The Non-Fiction Book Meme

[kaitou]

So, do you guys remember when there was a meme going around about how people don't read anymore, and there was a list of 100 classic books to see if you'd read them or not? (which was totally not the list that was actually in the article, but I digress) Well you see, I like to read nonfiction, and I was sad to see that there were NO nonfiction books on that list.

So I went looking for a list of top 100 nonfiction books...but there wasn't one. So I set out to make one of my own. And with the help of many of you on my flist, I have now put together a list that I think is pretty good. For the most part it's not filled with classics, it's filled with the recent popular. I tried to have a good mix of history, science, memoir and such. I could have probably made a list solely out of food related books. It's not perfect, but I'm still pretty pleased.

I'm going to write up another post with my answers, and I'd be as pleased as punch to see you all put this on your journal, and see what your answers are.


1) Italicize those you have read.
2) BOLD the ones you LOVED.
3) Star (*) those you'd like to read someday.
4) @ those that someone MADE you read (like for a class or something).

1. 1421: The Year China Discovered America by Gavin Menzies
2. 1776 by David McCullough
3. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
4. A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage
5. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
6. A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson
7. A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle
8. The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language by Melvyn Bragg
9. All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum
10. All the President's Men by Bob Woodward , Carl Bernstein
11. An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It by Al Gore
12. Anatomy of Greed by Brian Cruver
13. And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts
14. Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
15. Anne Frank the Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
16. Archimedes' Revenge by Paul Hoffman
17. The Art of War by Sun Tzu
18. Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
19. Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War by Mark Bowden
20. Blue Highways: A Journey into America by William Least Heat-Moon
21. The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan
22. Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl
23. Bringing Down the House : The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions by Ben Mezrich
24. Brunelleschi's Dome by Ross King
25. Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake by Stan Redding, Frank Abagnale
26. Collapse : How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond
27. Confessions of a Master Jewel Thief by Bill Mason and Lee Gruenfeld
28. Cosmos by Carl Sagan
29. Cuckoo's Egg by Clifford Stoll
30. The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn Iggulden
31. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson
32. Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron, Bret Witter
33. Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned by Kenneth C. Davis
34. The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow
35. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
36. Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss
37. Fast Food Nation (Paperback) by Eric Schlosser
38. Fermat's Last Theorem: Unlocking the Secret of an Ancient Mathematical Problem by Amir D. Aczel
39. Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby
40. Freakonomics - A Rogue Economist Explores The Hidden Side Of Everything, Revised and Expanded Edition by Steven D.; Dubner, Stephen J. Levitt
41. Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H.G. Bissinger
42. From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers by Marina Warner
43. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
44. Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love by Dava Sobel
45. The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Goldratt, Eliyahu M.
46. Godel, Escher, Bach: an eternal golden braid by Hofstadter
47. Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
48. Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy
49. The Hero's Journey by Joseph Campbell
50. The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story by Richard Preston
51. How the Irish Saved Civilization (Hinges of History) by Thomas Cahill
52. How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer
53. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote and Bob Colacello
54. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
55. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
56. Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles by Anthony Swofford
57. Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain
58. The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A. J. Jacobs
59. Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 (P.S.) by Simon Winchester
60. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow
61. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, Revised and Updated Edition by James W. Loewen
62. Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel
63. The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales by Oliver W. Sacks
64. Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog By John Grogan
65. Math Doesn't Suck: How to Survive Middle School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail by Danica McKellar
66. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
67. Napoleon's Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History by Penny Le Couteur
68. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
69. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
70. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
71. Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
72. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
73. PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives by Frank Warren
74. The Power of Art by Simon Schama
75. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
76. The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio : How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less by Terry Ryan,
77. The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary (P.S.) by Simon Winchester
78. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
79. Rise and Fall of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
80. Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
81. Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
82. The Science of Harry Potter: How Magic Really Works by Roger Highfield
83. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
84. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
85. South: The Endurance Expedition by Ernest Shackleton
86. Spider Eaters: A Memoir by Rae Yang
87. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
88. Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) by Richard P. Feynman
89. Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy by Simon Blackburn
90. This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J. Levitin
91. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
92. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
93. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
94. Under the Tuscan Sun  by Frances Mayes
95. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud
96. The Way Things Work, by David Macaulay
97. We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch
98. The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
99. The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht
100. Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee