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**Tubby Isaacs** · 02-01-2009, 13:12

What is the best non-fiction book you've read

I have seen Harris on the proper Newsnight. He did something on Cuba which said stuff like "the economy's struggling", whatever that meant. He was no better or worse than most of the others, to be fair.

**wingco** · 02-01-2009, 17:40

What is the best non-fiction book you've read

I'm currently reading a biography of Charles Schulz by David Michaelis. I was always a huge fan of Peanuts as a kid although looking at the cartoons in later life, I always wondered why I got so caught up in that world, especially as many of the strips don't actually appear to contain any gags.

Reading this, however, I'm struck not only by Schulz's astonishing penwork in the reprinted cartoons but also the connections between Schulz's life and his art, as well as remembering what I actually loved about the cartoon as a kid - not just the wonderful, hermetic, adult-free world Schulz created but the way the strips functioned as witty but melancholy reflections on the limits of this life and the experience of stubbing your toes on them in early childhood. In a way, it's extraordinary they proved so popular.

**Bruno** · 03-01-2009, 11:29

What is the best non-fiction book you've read

I remember as a kid thinking the adult free world was bizarre. Why is Peppermint Patty being made to interpret a muted trumpet for us? Like all the teachers and parents were Wookies and we couldn't know about it.

So I think the t.v. specials had a lot to do with enshrining Peanuts as an American institution on the level of Disney or (later) the Simpsons. I'm not sure the newspaper strips alone would have pushed the cartoon through to subsequent generations as pervasively. But you're right that there was something peculiar about the persistent theme of failure catching on with everyone - a theme that got spun into little self-contained morality tales for the t.v. specials, as though the producers realized that the real potential of the comic strip was in the 'filling out' of it.

**Sam** · 29-01-2009, 22:04

What is the best non-fiction book you've read

It's been a while, but I saw this article in the new issue of the TLS, and thought of this thread.

**Wyatt Earp** · 30-01-2009, 11:37

What is the best non-fiction book you've read

The omission of The Selfish Gene is genuinely perplexing, don't y'all think? I mean, look at the list from the 70s:

BOOKS OF THE 1970s

71. Daniel Bell: The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism
72. Isaiah Berlin: Russian Thinkers
73. Ronald Dworkin: Taking Rights Seriously
74. Clifford Geertz: The Interpretation of Cultures
75. Albert Hirschman: Exit, Voice, and Loyalty
76. Leszek Kolakowski: Main Currents of Marxism (Glowne nurty marksizmu)
77. Hans Kueng: On Being a Christian (Christ Sein)
78. Robert Nozick: Anarchy, State and Utopia
79. John Rawls: A Theory of Justice
80. Gershom Scholem: The Messianic Idea in Judaism, and other essays on Jewish spirituality
81. Ernst Friedrich Schumacher: Small Is Beautiful
82. Tibor Scitovsky: The Joyless Economy
83. Quentin Skinner: The Foundations of Modern Political Thought
84. Alexander Solzhenitsyn: The Gulag Archipelago
85. Keith Thomas: Religion and the Decline of Magic

Solzhenitsyn and Schumacher; sure. Rawls, Dworkin and Geertz; arguably. But could it really have been claimed, with a straight face, even in 1995, that, say, a book called The Messianic Idea in Judaism was more influential than TSG? Even if you can't stand TSG, I don't think you can seriously claim that. That indicates a view of the world that's bizarrely skewed against science, surely.

**Guest** · 30-01-2009, 13:03

What is the best non-fiction book you've read

wingco wrote:

I'm currently reading a biography of Charles Schulz by David Michaelis.

Putting this on my Amazon wishlist, I was informed that customers who shopped for it also bought Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. I'm enjoying that at the moment, so this augurs well.

**wingco** · 30-01-2009, 17:15

What is the best non-fiction book you've read

That's curious - I mean, I've read both, but I don't see any connection. Anyway, recommended.

**Incandenza** · 31-01-2009, 03:37

What is the best non-fiction book you've read

Wa ayat al Urbi wrote:

Solzhenitsyn and Schumacher; sure. Rawls, Dworkin and Geertz; arguably. But could it really have been claimed, with a straight face, even in 1995, that, say, a book called The Messianic Idea in Judaism was more influential than TSG? Even if you can't stand TSG, I don't think you can seriously claim that. That indicates a view of the world that's bizarrely skewed against science, surely.

Hannah Arendt, Simone de Bouvior, Jane Jacobs, and Mary Douglas--your four influential female authors of the entire second half of the twentieth century.

