A book with a strong argument is a dangerous thing in my hands:
As a reader, I can be somewhat of a pushover.
Perhaps it’s because I grew up loving fiction—and if you can’t suspend your disbelief and buy into a fictional world, you may as well put the book down.
You can’t really do this with nonfiction, though.
A nonfiction reader—and I confess that this happens with essays and journalism, too—ought to be on the lookout. For unsubstantiated claims, for loose logic, for underdeveloped arguments. But throw some style and voice into the mix, and the ground beneath my feet turns to quicksand.
And if an author is assembling arguments that at all confirm prior-held beliefs about the world, well, then there’s real trouble.
Taylor Coe 