Welcome

This is my new blog about memoirs. I'm going to use this space to discuss the very specific genre of literature. But for the first post I'll answer some questions that would hypothetically be asked about this blog if I had readers.

Who are you? Just an avid memoir reader. I read memoirs like they're going out of style (too late) and read them almost exclusively. This obsession started my Sophomore year of college, and now I am a recent college graduate with lots more reading time. In that time I have read other books (fiction, text books, and such) most notably I took time off memoirs to read the entire Harry Potter series (late I know) and this winter I read the entire Tales of the City series (even later).

Why memoirs? I don't know, I'm just intrigued by them.

What is a memoir? I don't have a official definition but what I consider to be a memoir is as follows. A memoir is a type of autobiography. It differs from an autobiography because it is generally not just a factual account of the entire life of a person; it is more the realm of creative nonfiction. These books tend to take on much smaller spans of time and focus on a specific aspect of a person's life. There is an understanding that a memoir is more or less factual. It is not a requirement of a memoir to be factual, it is understood that some creative license has been taken while writing this account. This deviation from complete fact may be as benign as an incorrect memory or as large as completely fabricated portions (see the infamous Million Little Pieces fiasco). I have always been of the camp that believes that one shouldn't let the truth get in the way of a good story.

How do you rate memoirs? Memoirs tend to be one of the following: well written, entertaining (or shocking), or compelling. Most memoirs are one of these three things, good memoirs are two, and great memoirs are all three. I have read some really good memoirs and some really bad ones, both of which I will document here.

How often do you post? When I finish a memoir I will post about it. I'll seed the blog with a few starter posts about past readings. It may take me a day to read a memoir or weeks. I'll post what I'm currently reading at the end of the most recent post.

Are there rules/what are the rules? Ok, here we go.

1. No celebrity memoirs. Famous authors are the exception as they are not famous for anything other than their writing.

2. I will finish all books before they are reviewed.

3. Books will get scores on three sections: Writing, Entertainment Value, and How Compelling. These are completely arbitrary and my opinion.

4. I reserve the right to break any and all rules at any given time.


So I think that's it. Hope this blog is enjoyable to someone.