April seemed to be SF book month on Whatnots.

For May I thought it might be interesting to have a conversation about some favorite non-fiction books or authors. (Hoping that our literacy extends beyond the SF section of the bookstore!)

The non-fiction categories could be endless: Politics, Philosophy, Physical education or beyond.

I'll start:

A couple Non-Fiction books I would highly recommend;

1) Desiring God by John Piper. It is basically a primer on how to be a hedonist.

2) Into the Storm by Tom Clancy. A book about the rebuilding of the American Army from the disaster in Vietnam up to the Gulf War.

I'm looking forward to seeing what else you all are reading!

HA! Great idea Mathetais! I've usually got two or three books going at one time, but I rarely delve into non-fiction. The closest I can come is straight from the How - To section:

1. Great Outdoor 2x4 Furniture. I've actually built a planter and a wishing well, and this week I've been reading to decide what to build next.

2. The New Sensual Massage by Gordon Inkeles. It's actually written like a course book for massage therapy, with detailed techniques and musculature graphics. Very good reading. (The rest of the pics are pretty nice too! ;) )

It sounds a bit weird but I used to like Shakespeare a lot. I've read most of the plays from the original english text and they were great. Well, for four-hundred-year-old books they were good... I'm not into that now, though.

I forgot to mention I love William Blake, one of the greatest poets the world has ever known.


[This message has been edited by Stargazer rb-rjd (edited May 01, 2001).]

The 900 Days...A story of the Siege of Leningrad in WWII. I've been reading it on and off all semester! It's really good!

The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald. I have mixed emotions about it. I don't know if I like it or find it too boring for my taste. There's no doubt it's written very well and all, but I feel there's something missing in it. A sensible ending, if nothing else.
There's also a movie about it with Redford playing Gatsby if anyone wants to find out quickly (well, 2 hrs) what it's all about.

[This message has been edited by Taluntain (edited May 01, 2001).]

whoah, NON - fiction?????? there are actuall facts??? where do they come from? is there actually a world beyond the door into my room?

seriously, the closest I ever came to reading non-fiction was Shogun by James Clavell, It was based on truth (remotely). If anyone hasnt read it then go and read it. It is the best book in the world with the possible exception of LOTR.

FenixStrife! You read Shogun!?! I'm impressed! :D

A couple of my friends have raved about that one. Thanks for the reminder. I'll have to remember to borrow it one of these days...

I've been reading a couple of books by Oliver Sacks. Namely "Awakenings" and "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat, and Other Clinical Tales".

In case you don't know who Oliver Sacks is, he's a famous psychologist and he wrote books about the people he treated, or in some cases attempted to treat.

I love to read the books of Umberto Eco especially Foucault's Pendulum (one of my all time favourites).
I also like to name a very fictional book (but not in a D&D way) that impressed me much:
The Cambridge Quintet by John L. Casti.
It's about a fictional meeting of Haldone, Schroedinger, Turing and Wittgenstein in Cambridge in the late 40's discussing the possibility of artificial intelligence.

The last non-fiction books I read were about Jeanne d'Arc. Well, one of them was actually a "based-on-a-true-story" version that really wasn't too accurate. The other was a "pure facts" version.

I really don't read all that many books about the real world. I live there, you know...

[This message has been edited by Seric Exz (edited May 02, 2001).]

Allthough non-fiction really sucks ass, I have read the four books about Elling by Ingvar Ambjørnsen.

Like most on here I rarely delve into the depths of the real world and read non-fiction. I do quite like Biographies though.

Last one I read was about Bob Paisley - the Liverpool FC Manager in the late 70's, early eighties. Probably only interest those of you who like football, but there you go.

I've been reading a few things recently:

1. Leonardo Da'Vinci: one of the Penguin Lives Series. I am reading them all.

2. James Joyce: also of the series

3. Fast Food Nation. Actually finished it recently.

That's about it right now. I prefer non-fiction to lit, frankly.

"Gates of Fire" by Steven Pressfield is about the Thermopylae where 300 Spartans faced the Persian army rumorred to be over a million. An epic battle.

Allmost all writings of Clavel are good - "Shogun" and "King Rat" are the best IMHO. The latter is about Am. prisoners of 2WW kept in Japonese camp.
Srephen Leather's "The Tunel Rats" about the war in 'Nam made a good reading also.

