# Do you know of any non-fiction page-turners? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 12, 2005, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-of-any-non-fiction-page-turners/289761 "2005-02-12T18:01:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2005, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-of-any-non-fiction-page-turners/289761/21 "2005-02-12T21:15:48Z")
Stephen King’s _Danse Macabre_ and _On Writing_. Anyone who thinks King is just a horror fiction writer has never read these two books. True crime fans ought to check out Jack Olsen’s works. I like him better than Ann Rule. Also check out books by Robert Ressler, who started the FBI’s serial killers unit, and Jack Douglas, his successor. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2005, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-of-any-non-fiction-page-turners/289761/22 "2005-02-12T21:32:18Z")
_Black Hawk Down_ is very interesting and moves at a good pace. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2005, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-of-any-non-fiction-page-turners/289761/23 "2005-02-12T22:01:13Z")
It’s been mentioned, but for a real page turner it’s hard to beat _Into Thin Air_. Once I passed the halfway point I stayed up until I’d finished it. I just finished reading _A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush_ by Eric Newby, which is fascinating and hilarious, too. Them crazy Brits! Also, believe it or not, I found _The Book on the Bookshelf_ to be absolutely riveting. It’s about the history of book furniture. No, really. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2005, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-of-any-non-fiction-page-turners/289761/24 "2005-02-12T22:01:39Z")
_Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage_ by Alfred Lansing ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2005, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-of-any-non-fiction-page-turners/289761/25 "2005-02-12T22:11:54Z")
_The Hot Zone_ by Robert Preston. Don’t read this if you’re squeamish, though, because it has very graphic descriptions of Ebola hemorrhagic fever and how the virus is transmitted. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2005, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-of-any-non-fiction-page-turners/289761/26 "2005-02-12T22:27:21Z")
> [@Terminus Est](#): > > _The Hot Zone_ by Robert Preston. Don’t read this if you’re squeamish, though, because it has very graphic descriptions of Ebola hemorrhagic fever and how the virus is transmitted. Yes, this one is very good. And I can’t believe it hasn’t been mentioned yet, since I found out about it through the numerous recommendations here on this very Board: _Guns, Germs and Steel_ by Jared Diamond. Fascinating book about society, geography, and ecology, and of course, guns and germs and how it all came together. He has a new one out called _Collapse_ about why civilizations fall apart. I haven’t read it yet, but it sounds great. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2005, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-of-any-non-fiction-page-turners/289761/27 "2005-02-12T22:34:54Z")
I mostly read non-fiction. Some of my favorites are: _Coming of Age in the Milky Way_ and _Seeing in the Dark_, both by Timothy Ferris. The first is basically a history of humanity’s vision of its place in the cosmos and is peppered with a thousand fascinating anecdotes. The second is about amateur astronomers and their contributions to modern science. _An American Insurrection_, by William Doyle. About the riots surrouding the integration of the University of Mississippi. I had never even heard of this stuff til I read the book. _A People’s History of the Supreme Court_, by Peter Irons. History of American civil rights through the Supreme Court cases. _Darwin’s Ghost_, by Steve Jones. Sort of a retelling of _Origin of Species_. _The Beak of the Finch_, by Jonathan Weinberg. No one would doubt the reality of evolution if they read this book. _Embracing Defeat_, by John Dower. Survey of Japan following the loss of World War II. Enlightening and well-written, won the Pulitzer Prize. _The Noonday Demon_, by Andrew Solomon. Looks at clinical depression from scientific, cultural, and very personal points of view, won the National Book Award. _A Problem from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide_, by Samantha Power. I guarantee you’ll be horrified. _Underground_, by Haruki Murakami. The famous Japanese novelist interviewed the survivors of and relatives of the victims of the Tokyo sarin gas attacks. Frightening as hell. Um, I’ll stop now. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2005, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-of-any-non-fiction-page-turners/289761/28 "2005-02-12T22:48:35Z")
Chunk to Hunk. An obese man uses mind manipulation tricks to try to lose weight and records his journey in the process Combatting cult mind control. A college student becomes a ravenous cult member, then is forcibly removed from the cult then goes on to fight their influence. Lucifer principle. The idea that civilization is a living organism and that individuals are just the cells the same way our cells are just individual organisms that create us. As you can tell i’m alot of fun at parties since this is what I read for fun. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2005, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-of-any-non-fiction-page-turners/289761/29 "2005-02-12T22:54:10Z")
_Longitude_ by Dava Sobel is fascinating. There’s also a whole series of books by this guy, Cecil something… ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2005, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-of-any-non-fiction-page-turners/289761/30 "2005-02-12T22:56:53Z")
**Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil** by John Berendt. The book is much more interesting and entertaining than the movie. **Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman** and **What Do You Care What Other People Think?** , both by **Richard P. Feynman** (or ‘as told by’). Feynman was a Nobel Prize winning American physicist who worked on the Manhatten Project and the space shuttle Challenger investigation (oh, and quantum electrodynamics). He was well-known for his sense of curiosity, his playful sense of humor, and for being a great teacher. Hugely entertaining reads! ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2005, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-of-any-non-fiction-page-turners/289761/31 "2005-02-12T23:05:03Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > It’s been mentioned, but for a real page turner it’s hard to beat _Into Thin Air_. Once I passed the halfway point I stayed up until I’d finished it. I opened this thread specifically to post this one. The most grueling ordeal, very well told. Read this together with _Into the Void_ , but only if you are safe and warm. Do NOT read either when you are on a winter backpacking trip!. ---
**Author:** ![Metacom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecae2f/32.png) [@Metacom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Metacom)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2005, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-of-any-non-fiction-page-turners/289761/32 "2005-02-12T23:40:16Z")
“Under the Banner of Heaven,” also by Krakauer, is an interesting read. It’s part “true crime” and part “history of violence in Mormon society” and has some interesting descriptions of fundamentalist Mormon splinter groups. Also, I liked [Adrift](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0618257322/qid=1108252409/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/102-6434258-0927314). ---