**Guest** · 31-01-2009, 05:33

What is the best non-fiction book you've read

Incashallah wrote:

Hannah Arendt, Simone de Bouvior, Jane Jacobs, and Mary Douglas--your four influential female authors of the entire second half of the twentieth century.

I've got to admit a weird yet persistent love for Camille Paglia, and although I'd argue she was fairly influential, I'm not sure she was overall that important. I don't particularly like Andrea Dworkin, but I suspect she's been enormously influential.

Who do you believe ought to belong in the group of influential female authors of the second half of the twentieth century?

**West End Zuma** · 04-02-2009, 03:18

What is the best non-fiction book you've read

Who do you believe ought to belong in the group of influential female authors of the second half of the twentieth century?

I truly, deeply, hate to say this, but Ayn Rand has to be counted among those who've influenced political/economic debate. But we've already discussed that on another thread.

**Wyatt Earp** · 04-02-2009, 10:18

What is the best non-fiction book you've read

Germaine Greer! Come on.

**Wyatt Earp** · 04-02-2009, 10:22

What is the best non-fiction book you've read

Susan Sontag. Alice Walker. Margaret Atwood. Virginia Woolf. Anne Frank. Anais Nin. Angela Davis.

**Incandenza** · 04-02-2009, 14:43

What is the best non-fiction book you've read

To those, I'd add Joan Didion, Betty Friedan, Toni Morrison, Judith Butler, and Joan W. Scott.

**nefertiti** · 05-02-2009, 07:01

What is the best non-fiction book you've read

I went to hear Judith Butler last night.

**loose cannon** · 05-02-2009, 08:32

What is the best non-fiction book you've read

Objection - this is the non-fiction thread

(Although Anais Nin could probably claim that all her writing was based on direct personal experience)

**Wyatt Earp** · 05-02-2009, 23:10

What is the best non-fiction book you've read

Mary McCarthy then.

**Incandenza** · 05-02-2009, 23:32

What is the best non-fiction book you've read

One could also make a case for MFK Fisher and Julia Child.

**Bored Of Education** · 07-02-2009, 00:18

What is the best non-fiction book you've read

Are we still doing this?

A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson

Hells Angels - Hunter S Thompson

Holidays in Hell - P J O'Rourke

Elvis - Albert Goldman

Twenty Two Foreigners in Funny Shorts - Pete Davis

Los Cowboys - Hank Wangford

In The Red Corner - John Duncan

**hobbes** · 07-02-2009, 17:18

What is the best non-fiction book you've read

Big Bang - Simon Singh
Snowblind - Robert Sabbag
The Fabric of the Cosmos - Brian Greene
Bad Science - Ben Goldachre

I'm not a big fan of non-fiction generally

**loose cannon** · 09-02-2009, 12:21

What is the best non-fiction book you've read

For general info, a slew of books have come out in time to commemorate Darwin -

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/225f3b84-f3dc-11dd-9c4b-0000779fd2ac.html

**statto99** · 11-03-2009, 13:29

What is the best non-fiction book you've read

"The World Since 1945 by T.E. Vadney opened my young eyes vivdily to the background of most of the world's geo-political issues in a handily digestible and apparently neutral (he's Canadian) form.

**Wyatt Earp** · 19-03-2009, 17:18

What is the best non-fiction book you've read

I'm just reading The Road To Reality by Roger Penrose. Looking good so far.

**Bruno** · 19-03-2009, 17:22

What is the best non-fiction book you've read

From Amazon.com's review:

That said, let us be perfectly clear: this is not an easy book to read. The number of people in the world who can understand everything in it could probably take a taxi together to Penrose's next lecture. Still, math-friendly readers looking for a substantial and possibly even thrillingly difficult intellectual experience should pick up a copy (carefully--it's over a thousand pages long and weighs nearly 4 pounds)

...Right. I think I'll try my luck with Mansfield Park.

**SpanglyPrincess** · 03-04-2009, 14:25

What is the best non-fiction book you've read

I recently read & adored John Dower's "Embracing Defeat: Japan after World War II" which is an absolutely exemplary piece of combined social, cultural & political criticism. Whether or not you have any particular interest in Japan, it comes very highly recommended; it was unputdownable like a novel.

As for all-time lists I have no real clue where to start.

Benedict Anderson, perhaps, Imagined Communities which though short is an incredibly impressive cultural & political work.

Alistair Horne's trilogy of French defeats.
John Lynn Battle: A History of Combat and Culture .

I would also second David Simon's Homicide which is excellent.

**Anton Gramscescu** · 03-04-2009, 14:57

What is the best non-fiction book you've read

I agree about Dower.

Absolutely anything written by Michaela Wrong, but I Didn't Do It For You is probably her best.

Samantha Power's A Problem from Hell is also very good.

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