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Fiction
entertains. Nonfiction EMPOWERS!
It is easier to not learn than to learn.
The majority will lag the knowledgeable! Steve
Waller
Why a Nonfiction Defense Association? TOP
Start to consciously consider which is promoted most heavily
and which is most available; fiction or nonfiction.
Nonfiction books, videos, DVDs and
documentaries TOP
Buy from here or get these nonfiction materials from your local library
- Bookstores
and Libraries are Nonfiction Friendly!
- While TV, catalogs, and other popular promotional and entertainment
media seem to favor fiction heavily, book stores tend to have LOTS
of nonfiction on their shelves, ready for your hungry eyes. Visit
your local library and bookstores often to discover the titles that
popular entertainment-only ads are denying you!
- Acres
USA
- Acres is a magazine for farmers, gardeners and landowners. It is
very diverse and offers many hard to find books videos and audio tapes
and is strong on land education, land management, and organic titles.
It has a few pseudo science and spiritual titles, but they are a minority
and of course, you can easily identify those. Right?
- A&E
Video / DVD Store
- The official store of A&E Television Networks, including History
Channel and Biography documentaries. Use the search engine!
- Check out their "Best
Sellers" (even this nonfiction site is dominated by fiction!).
Who the heck is Horatio Hornblower anyway?
- Amazon.com Award Winning Books
- Amazon.com
Nonfiction Bestsellers
- Amazon.com
Nonfiction Recommendations
- Be sure to check other categories on the left side of the page
- BasicBooks.com
- Since its founding in 1952, Basic Books has made innumerable contributions in subject areas ranging from psychology, science and sociology to politics, public policy and history.
- BookTV.Org
- Reviews nonfiction books and offers interviews with authors
- Bullfrog Films
- The leading US publisher of independently-produced, environmental videos. Nice videos but almost impossible to access.
- Countryside
Magazine Bookstore
- Offers nonfiction books for homesteaders
- Crimson
Bird Book Shoppe Documentary Movie List
- A long list of documentaries.
- Documentary Movie List
- Lists favorite documentaries voted by members
- Docurama
- A list of great documentary DVDs
- Educational DVD Rentals
- For a monthly fee and no late charges, get educational DVDs in
the mail
- Educational Video Network
- EVN produces curriculum-based educational videos and DVDs. They are pricey so you might want to see if they are available from your local library or especially your college library. This is a great list of titles.
- Films
for the Humanities and Sciences
- For more than 25 years, Films for the Humanities and Sciences
chooses each program on the basis of the importance of its subject,
the quality of its production, and its relevance as an instructional
aid. More than 7,000 video, CD-ROM, and videodisc programs cover
a broad range of subject areas appropriate for schools, colleges,
and public libraries. Find titles on their web page, but look for
the films at your local or college library since they are too expensive
for individuals to buy. You probably won't find these titles anywhere
else. Check out these special
collections.
- Florentine Films
- Since its founding in 1976, Florentine Films has produced
some of the most honored documentaries ever made.
- Great
Minds of Science
- This series is available but for some reason has not got its own
website! Check your local library for copies.
- Hillsdale
Educational Publishers
- Hillsdale publishes great informative books, tapes and CDs about
Michigan and Michigan people. These are apparently NOT available
in bookstores or online at Amazon. You must order through the publisher
only. Be sure to check out all the links on the left side of the
page, especially the "Awesome Supplemental". References
to MEAP requirements are provided for each title.
- History Channel
- One of the few TV programs mostly dedicated to nonfiction. The History Channel Store has a great collection of titles to buy. Why can't I rent them at my local video store? Why is the entire collection not at my local library.
- International
Documentary Association
- IDA is a nonprofit member service organization, providing publications,
benefits, and a public forum to our membership for issues regarding
nonfiction film/video/multimedia. They host festivals
and award the best nonfiction Their list of award
winners is available for your viewing.
- Justice
Talking
- An archive of excellent free radio debates that cover a
WIDE range of subjects. Just click the links and listen! Perfect
to listen to while reading email or working on the computer for
long periods of time.
- Just
the Facts Video
- Great videos for all ages.
- Knowledge Products
- Knowledge Products is a leading publisher of educational books-on-tapes, in business since 1985. Tapes focus on the great ideas and events of history. While listening to the audiotapes or CDs, you will be exposed to areas of thought that you may have missed in your formal education. However, the treatment of the subject matter is both educational and entertaining.
