Julie over at My Book Retreat is hosting a Non-Fiction Non-Memoir Reading Challenge that I thought might actually be a challenge. She excludes memoirs and autobiographies, which seem to be the most read type of nonfiction among the book blogs she follows (and of which I I have several on my 2012 reading list). Julie also has eliminated reference books, cookbooks and instruction manuals that are not meant to be read cover to cover, as well as children’s books and re-reads. How-to, self-help and travel books are permitted, as long as I actually read them cover to cover. (Whew!)

Since I’ve read eight books in 2011 that would have qualified, I’m going to stretch myself and go for a Diploma which requires me to read ten qualifying non-fiction books in 2012. Yes, you can call me crazy, anytime now.

1. Blizzard of Glass: The Halifax Explosion of 1917 by Sally M. Walker

2. Searching for the Secret River by Kate Grenville

3. Seeing Trees by Nancy Ross Hugo & Robert Llewellyn

4. Walden by Henry David Thoreau

5. White River Junctions by Dave Norman

6. Winnie & Gurley by Robert G. Hewitt

7. Manners for Women by Mrs. Humphrey

8. The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard

9. UContent by Nicholas G. Tomaiuolo

10. Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck

11. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

12. The Canadian Food Guide by Pierre & Janet Berton

13. Mordecai: the Life and Times by Charles Foran