post your Top 5 non-fiction books

[Goon]

I don't enjoy make believe crap in literature. What books do you recommend to get someone thinking? Try picking books that don't require a dictionary or a degree in English.

[trdsf]

Non-fiction?  Sure.

• A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking
• The Joy of Cooking, Irma Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker
• Big Ear, John D. Krause
• Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, Richard Feynman
• Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Douglas Hofstadter

...and I'm not happy at having to leave off John Feinstein's A Good Walk Spoiled, Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World Revisited, and the entire LIFE Science and Nature Libraries (particularly Arthur C Clarke's Man in Space and Carl Sagan's The Planets).

[Hijiri Byakuren]

Non-fiction? Um... shit, I actually haven't read many non-fiction books. Let's see, in no particular order...

• Europe: A History, by Norman Davies.
• The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins.
• The Twelve Caesars, by Suetonius.

I'm sure I've read others, but those are the only ones that stand out.

[PickelledEggs]

I like "make-believe crap" in literature.... The imagination can be and is a very powerful and inspiring thing.

For my favorite non-fiction books, though?
"God No!" -Penn Jillette
"The God Delusion" -Dawkins
"God is not great" Hitchens

But for my last two, I'm going to put some of my favorite fiction

"Nightfall" -Asimov
"The Phantom Tollbooth" -Norton Juster (YES I KNOW THAT THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH IS A CHILDREN'S BOOK)

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Not necessarily nonfiction,  but John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. It was based on mostly events that really occurred.

[Hydra009]

I don't enjoy make believe crap in literature.

:(

Try picking books that don't require a dictionary or a degree in English.

:(

What books do you recommend to get someone thinking?

Doubt:  A History by Jennifer Michael Hecht
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
Collapse by Jared Diamond
The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome by Susan Wise Bauer
The Necronomicon 1st edition by Abdul Alhazred

[Shiranu]

I would just like to say as an English major, I am feeling very put off right now...

[AllPurposeAtheist]

I would just like to say as an English major, I am feeling very put off right now...

I guess you missed See Spot Run, eh? Classic..

[trdsf]

Yeah, I'll second The God Delusion, and The Selfish Gene too.

[Munch]

The God delusion, everyone knows this one.

Mary berrys cake cook, was actually a present to mum decades ago but she realised I enjoyed the recipes a fair bit more so handed it down.

hairy bikers annual, can't beat hairy bikers cooking.

And one of my fav non-fiction, if you exclude the children's adaptation of it, A street cat named Bob.

[aitm]

Hmm….

Though fiction: Don Quixote... god that shit is fucking funny.
The Handmaids Tale…awesome shit
I agree with APA "The Grapes of Wrath"
Old Man and the Sea
Daniel Boorstins The Discoverers.

[Mr.Obvious]

1. The God Delusion (Richard Dawkins)
2. God is not great (Christopher Hitchens)
3. The Fry Chronicles (Stephen Fry)
4. Sociale Activering (Pascale Tuteleers)
5. Did you spot the Gorilla (Richard Wiseman)

I don't read that much Non-fiction, admittedly.

[Mike Cl]

Hmm….

Though fiction: Don Quixote... god that shit is fucking funny.
The Handmaids Tale…awesome shit
I agree with APA "The Grapes of Wrath"
Old Man and the Sea
Daniel Boorstins The Discoverers.

A Handmaidens Tale--by Atwood I think--gets another vote. 

On  The Historicity of Jesus, by Carrier
The Stand--Stephen King, of course--a great history!
The Guns of August--if one is into WWI
The Historical Baseball Abstract--Bill James--doesn't get better than this!

[trdsf]

Let me also throw in...

The Brethren, Bob Woodward
All the President's Men, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
Metamagical Themas, Douglas Hofstadter
Ghoulardi: Inside Cleveland TV's Wildest Ride, Tom Feran and R.D. Heldenfels
Ed Wood: Nightmare of Ecstasy, Rudolph Grey
The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film, Michael Weldon
David Feherty's Totally Subjective History of the Ryder Cup, David Feherty
Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel, Richard H Minear
Failure is Not an Option, Gene Kranz
The Fireside Watergate, Nicholas von Hoffman and Garry Trudeau
I. Asimov: A Memoir, Isaac Asimov
The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide, the MST3K crew


...five books my fat Polish dupa.

[TrueStory]

-Parasite Rex - Carl Zimmer

Most of the others I would recommend have been covered but this is great if you love some biology/evolution discussion along with frightening things that make you squirm.