Fantasy and Sci-fi? pfft... real books please.

[legendario]

Ok it everyone here read fantasy and sci-fi the most but can we have a list of the best real books you have read?

When I say real I actually only mean non-fiction (this does not include text books).

Let the list begin.....

 

[Trebz]

Don't really read many non-fiction books, recently read Stalingrad by Antony Beevor though and managed to complete it, fantastic read!

 

[Scooba Da Bass]

I finished Michael Foot's biography a while back, that was pretty good.

 

[dysfunction]

edit: Oh sorry non fiction...

 

[ECA]

My NON fiction list would be bigger than my fiction list.

Last three books were Stupid White Men by Michael Moore ,
Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town by
Paul Theroux ( Louis Brother ), and Systems Analysis by Steven Skidmore - course book pleh.

 

[theriven]

dont really read much non fiction, but the missus just picked up "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" by Michael Baigent, Henry Lincoln and Richard Leigh for me.

Its kinda the stuff im into so might be good

Thing is with factual writings, everyone is interested in different things, so i dont think you CAN have a "best real book".

 

[Will]

Mr Nice, by Howard Marks.

 

[adams901]

I don't read books relating to real life, I have enough of real life each day without spending my spare time reading about it...

I bet you watch eastenders as well dont you?

 

[theriven]

Originally posted by adams901
I don't read books relating to real life, I have enough of real life each day without spending my spare time reading about it...

I bet you watch eastenders as well dont you?

Because.......?

Eastenders is real-life?

Its all escapism, fictional books or "real" , your still in the authors world and not your own.

 

[xane]

Originally posted by theriven
... just picked up "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" by Michael Baigent, Henry Lincoln and Richard Leigh for me.

I read this book ages ago, excellent stuff and lots of historical content too, they have another few books in the same line and there are many others that detail similar and related themes, basically they are "serious" conspiracy theories without the aliens and giant reptiles, I can't get enough of these but modern ones do tend to get a bit silly.

The follow up to this book is The Messianic Legacy, recommeded, and taking the theme further is The Temple and The Lodge, there is also The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception, and more recently The Inquisition, all by the same authors. On the same line is The Orion Mystery about the pyramids by Robert Bauval, who is in the same league as Baigent and Leigh.

Historical stories based on real adventures are nice for me too, especially those concerned with the ages of dicovery; Longitude, Nathanials Nutmeg, etc

Right now I'm into "junk science", the kind perpetuated by the environmentalists, it's amazing how many "facts" in daily life are accepted as such when the reality is far different, the same extends into various doomsday theories put forward by the various eco-idiots. On this theme, I've read The Skeptical Environmentalist by Bjorn Lomborg which has created a huge amount of controversy, and Bountiful Harvest by Thomas Di Gregori, which is not as good.

Another good but overly cynical book is No Logo by Naomi Klein.

Latest "junk science" is Bad Medicine, not a recent book but good nonetheless.

 

[theriven]

Ta for the info
Ill have to send her out shopping some more

 

[legendario]

Riven, i didn't mean that there will be a single "best" non-fictional book I was curious as to who read non-fiction and what were the best books they had read.

The eastenders comment ended me btw

 

[theriven]

No what i meant was this, say you read pole to pole by eric idle or whoever, then a true life story of someone who was ritualy abused by the monks he grew up with. While both books would be good, there both good for different reasons. So given that this is a thread about non fiction and everyones tastes differ, its hard to say what was the better read and recomend it to anyone.

 

[Munkey-]

My two favourite non-fiction books:

Letters to Daniel (Despatches from the Heart) - Fergal Keane

Travels with a Tangerine (A journey in the footnotes of Ibn Battutah) - Tim Mackintosh-Smith

I really reccomend you read Travels with a Tangerine.

 

[old.ignus]

Im currently reading enemy at the gates, war of the rats, Russia and the Russians, the real SAS, the first world war, and acupoints for healing and martial arts techniques, and I have one more chapter from Lord of the rings to read and I've finished that. I like to read more than one book at once.

 

[djpringle]

Sir Steven Runciman's 3 volume History of the Crusades was good if a little long winded in places...also from the same period the Alexiad by Anna Komena is good un.

Haven't started Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations but may do one year.

 

[bodhi]

What do you call a sociopath in a cubicle? Answer: A Coworker and The Dilbert Principle by Scott Adams.


Dilbert = teh funni!