# Recommend one book in your field **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 6, 2005, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-one-book-in-your-field/311268 "2005-07-06T11:49:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-one-book-in-your-field/311268/1 "2005-07-06T11:49:37Z")
By “your field,” I mean your main area of intellectual interest, however you want to define it – your profession, your college major, your current passion, whatever. So, whatever your field is – what one book would you recommend to someone if you wanted to communicate the incredible coolness that is your field? Assume that the person is coming into the field cold, so you don’t necessarily want to pick the book that summarizes the current cool cutting-edge theory, replete with arcane jargon. But also assume the person asking is an intelligent person, so you don’t necessarily need to pick something with wide margins and lots and lots of pics, either. I was chatting with **MidnightRadio** last night when I came up with this question, and I’ve been trying to figure out what I would recommend for sociology of religion. (Damn, I’ve been out of the field for a long freakin’ time.) Back when I was teaching, I’d use Peter Berger’s [Sacred Canopy](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0385073054/qid=1120651272/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_ur_1/104-8531711-0767129?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) in Intro to Religion – and spend a couple of weeks translating his ideas into a form undergrads could wrap their minds around. Very, very cool stuff, but not necessarily super accessible. So maybe a case study of some sort? Hm… I’m still working on my answer. What’s yours? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-one-book-in-your-field/311268/2 "2005-07-06T12:16:27Z")
Well, for writing, I have two suggestions: **[Techniques of the Selling Writer](http://tinyurl.com/8de27)** by Dwight V. Swain. One of the best guides ever on how to write publishable prose. \*\*[Science Fiction Writers Workshop I: A Guide to Fiction Mechanics\*\*](http://tinyurl.com/ch9fn) by Barry B. Longyear. It’s out of print, but you should be able to find a used copy. A beginner’s guide to writing SF, written when Longyear had just broken in as a short story writer (he was a major success, selling a bunch of stories all at once and winning awards for his “Enemy Mine”), so he still remembered what it was like to be starting out. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-one-book-in-your-field/311268/3 "2005-07-06T12:36:05Z")
**Recommend one book in your field** I keep mine in a bookcase. ---
**Author:** ![Improv\_Geek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b3f665/32.png) [@Improv\_Geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Improv_Geek)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-one-book-in-your-field/311268/4 "2005-07-06T12:37:25Z")
Bruce Eckel’s _Thinking in Java_ - a Java programming book that is available for free (by the author) online. I’m now pretty handy with Java and rarely have to go to the reference books but when I do, this is the first one I pull up. ---
**Author:** ![Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sophistry_and_Illusion)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-one-book-in-your-field/311268/5 "2005-07-06T12:40:22Z")
Actually, I think people in my field (philosophy) are perhaps the worst at recommending a good philosophy book, since any book that is accessible to a general audience (such as _Sophie’s World_) is probably a book the philosopher hasn’t read. But there was a thread not too long ago about philosophy books that were good, and this one came up several times. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-one-book-in-your-field/311268/6 "2005-07-06T12:46:38Z")
My field is Optics. There are a lot of good books in the field, but one accessible to everyone is M. Minnaert’s **The Nature of Light and Color in the Open Air** It’s not too technical for the layman, and it shows the range and variety of weird optical effects that are there to see, but are probably overlooked by most people, with a not-too-intrusive explanation of it all. Rainbows Glories Mirages Diffraction Heiligenschein Countershading Fogbows The Moon Illusion Ther Dome of the Sky Polarization and so on… The book has almost always been in print since it first came out. Dover published it for a long time, but I think someone else is doing it now. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-one-book-in-your-field/311268/7 "2005-07-06T14:13:32Z")
My religious interest- THE ORTHODOX WAY by Father Timothy Ware and THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA by C.S. Lewis My political interest- ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand My horror-media interest- DANCE MACABRE by Stephen King My paranormal interest- MYSTERIES OF TIME AND SPACE by Brad Steiger ---
