|
Source: (consider it)
|
Thread: 100 Best Nonfiction Books of All Time
|
Cottontail
Shipmate
# 12234
|
Posted
After all the lists of '100 best novels', The Guardian has embarked upon compiling a list of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time. They are looking actively for suggestions from the public, and you can make your own on the linked page.
However, I was wondering if we might compile our own list (without worrying about reaching 100). So ... what books would shipmates nominate, and why?
To start things off, I would like to suggest the autobiography, Against the Law (1955) by Peter Wildeblood, who was sent to prison for having a romantic relationship with another man. Not only did it highlight the hypocrisies of the treatment of homosexual men in English law at the time, but also exposed the urgent need for penal reform. I read it last year, and was impressed by his literary skill and his sheer dignity.
--------------------
"I don't think you ought to read so much theology," said Lord Peter. "It has a brutalizing influence."
Posts: 2377 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jan 2007
| IP: Logged
|
|
Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
|
Posted
I would put "A Brief History of Time" in, as much for its affect on popularising science as its actual content.
I know it is one of the most bought-but-unread books, but it made a change.
--------------------
Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.
Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Lyda*Rose
Ship's broken porthole
# 4544
|
Posted
Surely The Diary of a Young Girl would be up there. The Seven Story Mountain by Thomas Merton would be among my favorites. I like autobiography. I also enjoyed Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man.
--------------------
"Dear God, whose name I do not know - thank you for my life. I forgot how BIG... thank you. Thank you for my life." ~from Joe Vs the Volcano
Posts: 21377 | From: CA | Registered: May 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Cottontail
Shipmate
# 12234
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lyda*Rose:
Surely The Diary of a Young Girl would be up there. The Seven Story Mountain by Thomas Merton would be among my favorites. I like autobiography. I also enjoyed Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man.
Could you say something more about these, Lyda*Rose? I haven't read, or even heard, of any of them, and would be interested to know more. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
--------------------
"I don't think you ought to read so much theology," said Lord Peter. "It has a brutalizing influence."
Posts: 2377 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jan 2007
| IP: Logged
|
|
North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
|
Posted
I nominate "A Circle of Sisters" by Judith Flanders. It is the biographies of the MacDonald sisters: Alice, the mother of Rudyard Kipling; Georgiana, the wife of Edward Burne-Jones; Agnes, wife of Edward Poynter; and Louisa, mother of Stanley Baldwin. Their interlinked lives cover nearly every aspect of Victorian society; social mobility, the empire, the arts and crafts movement, morality, industrialisation, politics, family life, schools, domestic life. In addition, many famous names are mentioned in passing as friends or acquaintances of the well connected sisters.
The narrative thread of their lives holds it all together and gives context to the disparate topics.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
| IP: Logged
|
|
North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
|
Posted
Cottontail, you will know "The Diary of a Young Girl" as "Anne Frank's Diary". I think the title is a pond difference.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
| IP: Logged
|
|
Hedgehog
Ship's Shortstop
# 14125
|
Posted
I would nominate the autobiography Myrna Loy: Being and Becoming by Myrna Loy (duh!) & James Kotsilibas-Davis. It is an excellent autobiography, without undue sentiment or exaggerated claims. It is not a scandal memoir, but a fair depiction of early Hollywood as well as her involvement with political issues (she was on the hate list of both Hitler and Sen. McCarthy...).
--------------------
"We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and the world, and that being good and decent are worth it."--Pope Francis, Laudato Si'
Posts: 2740 | From: Delaware, USA | Registered: Sep 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
|
Posted
Not originally written in English, so it probably doesn't qualify for the Guardian's list - Seneca's Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius) never leaves my bedside. It's the pleasantest, most accessible piece of classic "how to live" philosophy I've ever come across. Occasionally pompous, sometimes funny, always wise and humane - I love it. It's somewhere around the top of the list of books I would say everyone should read. I have two English versions - a fully translation by Richard Gummere, and the Penguin Classics version which omits some of the less interesting bits, by Robin Campbell. I usually even take a copy on holiday!
