Best Nonfiction Books

**TheLastMohican** · 03-04-2009, 01:49 PM

Why should the top-100 list be dominated by fiction titles? Let's assemble a decent list for the underappreciated nonfiction books. Post your suggestions.

Mine (in alphabetical order):

( Show Spoiler )

And many others that I forget at the moment
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**tp6626** · 03-04-2009, 01:57 PM

I've only read three of those.

Here are the ones I enjoyed reading most. Not really classics or anything, but still:

( Show Spoiler )

The ones I'd read above were:

( Show Spoiler )

The Prince and The Wealth of Nations are on my list.

Rudy · 03-04-2009, 02:06 PM

A few more that come to mind:

( Show Spoiler )

RudyHenkel added to this post, 3 minutes and 4 seconds later...

And:

( Show Spoiler )

**Merle** · 03-04-2009, 04:33 PM

My top non-fiction books are probably going to be enjoyed by very few others...
I'm not into non-fiction as an information source, I'd rather get straight to the info myself, I like some philosophy and some lit crit/ cultural crit stuff... but my favourite non-fiction is mostly very specific literary criticism. So, here goes:

1. Sexual Personae - Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson - Camille Paglia
2. The Poetry of Meditation - Louis L. Martz
3. Leviathan - Thomas Hobbes
4. John Donne - John Carey
5. The Conquest of Time - H.G. Wells
6. Areopagita - John Milton
7. On the Pleasures of Hating - William Hazlitt
8. An Essay on the Principles of Human Action - Hazlitt
9. The Republic - Plato
10. The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions - Frederic Jameson

ok... so some are essays or tracts or whatever... but they're self contained works.

**tp6626** · 03-04-2009, 04:40 PM

Fiction 1 - Non-Fiction nil
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**fomatizer** · 03-04-2009, 07:16 PM

Coming immediately to mind are various texts that changed the way people look at subjects or express them. I'm skipping lots but here's some that are often overlooked:

( Show Spoiler )

Rudy · 03-04-2009, 07:19 PM

Isn't Zarathustra fiction? Philosophically directed fiction perhaps... (Sorry, I'm feeling nitpicky
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)

**fomatizer** · 03-04-2009, 07:31 PM

	Originally Posted by RudyHenkel To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Isn't Zarathustra fiction? Philosophically directed fiction perhaps... (Sorry, I'm feeling nitpicky To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. )

Dang, ya got me. Ok, switch that for Beyond Good and Evil or On the Genealogy of Morals, what have ya. Is all parts of the same work, IMO.

fomatizer added to this post, 0 minutes and 45 seconds later...

YAAAY! and that's post #15...off to the games thread.

**Goethe** · 03-05-2009, 02:17 PM

My additions:

Epictetus - The Enchiridion
Thucydides - History of the Peloponnesian War
Livy - History of Rome
Plutarch - Parallel Lives
Castiglione - The Courtyer
Mirandola - Oration on the Dignity of Man
Kierkegaard - Either/Or, Journals
Benjamin Franklin - Autobiography
Goethe - Truth and Poetry: Autobiography
Eckermann - Conversations with Goethe
Schopenhauer - Studies in Pessimism, The World as Will and Representation
Emerson - Complete Essays and Lectures
Nietzsche - I would agree with B&G, G.ofM but, would add On the Use and Abuse of History for Life
Wilde - De Profundis
James - Pragmatism
Collingwood - The Idea of History

**Merle** · 03-05-2009, 03:34 PM

ooh, yeah totally missed De Profundis of my list!
And while we're on Wilde : "The Soul of Man Under Socialism".

**AnEskimo** · 03-05-2009, 06:26 PM

I'm reading: Ideas and Opinions by Albert Einstein, and it is quite good.

**Tenacious B** · 03-08-2009, 12:34 PM

	Originally Posted by RudyHenkel To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	The Road to Serfdom, F. A. von Hayek

Beat me to it, that was the first that came to my mind.

