Does anyone read non-fiction? [Archive]

The Mattador

02/15/2008, 17:49

I see a lot of threads/posts on this forum about fiction/fantasy books, but I wonder who reads non-fiction and not necessarily biographies...

Three of the best that I have read in recent years are:

The Essential Writings of Machiavelli
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Dr. Stephen R. Covey

I like anything that can be related back to real life. Don't get me wrong, I do like my Harry Potter books and the like...I was just curious...

theanalogkid

02/15/2008, 18:29

I read a lot of history, astronomony, physics, and natural history books.

JGonspy

02/15/2008, 19:29

Most of my non-fiction consists of psychology textbooks right now. However, I have read The Art of War by Sun Tzu and The World We Want by Mark Kingwell which were both pretty good.

Maniac_nmt

02/15/2008, 21:55

I love Machiavelli's The Prince.

Caser's Conquest of Gaul is a great read, and I love his writing style.

Some other good ones I've read this year.

Cnut - England's Viking King
1000 - England in the year 1000
Under the Black Flag - it's a history of Piracy in the New World (Captain Kidd, Blackbeard, etc)
The Normans
211 Things for Bright Boy to do - this is a great book, and definitely not for 'boys' in the traditional sense of the word.

others I've read in the past I'd recommend:

The Heimskringla
The Icelandic Sagas - both of these are gripping reads, that read more like fantasy then the histories they are.
Dungeon, Fire, and Sword

Darkseid Sr.

02/15/2008, 21:59

If I can find something on medieval warfare or Roman battles and democracy, I'll read it. :)

AlienFlanders

02/16/2008, 05:49

Machiavelli's The Prince and Sun Tzu's the Art of War are very interesting reads.

Aristotle's Politics is very interesting regarding the fact that some cities (read Countries) are not always instantly ready to change their form of government.

Scott Peck's The Road Less Travelled is an interesting journey into religion.

I found Musashi's Book of Five Rings an interesting biography of a Samurai master combatant.

Shinigami

02/16/2008, 07:36

So far only non-fiction that I have readed was about J.J.R Tolkien's life.

thepunisher27

02/16/2008, 13:32

In Cold Blood by truman Capote in my opinion defines Non-Fiction Literature.

I've read alot of great war Memoires in my opinion the best are from the Vietnam era. If I Die In A Combat Zone Box Me Up and Ship Me Home by Tim O'brien stands out as a good quick read.

I read the book The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt is pretty good.It's about the Fenice which is a play house in Venice that burned down and how it affects the populace.

Finally there are two books that are near and dear to my heart in nonfiction they are by David Kushner: The first is Johhny Magic and the card shark kids which is about a former magic player turned card counter, and second is Masters of Doom which is about the two guys who created doom in the 80's.

The Mattador

02/16/2008, 14:29

In Cold Blood by truman Capote in my opinion defines Non-Fiction Literature.

I, too, have read this book and at first didn't think to put it in the category of non-fiction, but it is a great book! My girlfriend passed it on to me from her collection and I was surprised because the movie about how Capote fell in love with one of the murderers off-put me from the book, but you can tell in the book how he concentrates on one character more than any others and it's a little creepy...

thepunisher27

02/16/2008, 14:35

I, too, have read this book and at first didn't think to put it in the category of non-fiction, but it is a great book! My girlfriend passed it on to me from her collection and I was surprised because the movie about how Capote fell in love with one of the murderers off-put me from the book, but you can tell in the book how he concentrates on one character more than any others and it's a little creepy...
The description of the book is absolutely astounding though, the first 5 pages are just the setting, I think he focused more on Perry because he was willing to share information much more willingly and freely than his accomplise.

charlesdward

02/18/2008, 03:21

I enjoy The Art Of War, both the one by Sun Tzu and the one by Machiavelli.
A personal favourite that I've gone back to many times over the years is Dracula: Prince of Many Faces (http://www.amazon.com/Dracula-Prince-Many-Faces-Times/dp/0316286567), by Raymond T. McNally and Radu Florescu.
A biography of the infamous Vlad Tepes (The Impaler), that essentially forms a snapshot of the climate of political intrigue and warfare in fifteenth-century Europe.

readyeddy?

02/18/2008, 06:17

I don't read as much nonfiction as I probably should. I read a biography of Ivan the Terrible and Hunter S. Thompson's Hell's Angels not long ago. I like to read about animal behaviour and the old west off and on. Most of my nonfiction comes from magazines like Discover.

I try to keep up with Robert Peldon's editions of World's Most Dangerous Places. It';s usually a good barometer of the political climate in the more volatile regions of the world. By the way, the U.S. always seems to make the list.

I like books about rock music such as the Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock and Rock the Rough Guide.

These are things that catch my interest.

AlienFlanders

02/18/2008, 07:50

Another non fiction book I find well worth a read is Doris Lessing's Cats, one episode is more for cat haters but it is an interesting biography of Lessing's cat interactions through her life.

neutralmarkhot

02/27/2008, 18:30

i read a lot of bios. mostly music and baseball related.

