Musings of a Punk Rock Father

I don't know why, but the majority of books I have been reading lately are non-fiction.

I think it started with Joe Bonomo's Sweat: The Story of the Fleshtones, America's Garage Band, a great account of the titular band.  Then came John Grisham's An Innocent Man, a horrifying account of one man's journey through a flawed judicial system (and also the only Grisham book I have read that I would actually recommend).  Another great book, Henry Louis Gates's Colored People was a compelling biography.  Humorous, well-written and compelling, I highly recommend this book.  After that I read Rotten, John Lydon's confusing explanation of his years with the Sex Pistols.  The book was both poorly arranged and not very illuminating.  The Sex Pistol's documentary The Filth and the Fury gave more insight than this biography.  Joe Bonomo's next book, Jerry Lee Lewis: Lost and Found, is a rock n roll masterpiece, one that I plan on writing more about in the coming days.  Right now I am reading Go Tell the Mountain, a book written by The Gun Club frontman Jeffrey Lee Pierce shortly before his death in 1996.

In between these, I did read Animal Farm, a fictional diversion that only lasted a couple of days.  I hope to get back to some fiction soon; for right now, though, I am riveted by these true-life accounts.  Some seem to be a bit hyperbolic.  Could you really expect anything less from Johnny Rotten?  Not all of his stories ring true, but it is hard to tell.  Likewise Pierce's writings seem to contain events that might have happened, but I have a hard time believing he could remember events in so much detail after so much drinking and drug use.  Even if they do spin some unlikely tales, there are kernels of truth.  Even in the extremes, the writers reveal truth about themselves.

I hadn't realized my recent penchant for non-fiction until I started thinking about the next book to put on my reading list.

What do you prefer?  Fiction or non-fiction?  What is the best book you have read recently?