**cyberdabbler** · 04-22-2009, 09:25 AM

Am not well read, and wouldn't begin to suggest that all should read these, but these are my favorites that come to mind, covering many genres and in no particular order:
The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success - Chopra
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bryson
Healthy Healing - Page
Joy of Cooking - Rombauer
A Reader's Encyclopedia - Benet
Understanding Yourself and Others series - Berens
Me Talk Pretty One Day - Sedaris
A Year in Provence - Mayle
The Professor and the Madman - Winchester
And The Band Played On - Shilts

**Stratego** · 04-22-2009, 04:57 PM

New one that has just come out, and looks very interesting.

How to win a cosmic war : God, globalization, and the end of the War on Terror / Reza Aslan.
New York, N.Y. : Random House, 2009.

Just noticed the last name of the author---puts me in mind of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

**CaseBlue** · 04-24-2009, 01:13 AM

For history fans:
de Bello Gallico by Caesar
Lost Victories by Erich von Manstein

**Night Runner** · 04-24-2009, 11:47 AM

The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell.

**luck321** · 05-24-2009, 10:13 AM

the long walk slavomir rawicz

**Ither** · 05-24-2009, 10:35 AM

Some odds and ends:

The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini
Pepys Diary
Ibn Khaldun, History of the World
Hadewijch, Letters
Catherine Bowen, The Lion and the Throne
(a biography of Sir Edward Coke, 1552-1634)

**Winterstorm** · 05-24-2009, 10:57 AM

"God's Playground" Norman Davies
"The History of Polish Literature" Czesław Miłosz

03-04-2009, 01:49 PM	#1
TheLastMohican Core Member [187%] MBTI: ENTJ Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 7,498	Why should the top-100 list be dominated by fiction titles? Let's assemble a decent list for the underappreciated nonfiction books. Post your suggestions. Mine (in alphabetical order): ( Show Spoiler ) The Art of War A Brief History of Time The Communist Manifesto (whether or not you agree with it, it's an important work) The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire The Diary of Anne Frank The Origin of Species The Prince Republic Up From Slavery The Wealth of Nations And many others that I forget at the moment To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
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03-04-2009, 01:57 PM	#2
tp6626 Core Member [108%] MBTI: iNTj Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 4,345	I've only read three of those. Here are the ones I enjoyed reading most. Not really classics or anything, but still: ( Show Spoiler ) The Black Swan Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things Emotional Intelligence Unweaving the Rainbow Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative Understanding Organisations General Relativity Freakonomics Blink The ones I'd read above were: ( Show Spoiler ) Art of War Brief History Origin The Prince and The Wealth of Nations are on my list.
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03-04-2009, 02:06 PM	#3
Rudy Administrator MBTI: INfJ Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 21,722	A few more that come to mind: ( Show Spoiler ) The Road to Serfdom, F. A. von Hayek Relativity, Albert Einstein The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas S. Kuhn Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis (Don't agree with it, but important) RudyHenkel added to this post, 3 minutes and 4 seconds later... And: ( Show Spoiler ) The Rights of Man - Thomas Paine The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins (the most influential of his books)
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03-04-2009, 04:33 PM	#4
Merle Veteran Member [56%] MBTI: INTP Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 2,259	My top non-fiction books are probably going to be enjoyed by very few others... I'm not into non-fiction as an information source, I'd rather get straight to the info myself, I like some philosophy and some lit crit/ cultural crit stuff... but my favourite non-fiction is mostly very specific literary criticism. So, here goes: 1. Sexual Personae - Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson - Camille Paglia 2. The Poetry of Meditation - Louis L. Martz 3. Leviathan - Thomas Hobbes 4. John Donne - John Carey 5. The Conquest of Time - H.G. Wells 6. Areopagita - John Milton 7. On the Pleasures of Hating - William Hazlitt 8. An Essay on the Principles of Human Action - Hazlitt 9. The Republic - Plato 10. The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions - Frederic Jameson ok... so some are essays or tracts or whatever... but they're self contained works.
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03-04-2009, 04:40 PM	#5
tp6626 Core Member [108%] MBTI: iNTj Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 4,345	Fiction 1 - Non-Fiction nil To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
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03-04-2009, 07:16 PM	#6
fomatizer Member [03%] MBTI: Intp Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 157	Coming immediately to mind are various texts that changed the way people look at subjects or express them. I'm skipping lots but here's some that are often overlooked: ( Show Spoiler ) The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression by Studs Terkel was one of the first books I paid full price for as a young adult (I usually bought second-hand). (The above are my personal favs) and I dunno...various recent texts on linguistics and literary theory...Chomsky, the French situationalism, structuralism, post-structuralism, post-modernism (not taking sides, here) ...and other assorted: To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein Sexual Personae by Camille Paglia In Cold Blood by Truman Capote Why We Can't Wait by Martin Luther King by Jr. Mathematics for the Million/How to Master the Magic of Numbers by Lancelot Hogben
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03-04-2009, 07:19 PM	#7
Rudy Administrator MBTI: INfJ Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 21,722	Isn't Zarathustra fiction? Philosophically directed fiction perhaps... (Sorry, I'm feeling nitpicky To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. )
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03-05-2009, 02:17 PM	#9
Goethe New Member [01%] MBTI: INFJ Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 24	My additions: Epictetus - The Enchiridion Thucydides - History of the Peloponnesian War Livy - History of Rome Plutarch - Parallel Lives Castiglione - The Courtyer Mirandola - Oration on the Dignity of Man Kierkegaard - Either/Or, Journals Benjamin Franklin - Autobiography Goethe - Truth and Poetry: Autobiography Eckermann - Conversations with Goethe Schopenhauer - Studies in Pessimism, The World as Will and Representation Emerson - Complete Essays and Lectures Nietzsche - I would agree with B&G, G.ofM but, would add On the Use and Abuse of History for Life Wilde - De Profundis James - Pragmatism Collingwood - The Idea of History
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03-05-2009, 03:34 PM	#10
Merle Veteran Member [56%] MBTI: INTP Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 2,259	ooh, yeah totally missed De Profundis of my list! And while we're on Wilde : "The Soul of Man Under Socialism".
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03-05-2009, 06:26 PM	#11
AnEskimo New Member [01%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 56	I'm reading: Ideas and Opinions by Albert Einstein, and it is quite good.
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04-22-2009, 09:25 AM	#13
cyberdabbler New Member [01%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 8	Am not well read, and wouldn't begin to suggest that all should read these, but these are my favorites that come to mind, covering many genres and in no particular order: The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success - Chopra A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bryson Healthy Healing - Page Joy of Cooking - Rombauer A Reader's Encyclopedia - Benet Understanding Yourself and Others series - Berens Me Talk Pretty One Day - Sedaris A Year in Provence - Mayle The Professor and the Madman - Winchester And The Band Played On - Shilts
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04-22-2009, 04:57 PM	#14
Stratego Veteran Member [57%] MBTI: InTJ Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 2,283	New one that has just come out, and looks very interesting. How to win a cosmic war : God, globalization, and the end of the War on Terror / Reza Aslan. New York, N.Y. : Random House, 2009. Just noticed the last name of the author---puts me in mind of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.
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04-24-2009, 01:13 AM	#15
CaseBlue New Member [01%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 54	For history fans: de Bello Gallico by Caesar Lost Victories by Erich von Manstein
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04-24-2009, 11:47 AM	#16
Night Runner Core Member [148%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 5,931	The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell.
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05-24-2009, 10:13 AM	#17
luck321 New Member [01%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 13	the long walk slavomir rawicz
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05-24-2009, 10:35 AM	#18
Ither Member [19%] MBTI: INTx Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 774	Some odds and ends: The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini Pepys Diary Ibn Khaldun, History of the World Hadewijch, Letters Catherine Bowen, The Lion and the Throne (a biography of Sir Edward Coke, 1552-1634)
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05-24-2009, 10:57 AM	#19
Winterstorm New Member [01%] MBTI: INTJ Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 74	"God's Playground" Norman Davies "The History of Polish Literature" Czesław Miłosz
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