**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-one-book-in-your-field/311268/8 "2005-07-06T14:59:12Z")
I’m an environmental scientist, so you’d have to read [Silent Spring by Rachel Carson](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/061825305X/qid=1120662531/sr=8-2/ref=pd_bbs_ur_2/102-6408473-3964932?v=glance&s=books&n=507846). ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-one-book-in-your-field/311268/9 "2005-07-06T15:10:15Z")
John Conway’s “On Numbers and Games”. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-one-book-in-your-field/311268/10 "2005-07-06T15:14:24Z")
One of my areas of interest is Christianity, and for that, I recommend Kahlil Gibran’s _Jesus the Son of Man_. In fact, the entire text is available online: [http://www.kahlil.org/jesus.html](http://www.kahlil.org/jesus.html) ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-one-book-in-your-field/311268/11 "2005-07-06T15:39:12Z")
For my profession in illustration: Pretty much anything by [Flesk Publications, especially “Franklin Booth: Painter with a Pen”](http://www.fleskpublications.com/publications/) . For my dinosaur love: [The Scientific American Book of Dinosaurs](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0312262264/qid=/sr=/ref=cm_lm_asin/102-9280728-4637767?v=glance) ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-one-book-in-your-field/311268/12 "2005-07-06T16:06:32Z")
The single best book about stagecraft is a treasure trove of useful information: [Backstage Handbook](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0911747397/qid=1120666943/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-9333229-2313701) by Paul Carter ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-one-book-in-your-field/311268/13 "2005-07-06T16:19:58Z")
Reviving Ophelia by Mary Piper and in the interests of equal time The War Against the Boys by Christina Hoff Sommers (as recently seen on The Daily Show). I’m in school psych, but those books are more child/adolescent psych. They are very readable, that is little techinal language. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-one-book-in-your-field/311268/14 "2005-07-06T16:28:27Z")
Passion: [**Delights and Shadows**](http://www.poems.com/deligkoo.htm), by Ted Kooser Job: [**The Haunted Bookshop**](http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1888173572/ref=sib_dp_pt/104-1504989-7292764#reader-link), by Christopher Marley Occupation: [**All In My Head** : _An Epic Quest to Cure an Unrelenting, Totally Unreasonable, and Only Slightly Enlightening Headache_](http://www.paulakamen.com/), by Paula Kamen ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-one-book-in-your-field/311268/15 "2005-07-06T16:46:24Z")
I suppose I could do with [this book, too.](http://a1204.g.akamai.net/7/1204/1401/04030912011/images.barnesandnoble.com/images/7480000/7487101.jpg) That should have been Christopher M **o** rley. ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-one-book-in-your-field/311268/16 "2005-07-06T17:11:36Z")
[Painting With Light](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0520089499/qid=1120670810/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_ur_1/002-5778641-3134441?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) by John Alton. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-one-book-in-your-field/311268/17 "2005-07-06T17:21:59Z")
[The Word: An Associated Press Guide to Good Newswriting](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0028637550/ref=pd_sxp_f/102-9674746-9275353?v=glance&s=books) by Rene J. Cappon. Bloggers and others could learn from this book. It made me a concise reporter, as well as honed my observational skills. My copy is about 20 years old; I haven’t seen the current version. I’d assume it’s just as well-written. ---
**Author:** ![psycat90](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@psycat90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psycat90)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-one-book-in-your-field/311268/18 "2005-07-06T17:32:35Z")
[The Wine Bible](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1563054345/ref=pd_sxp_f/104-7227938-5811921?v=glance&s=books) by Karen MacNeil. Of all of the books I own and/or have read, this one seems to me to be the most comprehensive. Aptly named. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-one-book-in-your-field/311268/19 "2005-07-06T17:40:09Z")
For gardening: Barbara Damrosch’s [Garden Primer](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0894803166/qid=1120672530/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_ur_1/102-8677588-1424112?v=glance&s=books&n=507846). ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2005, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-one-book-in-your-field/311268/20 "2005-07-06T17:51:48Z")
[The Complete Joy Of Homebrewing](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060531053/qid=1120673226/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_ur_1/002-5922388-4423261?v=glance&s=books&n=507846). 😃 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-one-book-in-your-field/311268.md?page=2)