# Recommend me a book, please... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 24, 2003, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-please/170956 "2003-04-24T22:09:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TheSnack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e19b73/32.png) [@TheSnack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheSnack)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-please/170956/1 "2003-04-24T22:09:48Z")
A reorganization of my bookshelves exposed gaping holes, were once books stood that no longer do stand there. That cannot remain…so Dopers, please recommend me books. I have a guideline for you: I greatly enjoyed _Darwin’s Dangerous Idea_ by Daniel C. Dennett, _Gödel, Escher, Bach_ by Douglas R. Hofstadter, and _Guns, Germs and Steel_ by Jared Diamond – perhaps the best three books I ever read. Using these as hints, what similar books would you recommend? TheSnack ---
**Author:** ![Daoloth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/82dd89/32.png) [@Daoloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daoloth)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-please/170956/2 "2003-04-24T22:24:36Z")
Hm, this isn’t quite along those lines, but it’s up there: _Reflections on a Ravaged Century_ by Robert Conquest. ---
**Author:** ![Nichol\_storm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Nichol\_storm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nichol_storm)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-please/170956/3 "2003-04-24T23:18:03Z")
One good book I always pimp out – Claude Manceron’s “Twilight of the Old Order”, about pre-Revolutionary France. Beaumarchais schemes and runs guns to the American revolutionaries while writing his famous play “The Barber of Seville”; Marie Antoinette hurtles towards her doom; the Chevalier d’Eon, France’s notorious cross-dressing superspy, crosses paths with Beaumarchais; the Marquis de Sade escapes to Italy and writes lots of dirty pornography, and his cousin Mirabeau recklessly runs off to Holland with a married woman. Funny, raunchy, and sometimes heartbreaking. I sobbed all the way through the last few chapters on Mirabeau and Sophie. It’s nonfiction but it almost reads like a novel. Awesome. .:Nichol:. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-please/170956/4 "2003-04-24T23:24:35Z")
I will always pimp ‘The Seven Pillars of Wisdom’ by T.E.Shaw (T.E.Lawrence) This is Lawrence of Arabia’s story in his own words. Very evocative and very readable. Cheers, Bippy ---
**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:** [April 25, 2003, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-please/170956/5 "2003-04-25T00:00:30Z")
“The Evolution of Cooperation” by Robert Axelrod Killer book in the tradition of the 3 you listed in your OP. Hofstadter did an article on it awhile back in Scientific American. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2003, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-please/170956/6 "2003-04-25T02:21:50Z")
I have many, many favorites along these lines. I wasn’t sure whether you wanted things more hard science-oriented or more culturally-oriented, so here are a couple of each. Donald A. Norman, “The Psychology of Everyday Things” Brian Greene, “The Elegant Universe” Lawrence Krauss, “Atom” and “Quintessence” Marvin Harris, “Our Kind” Perhaps if you give us some idea of what you think of our suggestions, I can come up with more. ---
**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:** [April 25, 2003, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-book-please/170956/7 "2003-04-25T03:47:42Z")
Two favorites of mine, with nothing in common with your list beyond being nonfiction: _Parliament of Whores_ by P.J. O’Rourke: A satirist tries to explain the mechanics of how the US government works, why it doesn’t do what you wish it did, and why this is sometimes a good thing _On Writing_ by Stephen King: Survival tips for anyone battling a blank page/screen, in clear, no-nonsense terms