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      CommentAuthorTANSTAAFL
    • CommentTimeJun 30th 2010
     

    I did not see this thread elsewhere, so I decided to post this. Sorry if this thread has already been posted previously.

    My favorite non-fiction books would have to be:

    The C Programming Language

    Code Complete

    Write Great Code

    What about yours?

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      CommentAuthorNorthmark
    • CommentTimeJun 30th 2010
     

    Sea of Thunder. It’s a nonfiction about the Pacific naval warfare in WWII.

    Also, Lone Survivor, which is a nonfiction about the experiences of a Navy SEAL in Afghanistan after the rest of his team is killed.

  1.  

    Commodore: A Company on the Edge, by Brian Bagnall

    Design and Destiny: The Making of the Tucker Automobile, by Philip Egan

    Disaster in Dearborn: The Story of the Edsel, by Thomas E. Bonsall

    Blind Man’s Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage, by Sherry Sontang and Christopher Drew

    Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner, by Paul M. Sammon

    The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way, by Bill Bryson

    Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, by Lynne Truss

    Railroads in the Days of Steam, by lots of people

    You know, I read so much non-fiction that I’d be adding to this list all day. I’ll call it quits now.

  2.  

    All things by David Sedaris! He is awesomely hilarious. I don’t read much non-fiction really.

    Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, by Lynne Truss

    I think my English teacher showed us part of that. The examples were funny/inappropriate.

  3.  

    I don’t read much nonfiction, but I read The Other Wes Moore on the plane a few weeks ago and I thought it was pretty good. I am biased though, since as a Wire fan I’ll read anything about the Baltimore drug game pretty much.

  4.  

    I want to read more non-fiction in terms of researching the 19th and early 20th centuries, but I haven’t found anything much yet.

    •  
      CommentAuthorPuppet
    • CommentTimeJun 30th 2010
     

    A History of US by Joy Hakim

    Reading like a Writer by Francine Prose

    Physics for Future Presidents by Richard A. Muller

    Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand

    I’ll think of more later.

  5.  

    Reading like a Writer by Francine Prose

    How could I have forgotten that book? I bought it not even a week ago.

    •  
      CommentAuthorTANSTAAFL
    • CommentTimeJul 1st 2010
     

    Story by Robert McKee

    • CommentAuthormelanthes
    • CommentTimeJul 1st 2010
     

    Almost everything that I’ve read by Bill Bryson. I concur with Dan Locke on Mother Tongue, that’s for certain. Also, Travels in a Strange State: Cycling across the U.S.A. by Josie Dew.

  6.  

    Horrible Histories, by Terry Deary. Those are wonderful.

    And How Not to Write a Novel.

  7.  

    Horrible Histories, by Terry Deary. Those are wonderful

    Heck yes they are.

    The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir
    The History of the English Speaking Peoples by Winston Churchill
    Albion’s Seed by ? (I read it a while back)

    •  
      CommentAuthorApep
    • CommentTimeJul 1st 2010
     

    On Writing by Stephen King

    Dispatches by Michael Herr

    and some Eastern Europe history books I can’t remember the titles of.

  8.  

    Dispatches by Michael Herr

    Read that!

    The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
    Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
    Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond*
    A Century of Dishonor by Helen Hunt Jackson
    The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene*
    Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly by Gail Carson Levine.

    And strangely enough, history and religious textbooks (and some other textbooks). They’re interesting.

    *PBS version is better!

    •  
      CommentAuthorNorthmark
    • CommentTimeJul 1st 2010
     

    Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly by Gail Carson Levine.

    I have that, and I break the rules all the time. The temptation to delete is just too strong. ._.

    •  
      CommentAuthorRand
    • CommentTimeJul 1st 2010
     

    History textbooks are definitely interesting. It’s like you’re reading a (very general, description-lacking, long, stuffed-with-dates) story.

    Right now my favorite history-based book is Age of Wonder. It’s about romantic science, which makes me wish I was born in another century.

  9.  

    O.O

    WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?

    You haven’t been active in months... welcome back!

    •  
      CommentAuthorRand
    • CommentTimeJul 1st 2010
     

    Haha, thank you. I’ve actually been getting into the old anti-Twilight sentiments what with Eclipse coming out and no site does anti-Twilight better than Impish Idea does.

  10.  

    hugs

    •  
      CommentAuthorTakuGifian
    • CommentTimeJul 1st 2010
     

    Has anybody mentioned Inventing The Future by David Sukuki? Brilliant book, covering the future of environmental sustainability, education, enterprise/invention, renewable resources and oil, and a whole bunch of other things. Sadly, the message he gives (“get the eff off your asses and start changing things or we’re all eventually doomed!”) is just as relevant today as it was in the late 80s.

    •  
      CommentAuthorTANSTAAFL
    • CommentTimeJul 2nd 2010
     

    I look forward to the doom part. Will make things exciting. Hopefully our civilization will crash and burn and we get to start over again, just like the past civilizations we pretend we are better than.

  11.  

    I definitely need to brush up on my history.

    My favourite non-fiction author is probably Bill Bryson (his childhood autobiography Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid is hilarious – as are most of his other books). His A Short History of Nearly Everything gives you a layperson’s explanations of many of the world’s scientific discoveries/phenomena – a fascinating read.

    I also enjoyed travel writer Paul Theroux’s Dark Star Safari, which documents his journey from Cairo to Cape Town. Must get hold of his other books.

    On a more serious note, I also liked Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s autobiography Infidel, and I’d really like to get my hands on her most recent book, Nomad. For those of you who don’t know, Hirsi Ali is a Dutch politician of Somali origin who writes on issues of religion, gender and culture.

    •  
      CommentAuthorPuppet
    • CommentTimeSep 23rd 2010
     

    A Short History of Nearly Everything

    Ah yes. That is an excellent book. Although I listened to as an audio book, so I didn’t actually read it.

    • CommentAuthorDeborah
    • CommentTimeOct 28th 2010
     
    Albion's Seed is by David Hackett Fischer. I'm using it for one of my papers.
    Secretariat: The Making of a Champion by William Nack
    Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
    Man 'o' War: A Legend Like Lightning by Dorothy Ours
    The Weight of Glory and Other Essays by C.S. Lewis
    The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis
    and most of his other nonfiction.
    • CommentAuthorWiseWillow
    • CommentTimeOct 28th 2010
     

    Albion’s Seed is by David Hackett Fischer.

    I LOVE THAT BOOK. Ahem. You’re the only person other than my dad, brother, and history professor who ever seems to have heard of it, though.

    • CommentAuthorDeborah
    • CommentTimeOct 29th 2010
     
    I'm using it as a source for my college paper on the Scotch-Irish.
    • CommentAuthorNo One
    • CommentTimeDec 2nd 2010
     

    I have sought out my favourite T-shirt art book today for graduation (in case I can’t find a suitable shirt) and came across an awesome calligraphy book that I can use in writing letters to my teachers (to thank them for giving me some great years).

    the Calligrapher’s Bible by David Harris
    Terrific T-Shirts by Chris Rankin

    Ahhh…. now I really want to go out now to book shops and see if I can find them. When I find them, I’m so going to buy them. Normally I’m happy with borrowing books from the library, but I think these two books will be great additions to my own personal library (plus I can’t keep borrowing them forever; there will be other people too) XD

    • CommentAuthorDanielle
    • CommentTimeDec 2nd 2010
     

    True Blue by Randy Sutton
    Seeking the Cure by Ira Rutkow
    The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain
    The Abolition of Man by CS Lewis
    The Barbarian Way by Erwin Rafael McManus
    Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
    Backfire: How the Ku Klux Klan Helped the Civil Rights Movement by David Chalmers
    And probably more that I’ve forgotten at the moment.