- Library
of America
- Classic non-fictions (a few fictions too) in attractive bindings
- NPR National Public
Radio
- PBS
(Public Broadcasting System) Video
- Great videos for adults and kids. Includes MANY series including
NOVA, NOW, Sesame Street, Scientific American, Hands-On History
and much more! Check it out.
- Bestselling PBS DVDs - An excellent list
- Pearson
Best Nonfiction Books for Young Readers
- Pearson Learning Group has it all with a powerhouse selection
of supplemental products for grades PreK-12! Our family of imprints--including
Modern Curriculum Press, Celebration Press, Dale Seymour Publications,
Good Year Books, and Globe Fear on -- provides you with exceptional
NSF-funded products, bilingual products, phonics and assessment
materials, accessible programs for special needs and ESL students,
and much more. Visit their online
catalog (use the links on the left).
- Standard
Deviants Educational Videos and DVDs
- Educational topics in an entertaining format on video and DVD
at a college freshman level
(includes college freshman humor). Excellent!
- "Tell Me Why"
Books and Videos
- This series may be one of the video industry's best resources
for supplementing a child's education." (actually, it is great
for grown-ups too)
Research sites TOP
Web sites
TOP
(Click the links to check them out.)
Nonfiction gift ideas for all ages TOP
A short list of people who never stopped learning (on their own, without
college). They were voracious learners and the world is a better place
because of it.
Have you experienced any bias or prejudice against nonfiction or gross
imbalance in favor of fiction over nonfiction. Let me know. I'd be happy
to add your tidbit to this list.
- I was searching for a specific DVD title on Amazon.com, The Greatest Good, an awesome program on forestry and forests. I entered the exact title. Amazon's search engine returned a long list of Greatest Heroes and Legends of the Bible, a bible cartoon series on DVD.
- I was in a Harry W. Schwartz Bookshop at Mequon Pavilions,
12 miles north of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The wallpaper inside the store's bathroom
was made to look like a bookshelf filled with books - all fiction. The
only possible exception was a dictionary. How does a dictionary fit
into the nonfiction category? How about poetry? Hummm, interesting...
- I bought a couple titles at Barnes and Noble Books the other
day (nonfiction of course). My books were put in a Barnes and Noble
bag. In the car I noticed that the front of the bag had images of books
printed on it, all "fiction classics": Gone with the Wind,
The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, Catch 22, Of Mice and Men,
The Bell Jar, Go Tell It on the Mountain. The bag has two sides.
In fairness, might the other side have nonfiction titles? I flipped
it over. Wrong! (Invisible Man, The Maltese Falcon, This Side of
Paradise, Grapes of Wrath, The Old Man and the Sea, The Sound and the
Fury, Death of a Salesman, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn). NOT ONE NONFICTION
TITLE! I thought that maybe they would have treated fiction/nonfiction
evenly, but oh well...
- As I returned from a business trip, my hotel for the night
offered a free guest reading rack loaded with about 400 paperbacks,
probably left behind by former guests. I searched the rack thoroughly...
all fiction.
- We homeschool our kids. A English workbook we are using,
titled English
for the Thoughtful Child was recently reviewed. The reviewer called
the workbook "My least favorite homeschooling book"
because "there are many specific science questions in this book
for which you need to know the answers and will have to do some advance
research. If you want to combine unorganized science topics with your
grammar lessons, this book will be great for you. I already have another
organized science program I am using, so I find this irritating. I would
prefer a grammar program that would concentrate on the grammar/language
aspects." What is wrong with using science for grammar? What should
be substituted? Fiction? The science in the workbook is very basic and
offers topics for language that students can relate to... REAL LIFE!
About Belief
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The Ethics of Belief
This awesome essay was written in 1877 by William Kingdon Clifford. It explains the difference between opinions and beliefs using simple logical examples. Clifford explains that you do not have the right to express an opinion as a belief unless you can support its truthfulness. If it can't be supported, it is merely your opinion, not your belief.
An excerpt from EOB:
"In like manner, if I let myself believe anything on insufficient evidence, there may be no great harm done by the mere belief; it may be true after all, or I may never have occasion to exhibit it in outward acts. But I cannot help doing this great wrong towards Man, that I make myself credulous. The danger to society is not merely that it should believe wrong things, though that is great enough; but that it should become credulous, and lose the habit of testing things and inquiring into them; for then it must sink back into savagery."
Clifford's essay is available in print, possibly from your local or college library. It is a must read. (Merely my... opinion, of course!) |
- Epistemology (the philosophical theory of knowledge) There are lots of ways to believe. Visit this page and learn what flavor you and those you know have accepted.
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