Non-fiction Books
 

Recommend some non-fiction books that you like.

Here are some from me:

Paul Griffiths - Modern Music and After

Alasdair MacIntyre - After Virtue

Donald Kroodsma - The Singing Life of Birds

Roger Scruton - The Aesthetics of Music

Douglas R. Hofstadter - Godel, Escher, Bach

Daniel C. Dennett - Consciousness Explained

Thucydides - History of the Peloponnesian War

Any Greek or Roman historical accounts. Extremely entertaining.

Just finished reading A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

loved it

actually any Oprah book of the month is good reading.

You can't go wrong with Hitler's Mein Kampf either.:)

haha
my girlfriend actually bought a million little pieces... and i actually read about a third of it... it's not completely terrible... pretty trite but strangely enjoyable... like watching bad TV whilst mindnumbingly bored....

i'm reading a philosophy of boredom just now which isn't bad but not great... some interesting stuff but some irrevelevant waffle as well....

has anyone read guns, germs and steel? i got it a little while ago, haven't got round to it yet... it seems quite interesting....

I will say, you can actually get some entertaining novels from Oprah's Book Club. She has Joyce Carol Oates in there a lot, who I tend to like (but sometimes hate).

Another fantastic book (these are probably of only the remotest interest to people who give a shit about Roman history): Livy's The Early History of Rome. (I decided to observe the formal rules of book titles for once, instead of just putting them in quotes.)

I almost bought that History of the Peloponnesian War book not so long ago. But damned if I can recall which book shop I saw it in.

Jerry Manders 'Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television' is a good one. It's not as angry and confrontational as the title suggests. He writes in a pretty level headed and balanced way.

I liked Ray Kurzweils 'The Age of Spiritual Machines' a lot. Although I'm not really sure I totally agree with his stance. (That it's inevitable that machines will one day exceed human intelligence).

death be not proud.
A journalist wrote it about his sons life after he died of some disease.

Didn't that book turn out to be not all that non-fiction...

David Foster Wallace's Consider The Lobster is a good read.

Anything by Chuck Klosterman is good, too.

i've read guns germs and steel. it's fucking fantastic

One of my prized possessions is a copy of Oliver Cromwell; A History by Samuel HArden Church, Litt. D, A.M. It's the 1899 edition, celebrating the 300th anniversary of Cromwell's birth, and was limited to 600 copies, each hand-signed and numbered. Mine is number 487. So I have to say that as one.

Other non-fiction books I'm most fond of include:

Synchronicity by C G Jung,

Wally Hammond: The Reasons Why by David Foot,

A Mirrror of Witchcraft by Christina Hole,

The Golden Bough by Sir James George Frazer,

and two books about my local area, both late 19th century, by Hilda Gamlin; namely 'Twixt Mersey and Dee and Chronicles or Memories of Birkenhead

Whaaaaa? 1899 edition. Ltd to 600? That must be worth a shitload. There must also be a good story as to how a book such as that came into your posession. And there I was salivating over a 1st edition of Philip K Dicks Ubik in a bookshop window just the other day.

Not much of a story; I'm a Cromwell fan, and I love antiquarian books. I spend so much time in antiquarian bookshops that occaisionally something special comes my way (that's exactly why I spend quite so much time there). And the dealers know me, thyey'll keep stuff for me to see, and give me a discount. That's how the book world works, it's nice.

I never buy valuable editions of books, because there's no hope of me keeping them in good condition.

I'm one of those people who dog-ear books, drop them in the tub, spill tea on them, bend the covers, etc.

Same with vinyl - I could NEVER leave an album unopened in its original packaging. I could never resist the satanic pull to play it.

Rotton-The John Lydon autobiography was pretty good.

I liked that, LifeD. In sort of the same vein, Please Kill Me by Legs McNeil is a good read too.

pretty funny how oprah went horseshit on frey, i wasnt really interested in it at all previously. now that everyone hates him and its not all the non-fiction its sparked my interest and im gonna be reading that.

right now im reading a heartbreaking work of staggering genius by dave eggers and its pretty good.

bob dylans book was good

i cant really think, but ill post more as they come to me...

OH YEAH

i night by elie wiesel was really good, my mom bought it for me after she saw it on oprah

bruce chatwin- what am i doing here?
(travels the world, meets amazing people, one of the best writers i've ever read)

I am exactly the same way - I coonsume books and shit them out.

But in my experience, people who are interested in Greek and Roman history keep their books in pristine condition....