Pashmina

02/27/2008, 19:43

Read a few non-fiction. Can't remember what they were, except one about Japanese culture.

MattPetersen

02/28/2008, 15:17

I read TONS of nonfiction to keep up with the subjects I teach in class.
I love Science, History, and Social Sciences so I tend to lean toward those.

I will pick up the occasional autobiography about someone I find interesting (like Ben Franklin, Theodore Roosevelt, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle etc.)

I also like to read those Unsolved Mysteries type books that write about/classify paranormal activities and strange sightings.

I'll read just about anything as long as it is of interest to me.... ;)

DeltaPi1049

02/28/2008, 19:36

I love a lot of non-fiction books, especially about history. The farther back the better.

I also love reading biography and sports books - Moneyball is by far my favorite sports book.

bagman04

02/29/2008, 03:36

I do. Usually is political related stuff. The occasional funny.

pxb006

02/29/2008, 10:55

I read a lot of bios and history related non-fiction. Currently reading Boom- Voices of the Sixties by Tom Brokaw. Pretty good stuff.

bagman04

03/02/2008, 02:15

Currently reading Liberalism is a Mental Disorder. I spent half my afternoon reading this, I cannot wait to read more of Michael Savage's work.

readyeddy?

03/02/2008, 07:43

I'm currently reading a biography of Kit Carson called Blood and Thunder. I can't think of the author's name and the book's in my locker at work.

TheComedian

03/02/2008, 17:25

I read far more non-fiction than fiction.

For non-fiction that anyone would enjoy I highly recommend:

Blink:The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

Black Swan:The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More by Chris Anderson

The Accelerating Universe: Infinite Expansion, the Cosmological Constant, and the Beauty of the Cosmos by Mario Livio

CustomCreator

03/03/2008, 16:02

I, too, enjoy biographies of interesting people and historical accounts of events.

Daniel Stashower has written a couple of very interesting books that I recommend highly. The Beautiful Cigar Girl is a highly detailed account of the murder of Mary Rogers, the first high-profile murder case in American history, and Edgar Allen Poe's attempt to use it to revive his flagging literary career by inventing the genre of detective fiction. The Boy Genius and the Mogul tells the tale of the invention of television and the struggles of a lone inventor to overcome the monopolies of the American captains of industry.

Wodehouse, a recent biography of P.G. Wodehouse, tells a fascinating story of the popular humorist (creator of Jeeves)'s experiences as a captive of the Nazis in occupied France, and how he was branded a collaborator for making certain radio broadcasts while their prisoner.

Lion of Hollywood tells the story of Louis B. Mayer's humble beginnings, reign as the King of Hollywood, and decline in the postwar years, along the way including fascinating anecdotes like Mayer's attempts to "cure" Van Johnson of his homosexuality and his turning down the new property of Mickey Mouse.

VelvetGuru9

03/04/2008, 00:21

My uncle wrote the greatest non-fiction book about baseball. They say that without it there would be no "Ball Four" by Jim Bouton. It's called the Long Season and it pretty much drove him out of baseball as a player because back in those days no one had ever broken the "code of the locker-room".

Hatut Zeraze

03/15/2008, 13:06

I used to never read non-fiction. I was a narrative junkie. In the last 10 years or so, I've broadened my horizons.

In the last year or two, though, the only non-fiction I've been reading are "current events," aka "political," books. I'll refrain from discussing which ones since that is the kind of thing that tends to push threads off-topic.

readyeddy?

03/15/2008, 15:19

So how do you all feel about historical fiction? I just bought a book telling the story of Genghis Khan that looks like it should be fun and informative.

Wyldstaar

03/16/2008, 18:01

After I got hooked on Eric Flint's 1632 alternate history novels, I began to collect lots of other books about the period. Several different histories of the Thrity-Years War, a couple of biographies on Gustavus Adolphus II, Warfare in the 17th Century, Naval Combat in the 17th Century, that sort of thing.

tidge

03/26/2008, 19:56

I try to mix in non-fiction as one of my "current" reads.

Right now I'm reading Humphrey Carpenter's Biography of JRR Tolkien. I also have the biography of Douglas Adams Wish You Were Here (which I plan to skim for the Doctor Who and Infocom bits, and then reread if I like).I plan to reread bits of the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich before starting in on Inside the Third Reich.

My audio-collection of night-time "fall asleeps" has a huge portion of the BBC "This Sceptred Isle" series. There are four series (that I am aware of) of 15 minute episodes. The first is ~215 episodes of the history of the English Isles from pre-Roman to the 20th century...followed by another 90 part series covering the 20th century. Then there is a 90 part series based only on the British Empire (from the conquest of Ireland through Pakistan Independence) and a small series on family dynasties.

CustomCreator

04/04/2008, 13:27

On the subject of non-fiction, I'm currently reading The Ten-Cent Plague by David Hajdu. If you like comic books (and I think everyone on this board does, or at least did at one time), you'll find it very interesting.

