic. Early NASA is also a particular area of interest. Other than that, I read what I can find cheap. The public library here is not very good, and so I am dependent on a yearly library book sale in Waco once a year, and what ever I can find in thrift shops or the Hastings used book racks.

On reviews, mostly I only review a book if I have an observation about it that I haven't seen someone else highlight. I will not add a "me too" review. If you are curious about something I have read, please, I would love to discuss it with you. I love talking about books, but reviews to me aren't the same.

Off to make my own thread.

Bill Masom

I'm Cushla and I'm looking forward to reading your threads for non-fiction reviews!

I'm a New Zealander but at the moment I'm living in Switzerland with my husband and 2 kids. I'm at home at the moment but was teaching economics, maths and finance at university before we moved over here. Before we had kids I was an investment banker, so you'll see quite a few econ and finance books in my list. I also love history and politics books.

My shiny new thread is over here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/116143

Hello! I'm JB, and I'm a seminary student working towards my M.Div. Most of what I read is non-fiction - mostly theology, philosophy, church history, etc. I come from Amish country in Pennsylvania. I have a 50 Book Challenge thread (http://www.librarything.com/topic/106580) and now also a Non-Fiction Challenge thread (http://www.librarything.com/topic/116184). My pace has slowed down this year because of my commitment to taking extensive notes on many of the books I read, but I'm still trying to keep from falling too far behind; I'd like to at least match how many books I read in 2007.

8: Hmm, Amish country in Pennsylvania. I'm in Lancaster.

Cool! I'm from Ephrata and can't wait to get back there in a week.

Hi--I'm streamsong aka Janet and I started my challenge thread last week without saying hi here. I'm a microbiologist (technician) in a research lab, raise horses and have two grown kids.

About half the books I read are nonfiction in a wide variety of categories. I especially like memoirs--including exploration, travel and pioneering.

I'm going to be knocking some of the books off my towering mountain of tbr books--and quite a few of them are spirituality/religion related so I'm happy to see jbfideidefensor here!

Currently reading Karen Armstrong's Holy War: The Crusades and their Impact on Today's World

Welcome, streamsong. Have you started a thread here for us to star and follow? maybe a link?

ETA: nevermind, found it! Some good books there, too.

Hi, antqueen here. I'm also a programmer and, as you might guess if you look at the books I've added in the past year, a new mother. I don't read as much nonfiction as some of you, but I'm always looking for more recommendations, as if I don't have enough books waiting to be read...

My thread is here.

JB, you are the closest LTer I've ever "met".

This group has been alive for all of a week and a half, and already has an eclectic bunch of folks beyond my expectations.

Same here, Katherine!

We've got people from all sorts of backgrounds here now, it seems - a former physicist who builds spacecraft, a microbiologist, a college student, a seminarian, an attorney, a few programmers, an IT specialist, a former teacher, a former investment banker...

I've been thinking about what I want to do with this challenge list. I keep extensive notes on my reading elsewhere, so I don't need to post every book I read. So I think I'll use this more to gather thematic reading and to nudge the reviewing of books which aren't meant to be read cover-to-cover. So with those goals in mind, I've started two lists:

My reviews of craft books (thanks for all the comments there already)

A log of my World War II reading

Since we are listing background, here's some of mine. I am somewhat of a Renaissance-type learner. I never let lack of background stop me from exploring something interesting. I got a decent liberal arts education as an undergraduate and then a degree in Library Science. I worked as a librarian for over 30 years including designing one of the early automated catalogs.

I was interested in theology for a long time and have what my friends with PhDs in theology describe as "the equivalent of an MA in theology from self-study." (Though, really, I'm pretty weak in patristics to claim an MA equivalent, and I'm not longer interested enough to fill in the gaps.)

I've written some science fiction and fantasy stories, which keeps me reading a lot of eclectic non-fiction. Right now, in the first year of my retirement, writing and crafting are warring for attention, with crafting winning.

Welcome, I look forward to reading your comments. I feel a great identification with this: "I never let lack of background stop me from exploring something interesting." My book group recently said to me, "You'll read anything, won't you!", which is mostly true, except for an occasional stinker.

Hi folks, I'm Mike. I'm a police captain and currently working on my Master's in history at APU. I usually split my reading about 50/50 between fiction and non-fiction. I tend to skip around a lot in my reading and am always impressed when someone can read several books in a row on the same topic. Most of my NF is history of some sort. My new non-fiction thread is here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/116924. I'm also in the 75 book challenge group, the link to that thread is listed on my non-fiction thread in case anyone's interested. I'm going to try and post more reviews, even if they're short ones, here on LT. I started a blog a couple of years ago where I posted reviews but that seems to have fallen by the wayside. Maybe I'll get that going again in all my free time.

18: I'm sure your free time is ample. :-) I actually have your thread starred in the 75 book group, but you wouldn't know it because, shame on me, seems I've never commented. You read interesting books, so I'm glad you've decided to post here too.

I am an academic librarian but currently on medical leave, majored in chemistry in college, play piano and do needlework (mostly counted thread work but some needle tatting, knitting and crochet).

Most of my reading tends to be non-fiction but I do read fiction. My non-fiction challenge is at this thread:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/117043
I have links there to my Dewey Decimal challenge as well as the alphabet challenges and Book of the month club where I list all my reads each month with annotations.

At this point I am just linking to my reads. At some point, I want to do some reviews on needlework books, charts and patterns so I may start another thread at that time.

By the way, hello to neighbors qebo and jbfideidefensor who are just down the road from Reading.

20: Hello and welcome! A short trip along 222 would pass by us all.

Welcome, Fianna! Amazing how our area is represented here.

And welcome to Mike also!

I never introduced myself? OK..

I am Annie, recently transplanted into Phoenix, AZ (or how I call it "my half-way across the world adventure"). These days I go by the very descriptive job title of Consultant but I still feel like a Programmer most of the time.

I am reading more fiction than non-fiction but that depends on my mood. I read whatever I can find about the Tudors but I am diversifying at the moment. The biggest problem is that if I read about something, I usually end up wanting to read a lot more about it... and things get complicated.

And I can rarely pass a book on linguistics or history of religions books - I am not that interested in the religions as belief system to believe in - I am more interested in them as belief systems that had changed the world and the history.

Hi..I'm Linda. I am a paralegal/case manager/equipment manager for a smallish law firm in Pennsylvania. I've been on LT for just over six years now, logging my reading adventures mainly in the 75 Book Challenge Group. My current thread in that group is here. I was disappointed at year's end to see how little non-fiction I had read during 2011, so I joined this group to give myself a little incentive to do something about that. So far I've let the month of January slip by without reading any non-fiction, but I do have an ER copy of The United States Coast Guard and National Defense coming to me, so be waiting on the edges of your seats for that review! (My husband is a Coast Guard vet, which explains why I requested that one.) I love reading well-written history, memoirs, books about books, and travel writing. I also dig into a fair amount of lit crit from time to time, but not usually by the book-ful. If I read any especially fine articles in that area, I'll try to remember to share them here.

24: Hello from another Pennsylvanian!