--------------------
"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lyda*Rose:
Surely The Diary of a Young Girl would be up there. The Seven Story Mountain by Thomas Merton would be among my favorites. I like autobiography. I also enjoyed Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man.
I don't think I ever read The Ascent of Man, but I did see the TV series, which was superb.
--------------------
Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.
Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Dafyd
Shipmate
# 5549
|
Posted
I was just thinking about the problems in this. If something is a seminal work in its field, but not easily accessible to a general reader, does it qualify? (Keynes' General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money is I beieve an example.)
Also, I think differences in ideological convictions are more likely to have an effect on a list like this. It's easier to think that a piece of nonfiction ought to be on the list merely because you agree with it. And it's probably easier to overrate history, memoirs, and popular science which are factual, over philosophy and other forms of criticism which are matters of interpretation.
That said:
G.K.Chesterton's Orthodoxy ought to be on.
Browne's Religio Medici.
Samuel Johnson's Review of Soame Jenyn's Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil. Also, his Preface to Shakespeare. And Lives of the Poets. (The Guardian had a no more than one novel by each author policy when it did novels; I think this would tell against writers who shone in short essays.)
Hobbes's Leviathan, Locke's Essays, Hume's Treatise, Mill's On Liberty are all important. I don't know whether they're accessible to the general reader.
--------------------
we remain, thanks to original sin, much in love with talking about, rather than with, one another. Rowan Williams
Posts: 10567 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Feb 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
venbede
Shipmate
# 16669
|
Posted
I'm a Johnson fan, but I don't know his Soames Jenyns piece. Boswell's Life of SJ was a book to be on every library shelf once upon a time.
An important work I basically disagree with would be Gibbon's Decline and Fall, but I love the ironic balanced prose.
I have tried Religio Medici, but it didn't click.
--------------------
Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.
Posts: 3201 | From: An historic market town nestling in the folds of Surrey's rolling North Downs, | Registered: Sep 2011
| IP: Logged
|
|
Sipech
Shipmate
# 16870
|
Posted
I tend to read far more non-fiction that I do fiction. Looking through my book reviews, I would have to nominate:
Das Kapital - Karl Marx
For being a great dissection of Victorian industrialism, as well as an astute analysis on the origins of money and the value & exploitation of labour.
Night - Elie Wiesel
For being a thoroughly humane account of the most inhumane of times.
The Immortal Life on Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot
A recent work, but absolutely brilliant. A work incorporating modern science while being interlaced with 20th century racial history in America.
The Logic of Scientific Discovery - Karl Popper
A brilliant take on the philosophy of science. If you've not read it yet, when you do, you'll see how Popper's ideas have permeated modern thinking.
Confessions - Augustine of Hippo
An old classic. A must read for all, I'd say.
I would be against the inclusion of A Brief History of Time, purely on the basis that it's just not all that good. Other works cover similar ground and do it far better, notably Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe.
--------------------
I try to be self-deprecating; I'm just not very good at it.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TheAlethiophile
Posts: 3791 | From: On the corporate ladder | Registered: Jan 2012
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Gee D
Shipmate
# 13815
|
Posted
Beat me to Darwin's work, and I endorse the inclusion of both Popper and Bronowski. I'd also include Paxton's book on Vichy France for its demonstration of detailed scholarship.
--------------------
Not every Anglican in Sydney is Sydney Anglican
Posts: 7028 | From: Warrawee NSW Australia | Registered: Jun 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
Sparrow
Shipmate
# 2458
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lyda*Rose:
Surely The Diary of a Young Girl would be up there.
Is that the Diary of Ann Frank? If not, it should certainly be included.
--------------------
For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Posts: 3149 | From: Bottom right hand corner of the UK | Registered: Mar 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
|
Posted
Lowering my brow a bit I'd nominate Joshua Slocum's Sailing Alone Around the World and also, because of the sheer mind-boggling insanity of the project, John Keay's The Great Arc about the mapping of India.
I'd also like to include a cookery book - how about Madhur Jaffrey's Flavours of India for that one though there are so many more.