Rokk_Krinn

04/23/2008, 19:07

I'd say my reading - which is -a lot- (as those who participated in the first "Recommend a Book" thread remember :laugh: ) - is split maybe 60/40 in favour of non-fiction (all sorts of topics).

Current non-fiction books on my reading table (rotate through and read a bit of each of them every day until finished and another book enters the queue): "Song Man" ("sequel" to "Guitar Man" by Will Hodgkinson; I highly recommend that book and may feel the same about "Song Man" though it's still a bit early to tell), "The Music Lesson" (by Victor Wooten, suggested to me by VelvetGuru), "Miracle Mongers and Their Methods" (by Harry Houdini; yes, the one you're thinking of), the 7th edition of "Bloodstain Pattern Recognition" (really just a refresher from the prior edition I own and studied), and "The Primal Cheeseburger".

MagicMaster

04/23/2008, 19:21

I'm all about Non-Fiction Humor. Sarah Vowell? Yup! Chuck Klosterman? Assuredly! Julia Sweeny? Don't mind if I do!

To this day it's a struggle for me to fall asleep if my ipod isn't blaring Me Talk Pretty One Day or (the very much not funny) The Disappearance: A Primer of Loss GUT WRENCHING!!!!!!!!

lensnart

05/01/2008, 13:43

I read a lot of non-fiction, lately I have been really into off-the wall autobiographies I highly suggest:

A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius - David Eggers
(pulitzer nominated journal of an average guy)

How To Talk Dirty and Influence people - Lenny Bruce
(crazy autobiography by one of the most important comedians of all time)

Hells Angels - Hunter S. Thompson
(Hunter hangs with the Hells Angels, hilarity and terrifying events ensue)

Other solid non-fiction stuff:

Hiroshima - John Hersey
(stories told by survivors, haunting and incredible)

The Blind Watchmaker or The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins
(He makes science compelling and interesting)

Heavier Than Heaven - Charles Cross
(the best rock and roll biography I have read, even if you hate Nirvana it is a compelling read)

And any book about Nikola Tesla. Tesla is the most interesting person you will ever read about, I don't think it is possible to write a boring book about his insane and awesome exploits. The guy made a death ray and an earthquake machine, not to mention inventing the radio and alternating current. Just read about him, trust me it will blow your mind.

CustomCreator

05/30/2008, 09:39

I just finished a biography of Nikola Tesla, the inventor of the alternating current polyphase system that makes so many of our modern conveniences possible (as well as countless other discoveries and innovations), and I realized what a parallel there is to his life and that of a famous comic-book scientist, Dr. Sivana!

In his origin story in Whiz Comics #15, Dr. Sivana was shown to have started out as a benevolent scientist who wanted to use his discoveries to help mankind; but he was thwarted by the business tycoons who saw his innovations as a threat ("Revolutionize industry? But that's just what we don't want to do!"). Years of this caused him to turn his back on humanity.

Dr. Tesla underwent the same treatment from the robber barons of the turn of the last century, particularly J.P. Morgan. Tesla had a plan, a most likely workable plan, to broadcast power without the need for wires. Morgan saw this as a threat to his holdings; power without wires would severely limit the market for his copper mines. So not only did Morgan refuse to provide Tesla with the funds he needed to make his dream work, he blocked Tesla from receiving the funds elsewhere.

Frontman

05/30/2008, 23:45

In a word; yes.

I read various books, mostly fiction. However, I do read on things that I'm interested in, namely the paranormal. I just read "The Ghosts of Yellowstone" as I was recently there for vacation and wanted to do a bit of amatuer ghosthunting.

No, I didn't find much.

I also will be reading "Death in Yellowstone" which I like to call "How to get yourself killed by being stupid."

Darth Sabre

06/28/2008, 03:32

I read a lot of books on politics, bios, and have a special interest in WWII.

I started Arto of War by Sun tzu then loaned it to my boss. This was last fall. I just got it back. I'll be reading it soon. Right after I read The Federalist Papers.

Gargantua

07/04/2008, 09:48

I've been reading non-fiction more and more. Primarily history and historical biography, but I'm not set in that. For example, I just finished a new biography of James Polk by Borneman, but I also recently read part of a new book called Predictably Irrational on why people make the decisions that they do. Fascinating stuff and I do want to go back and finish it.

wintremute

07/09/2008, 15:43

I really like "Blink" and Tipping Point" and really any article by Gladwell (they can be found here: http://www.gladwell.com/archive.html )

Also, one of the most interesting books I've ever read is "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond. It is a book I often recommend and try to give out as gifts. For those of you who have never heard it (or have not seen the TV series that doesn't live up to it), it tries to answer the question of why European and Asian society/cultures have dominated the world. In other words (for example), why did the Europeans colonize the Americas rather than the Incas colonize China?

wintremute

07/09/2008, 15:58

wintremute

07/09/2008, 16:02