**Author:** ![EmeraldGrue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dc4da7/32.png) [@EmeraldGrue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmeraldGrue)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2005, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-of-any-non-fiction-page-turners/289761/33 "2005-02-13T00:21:44Z")
_Blueprints: Solving the Mystery of Evolution_, Maitland Edey and Donald Johanson. The bits about breeding fruit flies are especially gripping. I’m not joking. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2005, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-of-any-non-fiction-page-turners/289761/34 "2005-02-13T00:33:42Z")
If you can find a copy, try _The Arabs_, by Anthony Nutting. It’s a history of Islam and the Arab people from the sixth century to about 1960. Arab history is, at least in Nutting’s version, a tale of nonstop adventrue and battle, romance and intrigue, filled with larger-than-life heros and villains. And once you’re finished you’ll know all kinds of fascinating stuff such as who Kalid Ibn Wahid was. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2005, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-of-any-non-fiction-page-turners/289761/35 "2005-02-13T00:37:35Z")
Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society. ---
**Author:** ![colour\_wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/edb3f5/32.png) [@colour\_wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colour_wolf)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2005, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-of-any-non-fiction-page-turners/289761/36 "2005-02-13T00:47:35Z")
> [@BiblioCat](#): > > _Guns, Germs and Steel_ by Jared Diamond. Fascinating book about society, geography, and ecology, and of course, guns and germs and how it all came together. > He has a new one out called _Collapse_ about why civilizations fall apart. I haven’t read it yet, but it sounds great. I second _Guns, Germs and Steel_. _Collapse_ is also excellent. Another that I loved was [The Devil in the White City](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0609608444/002-8301039-0553657). Takes place at the Chicago World Fair. It reads like a novel. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2005, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-of-any-non-fiction-page-turners/289761/37 "2005-02-13T00:52:07Z")
> [@BiblioCat](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Originally Posted by Terminus Est > > The Hot Zone by Robert Preston. Don’t read this if you’re squeamish, though, because it has very graphic descriptions of Ebola hemorrhagic fever and how the virus is transmitted. > > Yes, this one is very good. > > And I can’t believe it hasn’t been mentioned yet, since I found out about it through the numerous recommendations here on this very Board: _Guns, Germs and Steel_ by Jared Diamond. Fascinating book about society, geography, and ecology, and of course, guns and germs and how it all came together. > He has a new one out called _Collapse_ about why civilizations fall apart. I haven’t read it yet, but it sounds great. In a similar vein, **A Coming Plague** by Laurie Garrett. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2005, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-of-any-non-fiction-page-turners/289761/38 "2005-02-13T01:02:44Z")
**Diogenes** beat me to _Longitude_. If you enjoy _Into Thin Air_, there’s also _The Climb_, by Anatoli Bourkreev, the Russian guide who comes under a lot of criticism in Krakauer’s book for his decisions during that climb. An interesting perspective. _Into the Wild_ and _Eiger Dreams_ by John Krakauer, although they may scare you into never leaving the city again. _The Making of the Atomic Bomb_ and _Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb_, both by Richard Rhodes, were extremely interesting, informative and well-written. For the latter, he had access to Russian archives and was able to do a lot of research on Klaus Fuchs, the Rosenbergs, and a number of other atomic spies, real and accused. _A Civil Action_, by Jonathan Harr, a non-fiction legal ‘thriller’ about a class-action suit against Grace-Manville for contaminating the ground water in Woburn, Mass. Kind of a New England _Erin Brokovich_. May have just been interesting to me since it was right next door to my hometown. ---
**Author:** ![vl\_mungo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc8723/32.png) [@vl\_mungo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vl_mungo)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2005, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-of-any-non-fiction-page-turners/289761/39 "2005-02-13T01:04:53Z")
I know I’m echoing some previous posts, but what the hell… **King Leopold’s Ghost** - Adam Hochschild **Into The Wild** - Jon Krakauer **The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band** - Motley Crue w/ Scott Strauss \*\* Over the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe\*\* - Laurence Bergreen **The Proud Tower** - Barbara Tuchman ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2005, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-of-any-non-fiction-page-turners/289761/40 "2005-02-13T01:07:31Z")
I once read the first part of a (very long) book on the life of Peter the Great the title and author of which I can’t remember now (it was over 10 years ago). I never got to the second part because it was being used as a required-reading book for a roommate’s Russian history class and he had to take it back from me before I was anywhere near done. I certainly remember it as a very interesting, almost novel-like view of the Czar’s life. I’m sure someone on the boards will know what it’s called and who wrote it, which is why I’m throwing it out here in the first place, despite a lack of identifying characteristics… 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-of-any-non-fiction-page-turners/289761.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-of-any-non-fiction-page-turners/289761.md?page=3)