List Three of Your Favorite Non-Fiction Books

[grapejelly]

Re: List Three of Your Favorite Non-Fiction Books

anyone care to offer up their 3 favorite books, fiction or non?

fav fiction:

Ubik, or Flow My Tears the Policeman Said, or Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE) all by Phillip K. Dick

Ubik

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter Thompson (is this fiction? I always wondered...I think it is non-fiction with one tiny fictional episode in there...do you know which one?)

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream

Noble House by James Clavell

Noble House

[GRG55]

Re: List Three of Your Favorite Non-Fiction Books

Hard to restrict it to three; but here's what comes to mind first:

Man's Search for Meaning; Viktor Frankl

Beyond Fate; Margaret Visser

and in keeping with the economic theme of this site...

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds; Charles MacKay [a book I purchased 25 years ago and re-read every time something seems too good to be true]

[ax]

Re: List Three of Your Favorite Non-Fiction Books

fav fiction:

Ubik, or Flow My Tears the Policeman Said, or Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE) all by Phillip K. Dick

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter Thompson (is this fiction? I always wondered...I think it is non-fiction with one tiny fictional episode in there...do you know which one?)

Noble House by James Clavell

GJ, I knew there was a reason why I enjoyed your posts so much, we have the same favorite author! Of course I would add Dr. Bloodmoney, The Man in the High Castle, and his collected short stories, probably of which The Variable Man is my favorite (although Paycheck is right up there, despite what Hollywood did to it).

I would also add Declare and Last Call by Tim Powers and The Cold Six Thousand by James Ellroy.

[ax]

Re: List Three of Your Favorite Non-Fiction Books

Das Kapital

The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers

Guns, Germs, and Steel

Guns, Germs, and Steel is a great book. Does no one here consider Fooled By Randomness or The Black Swan in their top 3, top10?

[don]

Re: List Three of Your Favorite Non-Fiction Books

For those not familiar with the Library of America, it's a great series to pick out some of the above. They have two Philip K. Dick collections and just released a second volume of A.J. Liebling, one of my favorites. They're well bound, around a thousand pages in length, on acid free paper. I'm reading the collected works of Flannery O'Connor, a one-volume treatment. I'm not a religious person and O'Connor does a great and convincing job of showing the moment-to-moment role religious fundamentalism can play in those under educated or a little light in their loafers. She's the author of Wise Blood, as well as short stories with titles like "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" and 'The Life You Save May Be Your Own". O'Connor, a scary gal in her day.

[ax]

Re: List Three of Your Favorite Non-Fiction Books

For those not familiar with the Library of America, it's a great series to pick out some of the above. They have two Philip K. Dick collections and just released a second volume of A.J. Liebling, one of my favorites. They're well bound, around a thousand pages in length, on acid free paper. I'm reading the collected works of Flannery O'Connor, a one-volume treatment. I'm not a religious person and O'Connor does a great and convincing job of showing the moment-to-moment role religious fundamentalism can play in those under educated or a little light in their loafers. She's the author of Wise Blood, as well as short stories with titles like "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" and 'The Life You Save May Be Your Own". O'Connor, a scary gal in her day.

I was thrilled to see the new volumes of PKD released, both collections excellent introductions to his work and even one I hadn't read before. I see that someone has also rifled through the papers from his estate and printed books from his notes, such as the book I'm currently reading "The Man Whose Teeth Were Exactly Alike," or something like that.

[Spartacus]

Re: List Three of Your Favorite Non-Fiction Books

I vaccilate between thinkng it's

deep and important
or
a self-important screed with not much new thought, by a pompous windbag

Guns, Germs, and Steel is a great book. Does no one here consider Fooled By Randomness or The Black Swan in their top 3, top10?

[ax]

Re: List Three of Your Favorite Non-Fiction Books

I vaccilate between thinkng it's

deep and important
or
a self-important screed with not much new thought, by a pompous windbag

Haha! You have to separate out the self-importance from the quality of the work. Plenty of new thought with Kudos to Mandelbrot of course.

[BadJuju]

Re: List Three of Your Favorite Non-Fiction Books

I vaccilate between thinkng it's

deep and important
or
a self-important screed with not much new thought, by a pompous windbag

I am of the opinion that it is the latter. Back in the day, people summed 'Black swans' up with one simple phrase, 'shit happens!'

[ax]

Re: List Three of Your Favorite Non-Fiction Books

For non-fiction, I would also add Endurance by Alfred Lansing and We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch.

[Spartacus]

Re: List Three of Your Favorite Non-Fiction Books

The Potent Self
Body and Mature Behavior - a study of anxiety, gravitation and sex

both by Moshe Feldenkrais
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshé_Feldenkrais

Flim Flam! by James Randi (one person on this board needs a LOT of Randi and Penn and Teller, and Mythbusters, but has his head way too far up a certain orifice to know it, IMHO - no, not Symbols, Bart or Lukester)

And others in the running
The Selfish Gene
The Language Instinct
Atheism: The Case Against God by George Smith
the Missionary Position by Christopher Hitchens (read it at a library a long time ago, I'd like to buy 1,000 copies & donate them to various church libraries)

Feynman's popular books were good at the time ... maybe another read will bring them to the top again.

Guns, Germs, and Steel is a great book. Does no one here consider Fooled By Randomness or The Black Swan in their top 3, top10?