24 - A book on a subject you know nothing about

[Sara]

This is one of my very favorite things to do. I love exploring historical events that I know nothing about. This wouldn't be limited to history though. Science, philosophy, religion, gender issues, cultural exploration. Take this opportunity to really broaden your horizons!

[SarahKat]

Anything by Sam Kean I'd recommend for this. He has biology, neurology, elements, atmosphere; all intertwined with history.
Also, Erik Larson for history, but I enjoy Kean more than Larson.

[Jenn]

What do I know nothing about? :p

[Beth]

This listopia is a good place to find ideas: Microhistory: Social Histories of Just One Thing

[Stina]

Aagh! My brain does not do well with absolutes like "favorite" and "nothing." I know tiny bits about LOTS of things. This one is going to be even tougher than the "pink cover" prompt, and I certainly can't say I'm enthused about reading The Happy Hooker (the only pink-covered book I've located on my shelves).

[Heather L]

The books that immediately came to my mind for this one are Astrophysics for People in a Hurry and Lafayette in the Somewhat United States.

[Deborah]

I think I might go with a hobby I want to learn but currently know nothing about. Maybe sailing.

Is this a good idea??

[Johanne]

@Stina, I am so with you on this one! My brain immediately went 'if I know nothing about it how can I look for it?' I have told my brain it says 'little' instead of 'nothing'

[Jenn]

Johanne wrote: "@Stina, I am so with you on this one! My brain immediately went 'if I know nothing about it how can I look for it?' I have told my brain it says 'little' instead of 'nothing'"

That's a good idea!

I might go with something like "This is Going to Hurt" as I probably really know NOTHING about being a doctor, even if I do watch Grey's Anatomy. :p

[Heather L]

Deborah wrote: "I think I might go with a hobby I want to learn but currently know nothing about. Maybe sailing.

Is this a good idea??"

I don’t see why not. Enjoy!

[Nadine in NY]

This is a tough one to think of, but it will probably end up being very interesting! I was brain-storming with my daughter and we came up with:
cultures in the Middle East
music
how to make a musical instrument
North Korea
cattle ranches
deep sea

Does anyone have any good books to suggest? :-)

Some other books I have on my TBR already that might work for me:
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon (I don't even remember what this is about)
The Secret Life of Lobsters: How Fishermen and Scientists Are Unraveling the Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean
The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York

I've got some other interesting microhistories, but I know a bit about each subject so it would feel like cheating here, such as
Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit
The Tide: The Science and Stories Behind the Greatest Force on Earth
Rain: A Natural and Cultural History
The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways

[Katy]

I decided since I was always utterly hopeless in science to do something with science (yes I know there's also a STEM category). I was thinking maybe astronomy.

[Nancy]

The Gene: An Intimate History
Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder
A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea
The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story

[Misty]

My coworker is reading "The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator," and as she was telling me about it, I was putting it on my TBR list. Now I can add it to this list too! I know hardly anything about the mosquito!

[Karin]

Stina wrote: "Aagh! My brain does not do well with absolutes like "favorite" and "nothing." I know tiny bits about LOTS of things. This one is going to be even tougher than the "pink cover" prompt, and I certain..."

Same here!!!!!!!!!! I just saw this after I posted the next part:

Hmmm, this will be interesting if this is to be taken literally, since over the years I have learned I know at least a little about a great many things, but there are so many things in the world that there has to be something I know nothing about. Well, I can't remember that Lafayette fellow since I didn't take American History, although I have gleaned a great deal since moving to the States, so that's a possibility. Another one is to find a world map and look for an obscure country somewhere.

[Remus]

Beth wrote: "This listopia is a good place to find ideas: Microhistory: Social Histories of Just One Thing"

Beth wrote: "This listopia is a good place to find ideas: Microhistory: Social Histories of Just One Thing"

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

[Ruth]

I'm not sure if it's cheating. But, as I am trying to use books from my TBR (I have a LOT), I figure, I will read a book that I bought because it sounded interesting to me when I bought it, because it was something I didn't know about. I have several histories, microhistories and biographies about people/events that I didn't know about until I saw the book. Like many others, I know a little about a LOT of things. So it's kind of difficult to find one I know NOTHING about.

[Shelley]

If people are interested in countries, I'm trying to read a book about every country, so here's a list ones that I read for less well known countries that I think represented the country well.

