As the season again prepares for change and the air begins to carry a frosty chill, readers scramble to finish their 2025 reading goals. With end of year reading goals in mind, don’t forget one more reading challenge. It’s a time where readers can step outside of their comfort zone and read about something from the real world. Challenge yourself to read at least one nonfiction book by the end of the year.

As a genre, nonfiction covers a wide variety of real world topics. It’s not just reading facts from a textbook! While nonfiction is based on reality, it can include many topics like scientific discovery and trailblazing figures in history, historic events that have shaped our world — including ones that aren’t pretty, personal stories, and more. These are real stories, real people, and real-world discoveries.

Even if nonfiction isn’t a genre you normally gravitate towards as a reader, real stories can be just as gripping and interesting as a fictional tale. Whether your typical genre of choice is realistic fiction, fantasy, or even science fiction, nonfiction books can also include the weird, the mind-blowing, and the inspirational. Reading nonfiction can also expand your vocabulary and improve your critical thinking as you root out fact vs. fiction and educate yourself on diverse perspectives throughout both historic and current events, the scientific world, and political commentary. You can also learn from and be inspired by personal stories, develop new skills, gain new insight on topics, and problem-solve with books designed to help expand your thinking and better yourself.

Whatever type of nonfiction book you choose, whether you’re interested in innovation, problem-solving skills, business, hidden stories, new technology, digital literacy skill building, scientific discovery, evolution, the environment, medical understanding, historic events and people throughout the history of the world, stories of human resilience, refugee stories of survival, or books on personal discovery, there’s something for everyone. Stop by the library to check out one of these Young Adult titles, or search our catalog for more topics that inspire you and help expand your understanding of the world around you and before you.