What is your best non-fiction book recommendation?

Marx-The Communist Manifesto
Even if you’re not a communist, it’s still an important book because it shows the inner-workings of capitalism. Not to mention that Marx had an influence on Barthes, Althusser, Foucault, and other philosophers.

Thoreau-Walden
I think it’s a good book to live by; simple living and self-sufficiency is something we should all strive for.

Eliade-The Sacred and The Profane
This book really gave me a deeper understanding of religion.

I just read Freakonomics. It was interesting to see relationships between seemingly disparate things.

Are memoirs considered non-fiction? If so, David Sedaris’ Me Talk Pretty One Day just because it’s f’ing hilarious.

@augustlan I loved Me Talk Pretty One Day, that book made me laugh out loud too many times to count!

I like almost anything by Bill Bryson. Shakespearse: the World as Stage was very good as was A Short History of Nearly Everything.

The Wealth Inequality Reader: by Dollars and Sense United for a Fair Economy.

A worthwhile read.

Tipping Point. Actually, just about anything by Malcolm Gladwell.

@zenvelo Oh, God, I consider Gladwell a pretentious faux-popular-science hack!

Bill Bryson, Micheal Pollan, Sue Hubbell, Mary Roach.

Dan Ariely a behavorial economist, worked at MIT. I read Predictable Irrationality plan to read his other books.

@syz I liked Outliers by MG I realize it was simple but not being an expert thought it was readable and had a ring of truth as well as a, never thought of it that way before, thrill to it. Why is he a hack?

I did start Gulp yesterday. I am planning on finishing a few others before I dig in but I can’t wait.

My latest fave is Joseph Anton – A Memoir by Salman Rushdie. A terrific read.

I have two I read and enjoyed recently; the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and Unbroken.

I just want to say that Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is pretty badass.
I mean come on, dude engages in a 2 hour fight with his slave master? Holy shit!

I’m reading Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi-Ali. It’s an autobiography of a former Muslim women who escaped the pernicious Islamic culture, escaping to Holland, then the U.S.

I do remember a thread from a long time ago, where people were dissecting Malcolm Gladwell and explaining why he is a hack. I wouldn’t know where to look, though. Does anyone remember that thread?

I’m in the middle of the biography of Steve Jobs written by Walter Isaacson. It’s really fascinating.

And I just finished a biography of Benjamin Franklin:An American LIfe, also written by Walter Isaacson. It was also fascinating.

For another view of the same period on history, with overlapping characters, I also loved the David McCullough biography of John Adams

I then veered off a little and just finished “The Master of the Mountain” which was about Thomas Jefferson but deals primarily with his views on and behavior in relationship to slavery. Here

I mentioned Jef Raskin’s The Humane Interface on another thread, and alluded to it in yet another. Here’s an overview of some of its basic principles.

Probably not the absolute best recommendation I could make, but I thought of it as soon as I saw the question :^)

I read nonfiction books at a rate of one to about four or five fiction. Good ones I’ve read recently have ranged from an account of everyday life in North Korea to the world behind the scenes at a major museum of natural history. What sort of thing are you interested in?

@Jeruba, no I am not looking for any subject in particular. I find myself going through phases where I am mostly interested in non-fiction. Yesterday I picked up Columbine by Dave Cullen and Voodoo Histories by David Aaronovitch. Not purchased, borrowed from the library of course.