--------------------
I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Enoch
Shipmate
# 14322
|
Posted
If we're taking of all time seriously, and not just looking at current best seller lists, Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire should probably be included. Unless we're restricting the list to 'first published in English', Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy also should. It's hardly read at all at the moment, but was a staple through the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
My personal plug would probably be for Gilbert White's Natural History of Selborne.
--------------------
Brexit wrexit - Sir Graham Watson
Posts: 7610 | From: Bristol UK(was European Green Capital 2015, now Ljubljana) | Registered: Nov 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
Sipech
Shipmate
# 16870
|
Posted
I'm going to be a heretic and argue against the inclusion of Darwin. Not because I'm pushing some sort of creationist agenda, but because both Origin of Species and Descent of Man are interminably dull.
I've read both in the last few years and while there can be little doubting Darwin's scope and insight, he writes like the dullest teacher you ever had. Origin of Species could well be renamed 'Everything you ever wanted to know about pigeons, and then way more than that until you fall asleep'.
As for Descent, it is just sidetrack after sidetrack, going on about morphology for hundreds of pages. Plus, there's the highly politically incorrect terms, by modern standards, such as "savage" or other far more racially denigrating terms that one doesn't repeat nowadays.
--------------------
I try to be self-deprecating; I'm just not very good at it.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TheAlethiophile
Posts: 3791 | From: On the corporate ladder | Registered: Jan 2012
| IP: Logged
|
|
Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
|
Posted
I'd go with cookery books too, unsurprisingly. They are windows into their times, plus if they are written by the likes of Jane Grigson they are enormously readable and still practical.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
|
Posted
And The Band Played On by Randy Schiltz. No question. A comprehensive recounting of the early days of the AIDS epidemic. It will probably be the goto resource on AIDS history for a long time.
I don't know if there would be too many candidates for Mary Roach to make the cut, but if so, I would nominate Stiff her thoroughly researched and very entertaining book about the various potential fates of a human corpse.
--------------------
I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
Dafyd
Shipmate
# 5549
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
I'd go with cookery books too, unsurprisingly. They are windows into their times, plus if they are written by the likes of Jane Grigson they are enormously readable and still practical.
But would you go with Jane Grigson or Elizabeth David?
(I want to say Elizabeth David, but I've had more fun reading Grigson.)
--------------------
we remain, thanks to original sin, much in love with talking about, rather than with, one another. Rowan Williams
Posts: 10567 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Feb 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
Dafyd
Shipmate
# 5549
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by venbede:
I'm a Johnson fan, but I don't know his Soames Jenyns piece.
Here it is. Also available in all good general selections of the works of Johnson.
quote:
I am always afraid of determining on the side of envy or cruelty. The privileges of education may, sometimes, be improperly bestowed, but I shall always fear to withhold them, lest I should be yielding to the suggestions of pride, while I persuade myself that I am following the maxims of policy; and, under the appearance of salutary restraints, should be indulging the lust of dominion, and that malevolence which delights in seeing others depressed.
--------------------
we remain, thanks to original sin, much in love with talking about, rather than with, one another. Rowan Williams
Posts: 10567 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Feb 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
venbede
Shipmate
# 16669
|
Posted
I take it Dr J wouldn't approve of student loans.
Jane Grigson was the nicer person, but I find Elizabeth David more fun. (Rather as I enjoy Gibbon.) But I don't think any would make it to a canon of Anglo-American thought, which is what the Guardian project sets out to achieve.
--------------------
Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.
Posts: 3201 | From: An historic market town nestling in the folds of Surrey's rolling North Downs, | Registered: Sep 2011
| IP: Logged
|
|
TurquoiseTastic
Fish of a different color
# 8978
|
Posted
I heartily agree with the recommendation of Primo Levi (anything by him, really). Likewise if graphic novels are allowed, then Art Spiegelmann's Maus would be on my list.
Posts: 1092 | From: Hants., UK | Registered: Jan 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
|
Posted
Ooh, in that case, Alison Bechdel's Fun Home and Are You My Mother?