Bringing this up for the new booktalk forum :) (I love these bords!)

Recently, I've read:

Every Man's Battle by Fred Stokes (how to deal with the lusts and temptations our culture throws at you and ways to keep yourself pure. It was very helpful for me over the past year!)

Power Evangelism by John Wimber (this will blow your socks off!)

Soul Survivor by Philip Yancey. (This is a great book of biographies. Yancey tells the storys of people like Martin Luther King Jr & Dostoyeski, and how they have impacted his life!)

More to come soon!

!!!Bibliophiles Unite!!!

I am reading Gene VII by Benjamin Lewin. But then I have to cos it is nearly my finals, and I have to do some revision :(

Most recent non-fiction I read was "the Universe in a Nutshell" by Stephen Hawking, although most of this modern physics is so theoretical and hypothetical some may disagree with the non-fiction part :D And no, I didn't understand it all that well.

Well I have read alot of student literature. Some of the best ones I have read are People, States and Fear and drats I cant remember the author but its an indepht analysis of how international politics work. Pretty good.
About the only non-fiction books I have read have been history books about Caesar, I even read his his own chronicle of the Gaelic war. Very interesting stuff but the copy I read was translated 1919 so the swedish in it was a little hard to follow.

Commandos - a book of mainly first hand accounts by members of the commonwealth special forces durting WWII - the commandos, SAS, LRDG and Paras. Stuff like this brings a tear to my eyes when I see hear about the bravery and self sacrifice made during such hard and frigtening times. What a debt we all owe.

Next up is Something about the strategy and tactics used and developed during Admiral Nelson's time.

I've also recently bought a book called 'How to Draw Anything'. I think I'm a frustrated creative person and decided I'd use all this free time to see if I can manage to learn to draw at all.

These days I don't actually read all that much from the SF/F section of the bookstore. For fictional works, I mostly read mysteries. However, the topic here is non fiction.

Recently, I read "The Great Game", which is an interesting book on the Russo-British struggle for dominion in Central Asia during the 19th century. Its by Peter Hopkirk.

I've also been perusing Robert Kann' "History of the Habsburg Empire" and Lord Kinross' "The Ottoman Centuries. The first is rather academic and somewhat technical, so I wouldn't really recommend it to the general reader. "The Ottoman Centuries" is much more readable by the general populace.

Aloha
Vormaerin

"Cults and Faiths"
The biggest surprise was that apparently Jahoba's Witness is a cult.(hope its the right spelling)

Alienboy ... right you are. Jehovah's Witness is not "orthodox" at all. They look at the Bible as one of their holy books, and their version has some very bad translations.

For example in John 1 instead of "In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God" .... they translate it "in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was a God."

J.W. theology holds that Jesus was a man like us who was holy, and that 144,000 people after him will achieve a similar standing. In fact, they will be given worlds of their own in the next life, and they will be the diety of that world.

On my latest non-Fiction ... I'm reading The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter. It was writting in 1642 (there-abouts) and is an argument for the clergy of England to change their hearts & change their ways. :holy:

A great quote ... he is responding to the minsters who say that he should not have corrected their behavior in such a public fashion. They said that if he had to write a book about it, he should have at least written it in Latin, so the normal people couldn't understand it. Baxter's response, "If you had sinned only in Latin, then I would have undertaken to correct you in Latin. However, since you sinned in English, your confession and rebuke should be in English as well."

(Gotta love a clergyman with stones ... this is good stuff!) :angel:

The D&D manuals. Oh and this forum!:D

The <u>How to Survive Guide</u>. Great book, pretty funny, and manages to help you escape from a swarm of killer bees, tells you how to survive in the jungle, and how to help give birth in a taxicab.

C'Jakob, seen the new survival guide to dating and sex? It's just as good as the original (there are intructions on such ventures as determining the gender of your date, fending off rivals for a girl, stopping a wedding, getting rid of BO fast, and how to skip out on a tab at a restaurant).

As for more serious nonfiction, I stick with history and physics, the two most interesting subjects IMO. The more advanced the physics, the better -- I like jumping into something entirely over my head and trying to make sense of it.

The Habitant. From the 1800's.:book:

The tomorrow of Malaria.

Bleedin' fascinating I can tell you.

