Armchair BEA-Ethics and Nonfiction

I'm sorry about missing the past two days...Looks like I missed genre and literary fiction, and blogger development. I'm not sure how much I would have been able to say anyway. But anyway.

Today is nonfiction and ethics. I'll try and do a little on both.


Non-fiction

I read  non-fiction from time to time. I don't review them, because aside from interesting facts and a wider exploration into the area and maybe a love for the writing style, I don't have anything else to say.

Topics I find interesting include feminism,  sociology, and psychology/sciencey things.

Some of my favourite non fiction books

• How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran. Her take on many issues and situations are mixed in with her own anecdotes and wrapped up in a big dose of funny.
• Doctor Who:The Inside Story by Gary Russel. I got this when it first came out and I was so excited and hyperactive over it. Years later, I still am, mainly because it brings back memories of a decent show. 
• The Equality Illusion by Kat Banyard. It highlights the inequality still present in what we percieve to be gender-equal, in terms of expectations, wages, birth choices and so on. A very interesting read.
• Periodic Tales by Hugh Aldersley Williams. I'm not sure why. It was just good. 

I actually can't think of any more at the moment. I might do another post on this when I can. 

Ethics

It's very easy to fall into peoples' bad books if you're a book blogger, isn't it? Here's some things that I've found that make people not want to kill you.

• Don't plagarise. There's been many scandals involving people ripping off other people. People then give the plagarist unbelievable amounts of flack and it genrally starts off a cycle of people being mean to eachother. In a non blog setting, it can be really serious-as in, university/job possible losing out on serious.  Also, it just isn't nice! People put a lot of work into their blogs. Taking it and passing it off as your own is disrespectful to them, and not making your blog look good.  It's difficult to avoid, with multiple sources of info coming left right and centre, 
• Give credit where it's due. I realise I'm terrible at this here when it comes to random pictures around the internet, where I save pictures to my computer then upload them, but sometimes I remember. I will try and change. 
• Use pictures sensibly. If someone asks you to take their image down, do. Don't pass it off as your own. You can get into bad situations, like Roni Loren, so if in doubt about a picture, maybe don't use it. Stock image sites are safe, flickrs good if you check what licence they're sharing under.
• Be honest, about your opinions and sources and things. Noone wants to read about how much "OMG THIS WAS AMAZING BECAUSE REASONS" and then find you were paid for a good review. Sure, I get free books for review, but that doesn't affect my review. If I don't like something, I give it a bad review. Same thing goes for being friends with authors. It hurts to give someone you like a bad review, but for me, I prefer that than lying about my thoughts on my blog. I list the source of my books in the review, but that doesn't change my view of the book. Just how I got it.
• Negative reviews, I'm not sure what to say. I personally like them-they bring up good points and I generally like reading contrasting opinions. I know some people don't like posting negative ones, but I don't get how you can not want to rant about things. Anyway, regarding negative reviews, do what you want, but don't be mean to those who do other things.
• Just...be nice. Make friends. Banter. Ok, this is less ethical, more don't be someone that people don't like, but still a good tip. Blogging is, for the majority of us, just a hobby, a thing in addition to our normal lives. Don't do things you'd be ashamed of doing in public or that you wouldn't want your off-internet circle of people knowing. Ethics are always going to  cause discussions and disagreements. These are just my views and I'm  looking forwards to carrying on the discussion.