What's the best non-fiction book you've ever read?

Answer 1

My grandfather always swore by Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People." Very useful.

One of my favorites (for entertainment) was "The Red Limit" which is a book about astrophysics written for the layman. Most of my reading is fiction, which I suppose is nothing to be proud of. I am surprised at some of the answers though... I didn't think that either Michener or Grisham had written any works of non-fiction. They are both excellent, but I don't know any non-fiction works of either. Historical fiction and science fiction are still fiction.

Actually, one of the most enjoyable reads for me growing up was sitting down with a volume of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica. You never know what you'll read about next!!

Answer 2

Definitely "Alive" by Piers Paul Read; it is such an inspiring story that they made a movie out of it, but the book reads like a novel, athough the first two chapters of background are a bit slow. After you read it, you just want to know more, about what happened to the people later on, what they're doing now, etc. It's been more than 20 years since the accident, and it's still an amazing story.

Answer 3

I don't like the author that much, but john grisham's book about a high school baseball prospect that never made it in the 70's was such a good book. It talked about his struggles with drugs and alcohol, pressure from his hometown, and it was a great tale of the thousands of young kids that play minor league ball and never make it. I am a baseball fan so I guess that helped, but I normally find grisham's books very hit or miss even though people love him. It's an interesting book though, I really liked it. It was published in 2006.

Answer 4

A People's History of The United States by Howard Zinn

Answer 5

"Rougue Warrior" by Richard Marcinco.
Extremely good autobiography with co-author, but was so good and true to facts that the US Navy forced him to write all sequels as non-fiction and change all names, dates and events or face prison time (again).
Marcinco was the leader of the highest kill count SE.A.L. platoon in Vietnam, when they were still a secret, and later became the first commander and builder of Seal Team Six, our nation's first real counter terrorism unit.
His book, "Rogue Warrior" came out in 1991, I believe, and he screamed his head off that we were going to be attacked seriously and viciously by a determined terrorist enemy if we didn't wake up and tighten out security overseas and domestically. 10 years later his predictions came true, and people had the nerve to say "No one told us." I used to quote his book waaaay before 9/11 and people would just give me their patronizing looks and smiles like I was crazy.
The book and the man himself are not for the faint hearted. He was a legend then and still is today in SEAL team lore.
Most definitley a "guy's book", but given the world situation concerning America, a must read for anyone.

Answer 6

Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel" is an attempt to explain why Eurasian cultures were so successful. It had nothing to do with intellect or innate superiority, but with accidents of geography, botany, zoology or just plain timing. E.g. Europeans domesticated the horse; why didn't Africans domesticate the zebra?

(Read the book to find the surprising answer).

Answer 7

Believe it or not, The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. It is a very small--less than 100 pages--book that covers all the important aspects of grammar in a reasonably entertaining (or at least not totally boring) way).

Answer 8

The Complete Tightwad Gazette by a long shot. The author is Amy Dacyczyn

Answer 9

It's a toss up between "Coming into the Country" by John McPhee and "Hawaii" by James Michener. Also, honorable mention goes to "And there was Light" by Jacques Lusseyran and "Papillon" by Henri Charrier for being totally inspirational.

Answer 10

A Rumor of War, by Philip Caputo, a memoir of a young marine officer in Vietnam.