Also, Joe Sacco's Palestine.
[ 29. January 2016, 06:48: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]
--------------------
I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
|
Posted
I don't think it possible to nominate just one for reasons others have given above, but I can give a handful that I think provide something unique or special and which I'd recommend to, say, a Godchild wanting a starting point on something:
The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations to answer that nagging question where does that come from/ who said that.
The Music of the English Church (Kenneth Long) which gives a good over-view of the musical history and legacy of music for the liturgy in England & Wales
Parliament of Whores (P J O'Rourke) which combines a crash course in how the US Government is arranged, a vicious critique on its inadequacies and is also very funny.
Cooking for Today published by Good Housekeeping in the 1970s is the best how do you do that cookery book going from really basic techniques to complicated recipes with everything else (catering quantities, food preservation, etc, etc, etc) in between.
Harpo Speaks a fascinating autobiography.
I was going to choose some poetry but I suspect that classifies as fiction, so in place of Palgrave I'd go for The Book of Common Prayer.
--------------------
Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
| IP: Logged
|
|
Liopleurodon
Mighty sea creature
# 4836
|
Posted
Books I have read recently which impressed me:
Chasing the Scream, by Johann Hari
Forensics by Val McDermid
I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
I dunno if they'd make a list of the best 100 of all time (particularly as they're all pretty recent publications) but I certainly enjoyed them. I'll have a think through the more distant past of my library.
--------------------
Our God is an awesome God. Much better than that ridiculous God that Desert Bluffs has. - Welcome to Night Vale
Posts: 1921 | From: Lurking under the ship | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
|
Posted
I'd like to put in a request for Ernst Gombrich's The Story of Art. It approaches the complex subject in the most clear-headed way I've yet come across. It has its faults and biases, of course, but if there was only one book on the history of art on the list, I think this should be it.
--------------------
"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Piglet
Islander
# 11803
|
Posted
I'd like to nominate Mendeleyev's Dream by Paul Strathern: it's a very readable history of chemistry and how the Periodic Table came about, and of the people who discovered the elements.
As an avid cookery-book reader, I'd have to include Delia Smith's Cookery Course because the recipes work; and The Sunday Times Cook Book by Arabella Boxer, because it's just a beautiful book.
--------------------
I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
| IP: Logged
|
|
Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
|
Posted
To get a grip on physical science something by Richard P Feynman is essential. Heck, it makes sense to me now and I only got an 'A' level at grade E.
I'll leave it to others to decide on which book.
btw, I agree with L'organist that "Parliament of Whores" should be there. PJ is a heck of a writer.
--------------------
"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
Tree Bee
Ship's tiller girl
# 4033
|
Posted
Wild Swans by Jung Chang is an excellent memoir. In addition to being an eye opener about China's political systems and history over the last century, its fascinating to read about the sociological changes during her lifetime, and those of her mother and grandmother.
--------------------
"Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple."
— Woody Guthrie
http://saysaysay54.wordpress.com
Posts: 5257 | From: me to you. | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
|
Posted
Henry Mayhew's "London Labour and the London Poor" is a fascinating (if lengthy) account that gives a very vivid picture of London in the 1840s. The characters are so well described you can almost see them, in his interviews many speak for themselves in their own words, it is as clear a picture as you will get. And often moving. The poverty, the illnesses and disabilities, the ingenuity, the resourcefulness: these are real people hampered by their circumstances, but doing the best they can to survive. In amongst all this, humour, hope, love, faith, and periodic dips back into an earlier London of a few centuries ago.
[ 29. January 2016, 21:17: Message edited by: Ariel ]
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
HCH
Shipmate
# 14313
|
Posted
If you want a bit of mathematics:
"Elements" by Euclid
"How to Solve It" by Polya
If you want some general science: any volume of Isaac Asimov's essays from "Analog".
If you want something about software development: "The Mythical Man-Month" by Brooks.
If you want a taste of British history:
"The Steel Bonnets" by Fraser (among many others by various authors)
I also suggest "The Boy Scout Fieldbook" and
"The Merck Manual".
