A number of my nonfiction books don't fit into any larger category within my library. Some of these are books I bought just because I was interested. Others I bought because from time to time I have visions of being a fiction writer, and wanted books on these subjects for research purposes. Still others had some tangential relevance to subjects that I'm strongly interested in.

• Given that I'm a huge science fiction fan, you might expect me to have a shelf of books about the real space program. You'd be right.
• When you're interested in science, sometimes you get diverted down paths that look like science but aren't.
• One day when I was a kid, I was at a used-book sale and found a book called The Neutrino: Ghost Particle of the Atom, by Dr. Isaac Asimov. Reading it was like stepping into a whole new world of wonder, for it was an introduction to subatomic physics, written to a level that I could understand. After reading that book I became a lifelong fan of Dr. Asimov's science writings, both his book-length works like The Neutrino and his shorter articles and essays. I began collecting these books, focusing on the anthologies of science essays from his many years at the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. These essays introduced me to many fields of science. I consider Asimov to be the best science-explainer who ever lived, and I have an entire shelf of his science books and essay-collections.
• For several reasons, a few years ago I became extremely interested in ships and seafaring.
• As an amateur military historian, I've collected a number of books on modern military hardware and tactics.