Non-fiction

[Jean-Baptiste]

Hm. Yes, _The Devil in the White City_ does sound interesting. Above, genoveva suggested that one as well. I had not heard of it before, but I have been quite intrigued by that Fair.

I had my eye on Capote, genoveva, but I'm not big on True Murder stuff. I'm thinking about finding a copy of Ralph Steadman's new book about Hunter S. Thompson: _The Joke's Over_.

I like the title of this book about Tolstoy, Idril. Perhaps such a book could bring me to an appreciation of his work (he's one of my least favorite authors, but I admit that I haven't given him a fair hearing.)

mtpspur: I'm not usually very tolerant of flag waving books, but if the man's life is on the level of Patton's, that could be interesting.

Thanks for all the suggestions, all. Keep 'em coming! This thread will be a great stockpile of ideas for when I discover my passion for nonfiction.

[ennison]

There have been periods in 'My Life As A Reader' when I have read only non-fiction. The amount and variety of non-fiction OUT THERE is overwhelming and no one can ever do anything but scrape the surface of the knowlege to be found there. I guess most of us read those books that contain information on subjects that interest us, readily acknowledging that we sometimes only dip into the manuals, catalogues, encyclopaedias, commentaries, criticisms, guides, anthologies etc that delight and educate us. Sometimes we buy a book at random on a topic that for that moment in our lives catches our attention. On my kitchen table (messy messy boy me) now I can see two poetry anthologies (An Tuill and A Little Treasury of Modern Poetry -editor Oscar Williams); The Power of Art by Schama; Mushrooms of Great Britain and Europe by Phillips; American History-A Survey by Current, Williams and Freidel; Songs of Gaelic Scotland by Gillies;Deisel Engines by Wharton;Healing Threads, Beith; Superstars of The World Cup (My young fellow's) and a Biobull. Ah but poems are creative writing not non-fiction you'll say or else you'll say 'For goodness sake have you room to eat at that table? You should tidy it' and I agree. Still allow me my little digressions (Before the wrath of the only woman who ever achieved anything by talking descends on my head again)
Here are another few enjoyable non-fiction books of general interest. (These are scattered elsewhere, their positions as indiscriminate as the mind of the reader that chewed on them)

Uncle Tungsten - Sachs

Scurvy - Bown

Stalin - Montefiore

King Leopold's Ghost - Hochschild

Islomania - Clarke

My Schools and Schoolmasters - Miller

Testament of Youth - Brittain

Gulag - Anne Applebaum

Badland - Raban

The Botany of Desire - Pollan (Well-named eh)

Seven Wonders of The Industrial World - Cadbury

Tank - Wright

Cider With Rosie - Lee

Uttermost Part of The Earth - Bridges (My favourite but I'm sure long out of print unless in Argentina)

The Blue and The Gray - Commager - which text I read from cover to cover during a three month stay in a children's hospital ward aged 8 and which retains an almost mystical pull upon my heart as the ultimate book about the effects of war on a nation in the words of those who experienced it.

So these are a few but you will find what you like yourself and I doubt if many of the books above would strike a chord with all that many others on this forum though I suppose one or two might. Happy reading.

[liesl]

i find that most non-fiction i read is historical non-fiction. i recently finished reading two books i received for christmas - the first two books of 'Monarchy' by David Starkey.

As for other non-fiction i would absolutely love to read Truman Capote - 'In Cold Blood' but unfortunately my university library doesn't own a copy and i am too busy with exam revision and essay planning to find one.

[LPRox015]

The Diary Of Anne Frank is definitely a great book! Enjoi!

[atiguhya padma]

The Discovery of France - Graham Robb
An Intimate History of Humanity - Theodore Zeldin
A History of Bombing - Sven Lindqvist
Family Britain - David Kynaston
Bad Science - Ben Goldacre
God is Not Great - Christopher Hitchens
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
A History of Christianity - Diarmuid Maculloch
Europe - Geert Mak

All excellent reads

[dfloyd]

Capote's In Cold Blood and Hemingway's A Moveable Feast would be good choices. Good reads but fairly easy to read. If reading about the murder of a Kansas family sounds too horrorific for you, try Hemingway's semi-autobiogrphical book about his days in 1920s Paris. It's interesting and
you'll learn something.

[atiguhya padma]

Robert Winder's magnificent Bloody Foreigners shows why immigration is so important to a growing, vibrant culture.

[janesmith]

"Marie Antoinette: The Journey" - Antonia Fraser

[LuggageFan]

I recently read Salt: A World History by Kurlansky. Its about the way that human society and culture grew around the salt markets. I liked the book a lot. Many different bits of cultural knowledge and insight.

Reading this now. Pretty good!

[arrytus]

1] Herodotus

2] Thucydides

3] Gulag Archipelago 1-3 by Alexander Solzhenitsyn [this will blow your mind]

4] 'Roughing it' By Mark Twain

5] The collected letters of Van Gogh [edit insert]

6]'Down and out in paris and london', 'homage to catalonia', and 'road to wigan pier' by George Orwell

7] 'in cold blood' by truman capote

8] Tom Wolfe's Electric kool-aid acid test

9] Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon