# Non-Fiction Recommendations, Please **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 24, 2003, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/209253 "2003-10-24T03:44:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/209253/1 "2003-10-24T03:44:24Z")
I need help in finding some new books. My tastes are somewhat ecclectic. My favorite subject areas are history, and human behavior, but I’ll read anything that’s interesting. Not too long ago in a recommendation thread, someone suggested \*The Lawn: A Histiory of Man’s Obsession. \* I love books like these, which show the histories behind everday items that you often don’t think about. I’ve just finished [Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping.](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684849143/ref=pd_ir_imp/102-1457349-0780926) I really enjoyed it. It’s a fascinating study of the behavior of shoppers, their traffic patterns, and the secrets behind making customers take notice of signs or items. Another I recently finished was [The History of Underclothes.](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0486271242/ref=pd_ir_imp/102-1457349-0780926) A short, but interesting read. I don’t much recommend [Not In Front of the Children: “Indecency,” Censorship, and the Innocence of Youth](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0809073994/ref=pd_ir_imp/102-1457349-0780926). Unfortunately, it made an interesting topic very dry. I’ve just started [In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692.](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/037540709X/qid=1066967435/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/102-1457349-0780926?v=glance&n=507846) So far, so good. So, do you guys have any books you’d suggest? ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/209253/2 "2003-10-24T03:57:32Z")
_The Double Helix_ by James Watson. It puts a human face on the march of science. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/209253/3 "2003-10-24T04:04:45Z")
These cover history and human behavior: Longitude Galileo’s Daughter The Surgeon of Crowethorn ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/209253/4 "2003-10-24T04:08:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AndrewT \* > \*\*These cover history and human behavior: > > Longitude > Galileo’s Daughter > The Surgeon of Crowethorn \*\* _Galileo’s Daughter_ I’ve already read (and enjoyed.) I did an [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) search for “The Surgeon of Crowethorn” and it turned up no results. Is it out-of-print? ---
**Author:** ![j\_sum1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8baadc/32.png) [@j\_sum1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j_sum1)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/209253/5 "2003-10-24T05:32:52Z")
For a gutsy human story I’m going to recommend _Touching the Void_ by Joe Simpson. How to break your leg in the Peruvian Andes, get left for dead and live to write about it (after three days crawling down a glacier.) And right at the end of the book, just when you are thinking that nothing could possibly be worse, he manages to slam a barb in your conscience in a vivid contrast between himself and one of the locals. Another one – a Classic – _South_ by Earnest Shackleton. The ill-fated voyage of the Discovery in Antarctica. Tough guys those. Fantastic story of leadership and courage, and not one died. It reads in a self-effacing almost apologetic style. But extreme… You might guess that I like ice. Anyway, these are two of the best. ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/209253/6 "2003-10-24T05:40:55Z")
[Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0393317552/qid=1066974657/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/103-3199767-0443838?v=glance&n=507846) by Jared Diamond is one of the best non-fiction books I have read in years. I think it should be required reading for everyone. ---
**Author:** ![Fatwater\_Fewl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/4491bb/32.png) [@Fatwater\_Fewl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fatwater_Fewl)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/209253/7 "2003-10-24T05:41:38Z")
I’ll second the Longitude recommendation. Also written by Dava Sobel (author of Galileo’s Daughter), it’s the story of John Harrison’s effort to build a clock that could keep precise time at sea. Why? Because he had decided that such a clock was the answer to accurately measuring longitude. I’m partial to collections of Stephen Jay Gould’s essays. Some of the better non-fiction books I’ve read in the past couple years are The Man Who Loved Only Numbers, by Paul Hoffman; The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero, by Robert Kaplan; and The Book of Nothing, by John D. Barrow. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/209253/8 "2003-10-24T06:03:08Z")
_On Human Nature_ by E. O. Wilson. I’d second _Guns, Germs and Steel_. ---
**Author:** ![Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glory)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/209253/9 "2003-10-24T06:16:39Z")
_Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players_ by John Fatsis. _Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster_ by Jon Krakauer _In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex_ by Nat Philbrick _The cruelest miles : the heroic story of dogs and men in a race against an epidemic_ by Gay Salisbury _The devil in the white city : murder, magic, and madness at the fair that changed America_ by Erik Larson _The Ice Master: The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the Karlu_ by Jennifer Niven ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/209253/10 "2003-10-24T07:42:56Z")
Can I recommend a book I have’t read yet? I just read an article about “The Encylopedia of Stupidity”, by Matthijs Van Boxel. Apparently bookstores are uncertain whether to file it under sociology, philosophy or reference, which seems a good sign right there. By the sound of it, it’s right up your alley. And I third “Guns, Germs and Steel” everyone on the planet should read it. ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/209253/11 "2003-10-24T08:25:47Z")
_Complications_, by Atul Gawande _Fat Land_, by Greg Critser _The Secret Life of Dust_, by Hannah Holmes ---
**Author:** ![Adamcomic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/977dab/32.png) [@Adamcomic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Adamcomic)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/209253/12 "2003-10-24T09:10:46Z")
Tribes on the Hill: The United States Congress - - Rituals and Realities, by J. McIver Weatherford Really Funny Sex Crimes, by Alice Vachss All Too Real ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/209253/13 "2003-10-24T11:55:39Z")
This is funny…I think I take most of my recommendations from _you_! Anyway, I just finished _I Want That! How we all became shoppers_ by Thomas Hine. Next up: _Where the Germs Are: A scientific safari_ by Nicholas Bakalar. Looks good. I also enjoyed the dust book that **AudreyK** recommended. ---
**Author:** ![Mal\_Adroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@Mal\_Adroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mal_Adroit)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/209253/14 "2003-10-24T12:05:57Z")
_The March of Folly_ by Barbara Tuchman. Actually, anything by Barbara Tuchman- _The Guns of August, The Zimmerman Telegram,_ etc. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/209253/15 "2003-10-24T12:22:27Z")
And _Stiff_ by Mary Roach! ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/209253/16 "2003-10-24T14:36:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dung Beetle \* > \*\*And _Stiff_ by Mary Roach! \*\* I’ve read this one. I don’t recommend reading it if you have a weak stomach, but it’s fascinating. \*Guns, Germs and Steel \* was also good. I’ll read anything by Diamond. Keep 'em coming! ---
**Author:** ![Nimue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d26b3c/32.png) [@Nimue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nimue)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/209253/17 "2003-10-24T21:42:08Z")
A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman is one of my favourite books. On a similar note, the recent Adam’s Navel: A Natural and Cultural History of the Human Form by Michael Sims is also fascinating. ---
**Author:** ![Encinitas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Encinitas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Encinitas)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/209253/18 "2003-10-24T22:24:18Z")
Any book by Oliver Sacks… _The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat : And Other Clinical Tales_ _An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales_ _Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood_ _Awakenings_ ---
**Author:** ![j\_sum1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8baadc/32.png) [@j\_sum1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j_sum1)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/209253/19 "2003-10-24T22:54:41Z")
I’ll go for \* Into Thin Air\* by Krakauer as well, although I don’t think it has quite the tension of _Touching the void_ On quite a different note, last night I finished reading _The Devil’s Cup_ by Stewart Lee Allen. It’s a history of coffee and poses a toungue in cheek hypothesis crediting the bean with promoting sociological advancement. ---
**Author:** ![Hugh\_Jass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4da419/32.png) [@Hugh\_Jass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hugh_Jass)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/209253/20 "2003-10-24T23:37:48Z")
If you like the history behind every day items, I strongly suggest _Salt_ by Michael Kurlansky. The history of salt. It’s very good. People rolled their eyes when I told them what I was reading, but it was not boring, or unusual. I checked with Amazon to find the author’s name, and the recommended similar books about tobacco and coal. Also, Kurlansky wrote a book on the history of cod that won awards. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-fiction-recommendations-please/209253.md?page=2)