Angola: Another Day of Life journalist during the civil war
Cote d'Ivoire: The Bitter Side of Sweet cocoa bean plantation. bring tissues
Guatemala: I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala civil rights activist
Haiti: Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World
Indonesia: The Question of Red love story during revolution
Kazakhstan: Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan haven't read it yet but I'm obsessed with Kazakhstan
Mali: The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu and Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts little dry but still interesting
Marshall Islands: Iep Jaltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter
Qatar: The Ugly Game: The Qatari Plot to Buy the World Cup
Saudi Arabia: Girls of Riyadh about Saudi teen girls
South Africa: The President's Keepers: Those Keeping Zuma in Power and Out of Prison
Trinidad and Tobago: Golden Child sad story about a family after tragedy

[Lexi]

I read this with a buddy and between the two of us, there are a lot of categories rules out. I have already voted no fly fishing, but it will be interesting to see how literal we take the nothing.

[Laura]

Maybe this is where I finally read How to Date Men When You Hate Men since I clearly don't seem to know anything about either men or dating...

[Chrissy]

I'm looking at The Johnstown Flood, The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium or Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland... I also have a list of nonfiction for the AtY prompt based on the lyrics to "We Didn't Start the Fire" that I could choose a 2nd book off of, perhaps.

[Jackie]

I might just wander the nonfiction section of the library until I spot something that looks enticing...I'm thinking that will more likely lead me to a subject I know nothing about than looking through my tbr. I mean, if I added it to my tbr, it's probably because I know something about it.

[Beth]

Nadine wrote: "This is a tough one to think of, but it will probably end up being very interesting! I was brain-storming with my daughter and we came up with:
cultures in the Middle East
music
how to make a music..."
The Poisoner's Handbook is absolutely fantastic, I love telling people how Charles Norris basically blackmailed the federal government to keep his staff from getting drafted (total OG), and I'm always recommending this book to people. I definitely suggest that pick - you'll enjoy it!

[Sara]

So this book just stumbled into my lap this morning. I was binge watching the new season of The Crown on Sunday. One episode centers around the tragedy at Aberfan, which I'm sad to say I knew nothing about. Technically I know a little now since the episode aired, BUT it's a brand new piece of information for me to educate myself on. And that's the point of this prompt (in my opinion).

I plan to read Aberfan: A Story of Survival, Love and Community in One of Britain's Worst Disasters

[Sarah]

I read What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions for a book with a question in the title for this year's challenge. I highly recommend it if you're looking to read about science-y stuff. There's quite a bit of humor, and it ends up being fascinating.
I'm thinking of reading Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words for this prompt (same author).

[Karin]

Sarah wrote: "I read What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions for a book with a question in the title for this year's challenge. I highly recommend it if you're looki..."

It's quite fun to read as well--some of the cartoons gave me a true belly laugh!

[Rachel]

Sara wrote: "So this book just stumbled into my lap this morning. I was binge watching the new season of The Crown on Sunday. One episode centers around the tragedy at Aberfan, which I'm sad to say I knew nothi..."

One of my secondary school English teachers was a journalist who reported on Aberfan. She was an excellent teacher, although I remember spending most of the year reading and writing about disasters and tragedies: we learnt a lot but it wasn't the happiest of English lessons.
Reading your comment was a little spooky, as just this afternoon I was talking about this teacher, even though I haven't seen her for over 20 years.

[Charlotte]

Sarah wrote: "I read What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions for a book with a question in the title for this year's challenge. I highly recommend it if you're looki..."

Thanks for this recommendation. I'm sure with the variety of questions I'll find something I don't know anything or much about.

[Christine]

Karin wrote: "Stina wrote: "Aagh! My brain does not do well with absolutes like "favorite" and "nothing." I know tiny bits about LOTS of things. This one is going to be even tougher than the "pink cover" prompt, and I certain..."

Same here!!!!!!!!!! I just saw this after I posted the next part:

Hmmm, this will be interesting if this is to be taken literally, since over the years I have learned I know at least a little about a great many things."

My approach is "know nothing about" HAS to be a metaphor/exaggeration, since by definition, once you identified a book to read, you'd know a tiny bit (e.g., that a book exists about it, how to spell it, etc.) about the subject.

I'm looking at Native American history. I recently learned from a linguistics professor specializing in Cherokee that there was a city on the Mississippi around 1100 CE that was as big as London, but do any of us Americans know about it? I sure didn't!
Two books on the subject, one nonfiction, one fiction based on the people:
Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi
Sun Born

Alternatively, I've had Quantum Physics for Babies on my list for a long time, and I know as near to nothing about that as is possible given our zeitgeist (that I'm sure gets it wrong a lot)!

[Chrissi]

So, I may be a history nerd but I can recommend these if you're into some microhistories and histories of things I'd never have known about before reading these.
A Short History of Nearly Everything covers a lot of ground ...
At Home: A Short History of Private Life is fascinating domestic history that I had no idea about before reading it.
If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World
This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality
The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine
The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime
Batavia's Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny
Underground: A Human History of the Worlds Beneath Our Feet
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin
Northland: A 4,000-Mile Journey Along America's Forgotten Border
Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right

[Johanne]

In all my 15 years as a librarian I only recall being asked for something I had never heard of once. What was it you may ask? Tea bag folding. I was like 'yeah we probably don't have a book on that, but let me check'. We did. There are lots of things I don't know in depth or understand for that matter, like the time my cousin who has a phd in mathematics, tried to explain what exactly he was researching. His field is differential geometry and mathematical physics...

[Milena]

Johanne, your story reminds me of The Feather Thief. I had never even heard of fly tying before I read that book, and it was so good.

[Johanne]

I don't know much about fly tying, but I had heard of it. I might leave this up to my library patrons and use a query about something I know nothing or next to nothing about, asked in the next year / half a year's time.

[Frogli]

Oooh an excellent excuse for non fiction, I might finally read either of

The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire

Agent Garbo: The Brilliant, Eccentric Secret Agent Who Tricked Hitler and Saved D-Day

Both of which have been on my tbr for years

[Johanne]

Or maybe some new research (in laymans terms) coming out during the year, like the past couple of years with communicating trees.

[K.L.]

I've been thinking about reading What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, but this afternoon a friend of mine recommended the book Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World, and it looks really interesting.

[Alex]

I don't know about you but....

How to Behave Badly in Renaissance Britain

[Sarah]

Like others have said, I'm struggling with the nothing part of this. How does one go about finding a book on subject they know nothing about? And then, if you know a little, how much knowing is too much knowing?! lol

[Sarah]

Ooh! I did think of a good one though that others may, like me, really not know anything about:

Ruta Sepetys's new book The Fountains of Silence was legitimately about something I knew nothing about. Too bad I already read it...lol.

[Ellie]

Johanne wrote: "Or maybe some new research (in laymans terms) coming out during the year, like the past couple of years with communicating trees."

I bought a cheap ebook of The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World today and I was considering it for this prompt. I know a fair amount about trees in general but not how they communicate. Either that or I'll wait to find a super obscure microhistory (I liked Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found and I guess I didn't know much abotu severed heads before I read it!).

[Sarah]

For me, "know nothing about" is not the same as "literally never heard of." For example, I'm thinking of reading Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland. I have heard of "The Troubles" before, but I don't know any details at all. So for me that would definitely count.

My other thought is to go to the library and wander the nonfiction section. There are SO MANY topics in the world - I'm sure we all have things we know little to nothing about!

[Ellie]

Curses, my current audiobook has started talking about how trees communicate! Scratch that idea, I need to stop reading non fiction until next year. 😂

[Johanne]

Abandon all new knowledge till 2020!

[Nadine in NY]

Hahaha **lalala I don’t want to learn this now ***

[Johanne]

To be honest the nonfiction book I am currently trying to read is a different perspective that I didn't know of, so that would also work (if I wasn't already reading it): The Tao of Physics that looks at the similarities between physicism and taoism.

[Amy J.]

I am looking for recommendations for books that objectively discuss the health benefits of CBD oil.

[Kristy]

Based on the number of tweets I read about service dogs being refused admittance to restaurants, hotels, or other public spaces, or shop owners who think that "I do Crossfit" is an acceptable substitute for wheelchair ramps, apparently hardly any Americans are aware of Disability Rights.

Here's some lists that books on that issue:

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8...

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3...

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

[L Y N N]

Kristy wrote: "Based on the number of tweets I read about service dogs being refused admittance to restaurants, hotels, or other public spaces, or shop owners who think that "I do Crossfit" is an acceptable subst..."

What wonderful resources. As you stated, many people are woefully unaware. I have worked with disabled people and ferried them about, and I have been through my own physically disabled times. I would say the majority of people are very kind and considerate, but there are some...who could benefit from some education about disabilities! I always feel for those whose disabilities are silent/invisible to the naked eye. That is much tougher! ;)

[Brandon]

SprawlBall: A Visual Tour of the New Era of the NBA

I haven't watched a full NBA game since probably 10 years ago, so I consider myself ignorant enough to use this for the prompt.

[Talie]

This one looked interesting. The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary