> What I hate when I'm reading these things is the colorful, biography-like nonsense that major publications (and self-important "journalists") like to toss into stories
I've noticed that many supposedly serious, non-fiction books written in the past two decades begin (and are liberally interspersed) with such "prose"; I personally find it so irritating that I invariably drop the book immediately and read no further. As such writing doesn't seem to be associated with any particular author, publisher or theme, I imagine it represents an effort, across the publishing industry, to make non-fiction books more appealing to the general public.
I've noticed that many supposedly serious, non-fiction books written in the past two decades begin (and are liberally interspersed) with such "prose"; I personally find it so irritating that I invariably drop the book immediately and read no further. As such writing doesn't seem to be associated with any particular author, publisher or theme, I imagine it represents an effort, across the publishing industry, to make non-fiction books more appealing to the general public.