Historical Non-Fiction

Many people really didn’t like history in school. You get the textbook out, read a bunch of facts about the past, and then test your memory to make sure you remember exactly what happened in what year. You then have to learn about several hundred (or thousands) of years in a very short timeframe. It’s no wonder that many people don’t really enjoy history that much after their school years.

Many people actually have very similar experiences with reading as well. For many years, you’re forced to read books that you don’t have a choice on. Someone else has decided that they’re relevant to your education (they probably are, but it’s hard to see that at the time), and many of the books can be boring or just not written in a way that you find interesting. You then get turned off from reading.

Unfortunately, this type of experience is all too common among students. As they become adults, they keep these memories with them and never turn back to reading, and stay away from the history books. It’s too bad because there is a lot to learn from the past, and so avoiding it completely is just a way to keep repeating the same mistakes. We really need to correct this problem so more people enjoy reading and history.

History can actually be a lot of fun and interesting when presented correctly. A textbook for school generally isn’t the fun way to enjoy history. Instead, you need to read and learn from someone who knows how to present history in an interesting manner. You may be surprised, but there are a lot of authors out there who know how to do this and it really makes learning about history a lot of fun.

That doesn’t mean that you’ll love every historical book that you read - there are definitely plenty of duds out there that you’ll wish you had never picked up. But there are also some unbelievably engaging books that make you feel like you’re reading a standard fiction novel. They put you right in the action, and the books are from a point of view that will make you wonder if the events actually happened or not.

Some topics will be more interesting to you than others - you may be interested in learning about former presidents, or about past wars. Perhaps you’re more interested in the history of races or people from different continents. Or perhaps you want to learn more about sportsmen and how they overcame impossible odds to make something happen. Whatever it is, you’ll find a book for you.

Some historical novels can be quite long. If you’re not into reading a lot just yet, then you should start with books that aren’t as long. Picking up a thousand page novel about a former president probably isn’t the easiest way to get into reading, even if the book is very well written. Leave the longer novels for when you’ve found what you really enjoy and you know that you’ll stick with it. Get in the habit of reading first.

Learn about history from books. You may be surprised how much you really enjoy learning about past events.