Fundamentals of the Faith (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/089870202X/sorcerersplace/) and Prayer for Beginners (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0898707757/sorcerersplace/) by Boston College professor of philosophy Peter Kreeft. The first is part of what finally prompted me to convert to Catholicism after years of putting it off. The second is a good basic prayer guide -- all about what prayer is (and isn't) and how to go about it.

I'm also interested in reading this one: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0944029493/sorcerersplace/

You mean Terry Pratchet is writing fake stuff. Whoa.

Actually, I like reading about the medieval times. No specific book, really, but I have seen some interesting ones in the library...

Two of the greatest non-fiction books I have read (and I highly recommend them to anyone who is interested in war or joining the military):
Blackhawk Down by Mark Bowden
We Were Soldiers Once...and Young by Lt. Col. Harold Moore and Joseph Galloway

I'm thinking of getting a book on the history of Islam, one that incorporates political history as well as the evolution of the religion itself. (I'm something of a history buff, but I find a somewhat glaring hole regarding non-European/Asian/American cultures and civilizations.) Any recommendations on a good one?

Similarly, I want a book on pre-colonial African civilizations. Any input on what I could get on either one? (I don't want to miss out on some quintessential book on these topics just because I know nothing about these topics. :heh:

The last non-fiction book I read was "The Satan-Seller" by Mike Warnke.

The book is about Mike Warnke (the author) and his life experiences when he was part of a satanic cult.

First, he descended into the hell of drug addiction. Then he ascended in the satanic ranks to the position of high priest, with fifteen hundred followers in three cities. He had unlimited wealth and power at his disposal, provided by members of Satanism's highest echelon, the illuminati. And then he converted to Christ.

I thinks he's some kind of Christ Comedian now. Good read nontheless.

[This message has been edited by Frog (edited April 11, 2002).]

Frog ... how old is that book ... I think it was published in the early 1970's? In recent news, Mike Warnke was exposed as a fraud ... he dabbled a little in the occult, but never was a high priest or anything. I guess he got good audience from the satanic testimony, so he kept building the story until it got out of hand.

Check this out .... http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2002/107/42.0.html

Sorry ... the occult is real and Satan is devouring souls, but Mike's biggest sin was lying, not witchcraft :(

I did read the book a heck of a long time ago. Thanks for the wake up call. I had no idea.

[This message has been edited by Frog (edited April 11, 2002).]

wow, i really envy you guys/gals. you can really read. in my lifetime i have read only a few books. i find difficulty finishing a novel, so most of what i read are short stories. my favorites books, however, are harper lee's to kill a mockingbird and amy tan's the joy luck club. other author includes fulghum, if you know this guy, you know what i meant by short stories. other non-fictions that i would read to the end are reader's digests. :)

Right now I'm reading The 21 Lessons of Merlyn. Again. It's like therapy for me.

Maybe we should get you a therapy book.

A therapy book! Whowuddathunkit?!:)

The best non-fiction book I've read lately is 'Rogue Warrior'.

Talk about Comedy-Central. My stomach/side/lungs/heart/liver hurt from laughing...

The adventurer is dead, the adventure goes on.

Read about the Thor Heyerdal's travels on the Kon-Tiki raft accross the Pacific if you like travel books. It's an amazing journey.

Singh's books on Fermat's Last Theorem and breaking codes--including the enigma machine used by the Germans (The Code Book). Both are fun and do not require any advanced math skills.

I think i did only read 2 books that where non fiction: Mein Kampf and the satanic bible.

I did like mein Kampf (If you don't think about the horror things that guy did in the war, that was sick!),It showed how twisted Adolf's mind was, did any of you read it? If you write things like that, how can you become the master of germany? But as a book, I enyoded it, you should really read it!

About the Satanic Bible, I think it's more fair than the original bible, the original is written as a bedtime story and that is sick, since churces are using it for a religeon! The Satanic bible tells about a way of living, and I agree to most of it! Still I can't "Wordship"Satan, since I can't believe in him! Still it's great to read. I talked with a real satanist, and she didn't agree with as many parts as I did :)!

~Read them both!

{Edit: And of course I did read some books about witchcraft and tarot and other things, is Ocult the right word?}



[This message has been edited by SleepleSS (edited May 04, 2002).]

i read the book of five rings by miyamoto musashi (bantam translation) periodically. popular science books (e.g. dawkins) are also a part of my regular non-fiction literary diet.