Nonfiction November - Week 3--Non-Traditional Nonfiction Reads

Week 3 is hosted by Becca at Lost in Books.

This week we will be focusing on the nontraditional side of reading nonfiction.  Nonfiction comes in many forms  There are the traditional hardcover or paperback print books, of course, but then you also have e-books, audiobooks, illustrated and graphic nonfiction, oversized folios, miniatures, internet publishing, nonfiction short stories, and enhanced books (book itself includes artifacts, audio, historical documents, images, etc.) So many choices! Do you find yourself drawn to or away from nontraditional nonfiction? Do you enjoy some nontraditional formats, but not others? Perhaps you have recommendations for readers who want to dive into nontraditional formats.  We want to hear all about it this week!  

Non-Traditional.  Hmmmm.
I have noticed that there are a lot of good blog posts this week about audio books.  Of course, that too, is my favorite non-traditional type of reading  nonfiction, but I don't feel I can add to anything that isn't already out there, so I will share my weird love of COFFEE TABLE BOOKS with you. Oversized wonderful, glorious, amazing books you put on your coffee table.  If you have a coffee table, that is.

I just happen to have a coffee table in my living room, and right now I have three ---

They are nonfiction books about--letter writing and cursive handwriting. I love writing letters--old fashioned snail mail letters--I think it's really important, but  that's another story.  

Right now if you come to my house you can easily glance thru these books above, or  this one below, if you are in my Den/TV room:

An interesting history on the evolution the gas station.

I really miss the gas stations of my youth!

  If you take a quick look on my bookshelves you might see these:

This one is really interesting---the power of the headline!  Back when we got our news from the newspaper.

This is a great pictorial tour of back roads and signs that might 'save' us, in the American Landscape.  I find it interesting that most of these type of signs are in rural settings -- not to say that city dwelling people don't agree, they just don't feel the need to write it on old trash cans, etc,  I guess.

I LOVE the  coffee table book!!  You can find one on almost any subject imaginable.   They are easy to read in short spurts of time. A little bit here, a little bit the next time you sit down on the couch.  I think they are lovely, wonderful, interesting, intriguing, beautiful.

They are not for everybody though.  I have friends who say that books lying around on coffee tables look messy to them ( Fair enough.)   And they are pricey sometimes. Lots of glossy photographs in color = more money to produce and then ya gotta pay for it.  And they are the kind of books that were in the 'reference' library, not to be checked out, but only looked at. (at least when we were kids), and some people feel they can only look once--that's enough for them. 

I guess in a way, they are like photo-journalism to me...and I always did love National Geographic and  the old photo-magazines, Look and Life. I'm dating myself, I know.

So....does a coffee table book date me too?  Do only old ladies have coffee table books?

Now, having said that, (and I might joke about being old, but I'm really NOT ) here is a list of some  coffee table books I want--just in case anyone feels they want to send me a Christmas present: