Your Favorite Non-Fiction books
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 8:29 amOk, I'd promised to do this awhile ago with the fictionalized side, so I put it to the Outpost membership: What are your current (or all-time) favorite non-fiction books. Like so many of these lists my favs can change somewhat but always in the top 10:
Lies My Teacher Told Me--James Loewen. A devastating indictment of current textbooks used for teaching U.S. History in high schools and (using primary literature) discussions of what the major textbooks got wrong
Parliament of Whores--P.J. O'Rourke. In my opinion the most humorous of his books, and although I don't agree with a lot of his political stances, he makes some insightful commentary on the U.S. Goverment.
His Excellency, George Washington--Joseph Ellis. Perhaps the modern definitive biography of our first president. Read it and you may agree with me that he was our greatest chief executive
The Greatest Sfi-Fi Moveies Never Made--David Hughes. A bit outdated, but a nice examination of how some great ideas for movie end up in development hell
Intern--Doctor X. An Old book (1963) that is the diary of a first-year medical resident during his intern year. A fascinating window on medial training and medical history
The Big Book of Conspiracies--Doug Moench. Kinda of in the grey zone of "non-fiction", still if your a conspiracy buff at all, you'll love this book
The Truth About Dogs--Stephen Budiansky. Great book about the psychology of dogs, why we act the way they do, and how we act toward them
A Distant Mirror--Barbera Tuchman, One of the most brilliant historians of the 20th century on a tour de force review of the 14th century and the things that occurred during that time that affect us today.
Retrofitting Blade Runner: Issues in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner and Phillip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?--Judith Kerman. Very good collection of essays about the political and social implications of the movie, the book it was based on--both two of my favorites of all time
And, of course, any of the very funny and laxitive-effecting "Uncle John's Bathroom Readers"
What about others at the Outpost?
Lies My Teacher Told Me--James Loewen. A devastating indictment of current textbooks used for teaching U.S. History in high schools and (using primary literature) discussions of what the major textbooks got wrong
Parliament of Whores--P.J. O'Rourke. In my opinion the most humorous of his books, and although I don't agree with a lot of his political stances, he makes some insightful commentary on the U.S. Goverment.
His Excellency, George Washington--Joseph Ellis. Perhaps the modern definitive biography of our first president. Read it and you may agree with me that he was our greatest chief executive
The Greatest Sfi-Fi Moveies Never Made--David Hughes. A bit outdated, but a nice examination of how some great ideas for movie end up in development hell
Intern--Doctor X. An Old book (1963) that is the diary of a first-year medical resident during his intern year. A fascinating window on medial training and medical history
The Big Book of Conspiracies--Doug Moench. Kinda of in the grey zone of "non-fiction", still if your a conspiracy buff at all, you'll love this book
The Truth About Dogs--Stephen Budiansky. Great book about the psychology of dogs, why we act the way they do, and how we act toward them
A Distant Mirror--Barbera Tuchman, One of the most brilliant historians of the 20th century on a tour de force review of the 14th century and the things that occurred during that time that affect us today.
Retrofitting Blade Runner: Issues in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner and Phillip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?--Judith Kerman. Very good collection of essays about the political and social implications of the movie, the book it was based on--both two of my favorites of all time
And, of course, any of the very funny and laxitive-effecting "Uncle John's Bathroom Readers"
What about others at the Outpost?