I'm not sure all of these, except for Euclid, are "top 100" material, but I like them.
Posts: 1540 | From: Illinois, USA | Registered: Nov 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
Palimpsest
Shipmate
# 16772
|
Posted
Do the books have to be real?
The Junior Woodchucks Guidebook
How I Rose From The Dead In My Spare Time And So Can You
Posts: 2990 | From: Seattle WA. US | Registered: Nov 2011
| IP: Logged
|
|
Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Palimpsest:
Do the books have to be real?
Well, it is about non-fiction, so they wouldn't count. Also, it would be difficult for people to read them if they were interested. But feel free to start a thread on fictional non-fiction if you want, there's room for that.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Eigon
Shipmate
# 4917
|
Posted
I agree with Ariel about Mayhew - there's an interview with a little girl working as a crossing sweeper that I particularly remember. Most people gave her a penny or tuppence for sweeping the way clear as they crossed the roads, but one man had given her sixpence - "I should know him again!"
--------------------
Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
Posts: 3710 | From: Hay-on-Wye, town of books | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
|
Posted
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.
Sorry? No, don't tell me that. No - I hate you. that cannot be true.
My world has collapsed.
--------------------
Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.
Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Bene Gesserit
Shipmate
# 14718
|
Posted
The map that changed the world - Simon Winchester
--------------------
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus
Posts: 405 | From: Flatlands of the East | Registered: Apr 2009
| IP: Logged
|
|
Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Eigon:
I agree with Ariel about Mayhew - there's an interview with a little girl working as a crossing sweeper that I particularly remember. Most people gave her a penny or tuppence for sweeping the way clear as they crossed the roads, but one man had given her sixpence - "I should know him again!"
Yes, and what a life for a child, out in all weathers sweeping horse manure off a crossing in the hope of a penny from a passerby. A never-ending task with all the vehicles that passed by throughout the day and the ever-present danger of being knocked down by the traffic. How many years did she do that for, you wonder. The book does give you pause for thought.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged
|
|
Cottontail
Shipmate
# 12234
|
Posted
I suppose I like best books that tell a story, true or otherwise. And I have read some great nonfiction books, and recall loving them, but have little recollection now of what happens in them. Into that category falls Ten Days that Shook the World by John Reed, which I remember as gripping, but don't remember why. I suppose it has just become part of my knowledge of the Russian Revolution. Similarly with Goodbye To All That by Robert Graves - I enjoyed it very much, and I am sure I learned a lot, but I couldn't extract my remembrance of that book from my general impressions of WWI. This doesn't tend to happen with fiction, I suppose because the stories there are naturally stronger. As Norman Maclean once observed, it is rare that real life events take on the neat shape of a story.
But one book I did enjoy and have retained is Frauen (1995) by Alison Owings. She is an American academic who interviewed German women who had lived through the Third Reich, and she reproduces 29 of these interviews in this book along with her own observations. The range of experiences and personalities is fascinating, and the moral ambiguities of survival are presented honestly, even if Owings sometimes comes across as rather naive.
--------------------
"I don't think you ought to read so much theology," said Lord Peter. "It has a brutalizing influence."
Posts: 2377 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jan 2007
| IP: Logged
|
|
Gee D
Shipmate
# 13815
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by venbede:
Jane Grigson was the nicer person, but I find Elizabeth David more fun. (Rather as I enjoy Gibbon.) But I don't think any would make it to a canon of Anglo-American thought, which is what the Guardian project sets out to achieve.
Not having met either, I could not say who was the nicer person. But seriously, Elizabeth David was by far the better cook and author. More importantly for this list, A Book of Mediterranean Food followed by French Country Cooking had a social impact in the UK that none of Jane Grigson's works approached.
The same can be said for the Beck, Bertholle and Child masterpiece Mastering the Art of French Cooking particularly in the US, to the extent that the cookery it espoused came to be called its own style. Then of course there are the works of M F K Fisher, but it's hard to choose any one of them to make this list.
--------------------
Not every Anglican in Sydney is Sydney Anglican
Posts: 7028 | From: Warrawee NSW Australia | Registered: Jun 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
Dafyd
Shipmate
# 5549
|
Posted
I have waiting on my to be read pile Brittain's Testament of Youth. Any takers for this?
I'd like to include Dalrymple's From the Holy Mountain.
--------------------
we remain, thanks to original sin, much in love with talking about, rather than with, one another. Rowan Williams
Posts: 10567 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Feb 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
TurquoiseTastic
Fish of a different color
# 8978
|
Posted
I second Dalrymple's "From the Holy Mountain" and would also suggest something by Oliver Sacks - my favourite is "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat".
Posts: 1092 | From: Hants., UK | Registered: Jan 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Aravis
Shipmate
# 13824
|
Posted
Definite yes to Oliver Sacks, though it would be hard to choose which.
Bill Bryson should be on the list, but again, which one? A Short History of Nearly Everything? At Home?
Jung's Memories, Dreams, Reflections.
I'm sure there are more - may post again later.
Posts: 689 | From: S Wales | Registered: Jun 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
Sipech
Shipmate
# 16870
|
Posted
Might have to check out Primo Levi. His is a name I've heard of, but never paid any attention to.
Might the Encyclopaedia Britannica count?
To my earlier post, I ought to have added a disclaimer to my recommendation for Popper's The Logic of Scientific Discovery as the company I work for publishes it, so I have a commercial interest in it, as well my personal recommendation.
--------------------
I try to be self-deprecating; I'm just not very good at it.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TheAlethiophile
Posts: 3791 | From: On the corporate ladder | Registered: Jan 2012
| IP: Logged
|
|
Hilda of Whitby
Shipmate
# 7341
|
Posted
Son of the Morning Star by Evan Connell. It's about Custer's Last Stand. (For Shipmates not from the USA who don't know about this event, General George Armstrong Custer and his calvary regiment were massacred by a huge army of Native American warriors in a very one-sided battle on June 25-26, 1876. The whole debacle was due almost 100% to Custer's hubris and gross underestimation of his opponents.) Connell was known primarily as a poet and a novelist. The Custer book is beautifully written and very psychologically astute.
For me, Etty: the letters and diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943 is the most moving writing by a Holocaust victim that I have ever read. Etty was very intelligent, free-thinking, sexually adventurous and somewhat emotionally unstable young Jewish woman in Amsterdam. She met a very unorthodox mentor/teacher in 1941 and began keeping a journal. You see Etty's enormous spiritual growth through her diaries. She refused to go into hiding and ended up at Westerbork transit camp in the Netherlands. She wanted to be "the thinking heart of the camp", at which she succeeded, according to testimony by survivors. She and her parents and brothers were on the last transport from Westerbork to Auschwitz--the same one that Anne Frank's family was on--and Etty died in Auschwitz in November 1943. Etty is one of my spiritual heroines. I think her writings are absolutely remarkable.
Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. I first read it when I was 18 and it is the most-read spiritual book I own. The sheer richness and number of India's saints and holy people is staggering.
--------------------
"Born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world is mad."
Posts: 412 | From: Nickel City | Registered: Jun 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
|
Posted
Darwin's Origin of Species qualifies because it changed the understanding of life. I would also nominate Freud's Interpretation of Dreams because it discovered the unconscious mind and hidden motivations. Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology proved that the earth is subject to the same processes today as was in the past, and proved the earth is older than biblical ideas.
--------------------
Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
| IP: Logged
|
|
Dafyd
Shipmate
# 5549
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by no prophet's flag is set so...:
I would also nominate Freud's Interpretation of Dreams because it discovered the unconscious mind and hidden motivations.
The Guardian I think is restricting itself to books originally written in English, although there are hints it may let the King James Bible in. So Freud is out.
There are those who would say that while Freud certainly qualifies for a 100 best books of all time, he doesn't qualify when it's restricted to non-fiction.
--------------------
we remain, thanks to original sin, much in love with talking about, rather than with, one another. Rowan Williams
Posts: 10567 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Feb 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
Printer-friendly view
