A really interesting read. I enjoyed the short essays and the different experiences.
It definitely made me think about the reasons I read and what circumstances drive me to reading at that point.

Why We Read: 70 Writers on Non-Fiction
by Edited by Josephine Greywoode
Published by Penguin
ISBN 9781802060959

It’s no secret that I love books and reading, both fiction and non-fiction. It’s an integral part of who I am and has been for as long as I can remember. I like reading books about books and books about people’s relationships with books. I like reading what their favourite books are and why. So when I saw this book, I figured it’d be right up my street. And it was! It’s a great read. As I was reading the short essays on why these writers read non-fiction and what they get out of it, I was thinking about why I read non-fiction. Sometimes I seek out a book because I am interested in the topic already and want to learn more about it. At other times, I come across a book about something that I never thought about before or that I didn’t think I was particularly interested in, but that seems compelling enough to read. Since I grew up a misfit in US suburban culture, I’ve always been interested in understanding how other people live, memoir, life story, biography, and autobiography provide me with a wealth of choice. I am a generally curious person and books are the best way for me to learn. Beyond all of these reasons why though, there is one that contains them all. I have always been fascinated by people’s passions in life—the things that make them light up, dig deeper, spend time stuck in, and get excited. Non-fiction provides a window into this. To write a good non-fiction book, writers have to be willing to spend a very long time researching, thinking, and following sometimes obscure information where it leads. They have to be passionate about their topic to do all that and then spend the time turning what they’ve learned into a book that will enlighten others and possibly set readers off on new voyages of discovery. One of the writers in this book, Ananyo Bhattacharya, wrote this:
‘The only pattern I can find in all that ceaseless reading is that one book invariably led to another, and I never felt that there would be the time to read all that I wanted and needed to. And perhaps that is why we read; because it is a habit, an addiction, a compulsion, an affliction and a necessity. Like drawing breath.’ (p 15, italics in original)

I definitely recommend this book.