100 Greatest Non-Fiction Books?

[asterix]

It is autobiographical and hence non-fiction.

 

[swee'pea99]

It may be autobiographical - many novels are. It is still a novel, hence fiction.

 

[asterix]

I used to read quite a lot of books about military aircraft and air campaigns when I was younger. There were a lot of good books on this subject. I don't know if it would deserve a place in the top 100, but I thought The Canvas Falcons about the WWI fighters was particularly good.

I am reading one in this genre called 'Unarmed into Battle' about artillery spotters. It was written just after WW2 (1956) and is the only non-biographical book on the subject. Those involved were pioneers of modern warfare making their case against the arguments of the traditionalists.

 

[accountantpete]

10 days That Shook The World - John Reed

Great title and cover - a lot like the LP's I used to buy.

 

[theclaud]

The one non-fiction book I spent most time with was as a child:

The Observer's Book Of The Larger British Moths by RLE Ford - Evolution, biology, ecology, how to breed Death's Head Hawkmoths, concise descriptions of species, excellent illustrations, and all explained in words an eleven year old could understand - brilliant.

Any success with that?

 

[KEEF]

In Praise of Slowness Carl Honore

 

[asterix]

[quote name='swee'pea99' timestamp='1308218837' post='1710373']
It may be autobiographical - many novels are. It is still a novel, hence fiction.
[/quote]


Nonsense!

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Nonsense!

It is a novel. Find me one serious critic who disputes this. It is drawn from his experiences and those of others, but it is fictionalized.

 

[PaulB]

One thing that struck me about Jack Kerouac is how poor a writer he was/is. When it was a 'trendy-wendy' book casually name-dropped by those wanting to impress, I got a copy of 'On the Road' and found it to be disjointed, irregular, inconsistent and decidedly jarring so I chucked it away. I found the same of Ken Kesey as well, despite how good a story 'Give 'em an inch' and 'One flew over the cuckoo's nest' were, the writing didn't flow pleasantly.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

One thing that struck me about Jack Kerouac is how poor a writer he was/is.

It's pretty subjective. I disagree. On the Road has a kind of unstoppable rush to it. Sure, if you slow it down and look at it too hard, it may not stand up, but it's not supposed to be read that way.

 

[PaulB]

It's pretty subjective. I disagree. On the Road has a kind of unstoppable rush to it. Sure, if you slow it down and look at it too hard, it may not stand up, but it's not supposed to be read that way.

I disagree with your disagreement. It's one thing to have a good story and another to tell it poorly. And he tells it poorly.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

It's one thing to have a good story and another to tell it poorly.

If anything it's the other way around: there's no real story; it's the way he tells it. But I'm not trying to persuade you I'm right. I'll continue to enjoy Kerouac, you won't. That's just too bad.

 

[Monsieur Remings]

Homage To Catalonia - George Orwell
A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking
Death in the Afternoon - Ernest Hemingway
With A Machine Gun to Cambrai - George Coppard
Bad Blood: A Walk Along the Irish Border - Colm Toibin
Travels With Charley - John Steinbeck
The Last Fighting Tommy - Harry Patch, Richard V. Emden.
The English Highwayman - Peter Haining
Battle Cry of Freedom - James M. McPherson
The Politics of Experience - R.D. Laing

 

[slowmotion]

Eiger, Wall of Death by Arthur Roth.

A very badly written book, full of over-dramatic journalistic hyperbole.

But oh, the drama, heroism, fortitude and courage of the protaganists.. It makes mere cycling look easy.

 

[mangaman]

I disagree with your disagreement. It's one thing to have a good story and another to tell it poorly. And he tells it poorly.

I agree - it's fiction (and moderate at that) so doesn't count.

Adam Smith's "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" isn't the Thatcherite rant of people's imagination, but essentially an invention of economics as a discipline in a readable and rational way.


Anne Frank's diary I would put in. It has an immediacy and poigniency that is unique.


I'd miss out Orwell - I find him self-aggrandising in his non-fiction and his fiction I find average at best.