Read more escapist nonfiction

That's phrased like it's something I'm telling you to do, but really it's my advice to myself.

Whenever I'm in a reading rut, with a bunch of half-finished books piling up on my Kindle that I'm not excited about finishing, it's because I've been choosing too many books that I want to have read, but don't actually want to read. They're the kind of books that are a means to an end: health advice, career advice, self-help books, pop-psychology books that are half science and half self-help, books that will make me a more informed citizen, etc. When I read too much of this stuff, I get burned out.

For some, the remedy might be to read more fiction. I don't dislike fiction, but I have a lot more nonfiction books on my want-to-read list. My remedy is to choose some escapist nonfiction.

Escapist nonfiction doesn't have to be about light, pleasant subjects. It just has to be about topics that I don't usually think about and that aren't obviously relevant to my everyday life. For me, some good topics are: animals, science, pop culture, histories of forgotten events or everyday life in different places and times, books about jobs I've never done and never will, and technologies that have never been accused of undermining democracy. Things that won't make me think, I should really... or They should really... Topics that transport me to another reality, the same way fiction can.

Some topics that are definitely not escapist for me are: computers, the internet, teaching, learning, and education, politics, feminism, psychology, the economy, health, climate, and any kind of advice book. I'll keep reading books about those subjects, but I think it's good to balance them out with some from the other category. Maybe by alternating?

Here are some books I've enjoyed reading that were escapist nonfiction for me:

And here are some from my to-read list: