Non-Fiction Books

What is a non-fiction book? A book is said to be non-fiction if its content is based from facts or actual events. It might be a portrayal of the true or false accounts regarding some events that happened but nevertheless, it has been always believed that the contents narrated by the author are the truth behind the events.

Types of Non-Fiction Book

There are a lot of books falling under the non-fiction category such as textbooks, user manual, travelogue, and statute. As non-fiction books tackle factual information, most of them contain serious subjects.

Almanac – It is a non-fiction book published yearly containing information about a certain field in tabular form and groups according to the calendar of the given year. The almanac contains a wide array of topics like the dates of festivals, timelines, and astrological statistics.

Autobiography – It is a book about one’s own life story. A person’s autobiography may rely on documents and manuscripts such as personal journals or it may entirely rely on ones’ memory.

Biography – If an autobiography is a non-fiction book telling the story of one’s own life, a biography is a book telling somebody else’s life story. Compared to a person’s written profile, a biography does not only tell about the personal details of a person, but also forms an analysis on the effects of the complexities of a person’s life to the attributes of the person.

Blueprint – A blueprint is a document that shows the detailed plan of a building or an architecture.

Book Report – Book reports are reviews given on a certain book. It contains the book’s summary, the author’s analysis of the characters, and the plot of the book.

Creative Non-fiction – It is a type of a non-fiction book wherein subjects like politics, economy, and science are told in a style like that of the writers of fiction. The purpose of creative non-fiction books is to more than merely relay facts to the readers; thus, it aims to make the readers really get the feel of the situation by employing the techniques used in writing fiction.

Design Document – It is a document that a software designer writes. It contains a detailed description of the software being made, which is to be given to the software development team as a guide. It is much like a blueprint only that it is for a software product.

Diagram – It is a graphic representation of ideas, concepts, and relations of a certain topic that provides a simplified view of the subject matter.

Diary – It is a kind of book wherein a person writes his daily experiences as well as the emotions associated with each event.

Dictionary – A kind of non-fiction book that contains definitions of words. Dictionaries may also include pronunciation, history, word derivation, usage guidance, and illustrations of the words.

Documentary Film – It is a film that captures a specific event as it unfolds. It aims to present an event as naturally as it can be.

Encyclopedia – It is a non-fiction book that contains a wide array of subjects that are written comprehensively and arranged in alphabetical order.

Essay – It is a document expressing the author’s perspective on a certain subject. It can be in the form of reviews, personal reflections, learned arguments, and political manifestos.

History – It is a type of non-fiction book that depicts important events that happened in the past. It also provides the explanation of the events and their relations to the present.

Journal – A journal may refer to a newspaper, personal journal, or scholarly academic journal. A newspaper is a document published daily depicting the events that happened in a particular place. A personal journal or a diary, meanwhile, is a document that narrates the events happening to a person’s personal life. A scholarly academic journal, on the other hand, has a more serious tone, which records the transactions of a particular group or society. The term journalism--a field that specializes on writing, gathering, and reporting events--may be associated with journal.

Letter - It is a non-fiction document used as a means of communication. It was once the primary form of written conversation between two parties. But as times change, technology brought the electronic mail or email, a mail sent through computers, which has replaced the other forms of correspondence.

Literary Criticism – It is the study, discussion, and analysis of literature.

Memoir – A subcategory of autobiography, a memoir depicts a part of a person’s life. Unlike an autobiography that shows the history of a person’s life, a memoir doesn’t need to show the whole history, only the most important events that highlight his life.

Philosophy – It is a non-fiction type of book that portrays a person’s belief on how life should be lived, the nature of things, and the morality of his actions.

Photograph – It is a genre that collates photographs--images captured through the use of a camera, narrating the story of the things that happened during the time that the image was captured.

Science Book – A non-fiction book written by a teacher, scientist, or researcher covering scientific subjects. This kind of book is usually intended for different types of audiences, so it is vital that the author of the book has the talent to simplify the difficult areas of the subject matter to benefit those who have no knowledge of it.

Scientific Paper – It is a document that explains the methods used in executing an experiment, the outcome as well as the purpose of doing such work. Unlike Science books, scientific papers are written to be read by other scientists.

Non-fiction books, as a whole, record the story of human triumphs and failures as he continues to live in the world. Due to this, reading non-fiction books and documents makes a person realize how far man has already progressed through the passage of time.