Why can't I read non-fiction?

I've been reading(or rather trying to read) non-fiction for sometime now. I have 4 on my "currently reading" list:
1. If its Raining in Brazil, buy Starbucks: An interesting book about macro economic factors and how they affect the stock market.
2. The Tipping Point: A book by Malcom Gladwell on social networks and how they can spread ideas in the same way epidemics do.
3. Who took my money?: Another book by the Rich Dad, Poor Dad guy(just can't remember his name).
4. 7 Habbits of Highly Effective Teenagers: For those who know my age and are wondering why I'm reading this one... maybe I'll post about it one of these days:)

Its been more than a fortnight(actually its almost a month now), and I'm not even close to finishing a single one of them! I wonder why is that? Its definitely not because I don't enjoy books, I LOVE books. This recent inability to read them made me doubt this very statement. So on Friday night I went to the library and issued a Steve Martin legal thriller(The Attorney) and was done with it by Saturday night. That's close to 500 pages in a day!
Its not that non-fiction books are boring, infact some of them are very thought provoking, I've really enjoyed reading the few that I've actually managed to finish, but somehow I just don't seem to be able to get through most of them. I know many people who read non-fiction on a regular basis. My mom loves reading biographies, Dad is all into the Stock Market genre and my roomie has devoured the Gita, the Bible, Gitanjali, Plato and what not!
I've been giving this issue a lot of thought recently. The first question that came to my mind was, why would I want to read non-fiction in the first place? The answer to that was simple, I enjoy learning new things about this crazy but somehow logical world of ours, I get a kick out of finding out how the weather in South America affects the share price of a utilities company on this side of the world, or how is the spread of AIDS is very similar to the spread of the Hush Puppies shoes craze in the pubs in Newyork. And non-fiction is the clear choice for this kind of info. So obviously these books have the stuff that I want, but then why (the hell) can't I read these books?

After spending sometime, building and shooting down theories I think I've got it. Its the same reason that children are taught lessons through stories. Don't get it? Its the same reason that bitter pills come with sugar coated coverings. I want the pill, infact at some levels I need the pill, but I can't handle the bitter taste that comes with it, I'm still the 10 year old who wants to find out why it rains, but I don't want a book on Meteorology or the study of atmospheric phenomena!
Thus my friends....(and other people who for some strange/scary reason are reading this blog), I find refuge in Fiction. I quench my thirst for knowledge of the functioning of Airports or Hospitals or of the Auto Industry by reading Arthur Hailey, I understand the intricacies of Western Law through John Grisham, study the Green House effect (or the lack of it) with Michael Crichton and in an introspective mood seek the company of Paulo Coelho. These are my teachers, telling me stories about people who don't exist going about their imaginary lives, fighting cases, landing airplanes or curing patients, and I take it all in with a mouth hanging open, busy gulping down sweet colored goodies, not knowing or caring that they hide bitter pills inside :)




--------UPDATE(Aug 3rd '05)--------

Finished Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince(600 pages) in 24 hours. It was just about O.K., however there is no point discussing the book. Doesn't matter whether the book is good or not, coz Rowlings got all of us hooked, and she knows it :). She writes and we read, thats the way it is and will remain till the 7th book. PS: Someone does die, and that person is.....
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not Harry :P

Quarter Century

My Blog is 25 posts old!! Its been a nice ride, though not "all that I ever hoped for". You see I'm very good at hoping for things and thus my poor (25 posts) old blog can't possibly hope to match up to the expectations, but finally the best/only question I ask my self is, if I had to would I do it again and the answer is a no brainer "YES". So there you go, I'm happy to be here on this 25th attempt at.... whatever that is:). Since the only reason, I'm writing this post is that I have nothing else to do right now. Let me update you(who exactly are you? and why would you ever read my blog??), on my little discoveries over the last two weeks.
1. RSS Feeds: I know, I know RSS(Really Simple Syndicate) has been there for a while now, but I "discovered" them for myself only a few weeks back.
2. Bloglines: This online feed reader was a natural extension to the RSS thingy. Its really amazing, one of the few tools/applications that can drastically improve your productivity(in my case productivity means, I can now monitor a dozen more blogs to pass my time:).
3. Firefox: This browser rocks!! I love tabs :D

Every time, I don't blog for sometime, when I come back, I feel confused, I don't know what to blog about, sometimes so much has happened that it would require a couple of hours to put it all down and sometimes you really don't have much to say at all. This particular instance is a combination of the two. I started writing this post after reading a number of blogs archives and thinking that it would be awesome to go back a year in time and read about the person you were, and then the thought struck me that If I don't write about who I am today, how can I read about it one year from now??