What are the most important and influential non-fiction books of all time?

Question

I want to know everyones thoughts on the most influential and important non-fiction books of all times. Covering all subjects and time periods. My choices were: Wealth of Nations - Adam Smith, Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx, Origin of Species - Charles Darwin, The Republic - Plato, A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica - Sir Isaac Newton

Answer 1

I like your list. I might add:
[1] Aristotle: Organon; Nicomachean Ethics; Metaphysics
[2] Francis Bacon: Novum Organum
[3] Copernicus: De revolutionibus
[4] Ptolemy: Almagest

I would not put Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" on the list. It's way too new to be considered widely influential yet. It's also more an explication of several ideas that have been floating around the physics community for a while than a collection of radically new ideas, which most of the other books are (or were in their time).

To those others who included the Bible, my personal opinion is that it, like religious books around the world, is neither fiction nor non-fiction, but falls into a special category of its own. It was obviously not intended as a work of fiction, but it is certainly not "true" in any scientific sense [hold the spam, please. I've heard it all before.]

Answer 2

The Bible

The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren

Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyers

Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway by Susan Jeffers

The Attractor Factor by Joe Vitale

Think and Grow Rich: by Napoleon Hill

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

Secrets of a Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki

Start Late, Finish Rich by David Bach

The Game of Life and How to Play it by Florence Scovel Shinn

Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence by Joe Dominquez and Vicki Robin

The Gutenberg Elegies by Sven Birkerts

Night by Elie Wiesel

Answer 3

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. Read it and you'll understand.

Answer 4

Would you consider the Bible non-fiction?

Answer 5

The Bible