I’m really on a non-fiction stint at the moment. I’d love some recommendations for books to read that you’ve enjoyed. Not really bothered about subject as I’ve read a few books on topics I’m not necessarily interested in that have been great. Only thing I’d say I’m not interested in is autobiographies.
Anything else let’s hear them!
by Ritualixx
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History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor
Prostitution, Race and Politics: Policing Venereal Disease in the British Empire by Philippa Levine was surprisingly enjoyable, given the subject matter. I also really liked John Miksic’s Singapore and the Silk Road of the Sea.
Endurance by Alfred Lansing. Best survival story ever told
Progress and Poverty by Henry George
It tackles the question of why poverty persists despite enormous economic and technological progress and it completely changed the way I see politics and the economy. It is largely forgotten now but when it came out it was huge. It inspired the thought of multiple world leaders including Churchill and Sun Yat Sen, as well as at least 6 Nobel prize winners.
“[it] is not so much a book as an event. The life and thought of no one capable of understanding it can be quite the same
after reading it.” – Emma Lazarus
*The Invention of News* by Andrew Pettigree is a fascinating look at the history of newspapers, and will teach you a lot of both political and social history.
*Through the Language Glass* by Guy Deutscher is about linguistics and how the brain processes language. (To whet your appetite, there’s an idea in linguistics called the Sapir-Worf hypothesis, the idea that the language you speak affects the way you see the world. It was popular, and is now discredited. This book is a very careful defence of the idea, but only in certain small contexts. It’s also gorgeously written.) This is a popular book, not a textbook, though I am the kind of weirdo who does read linguistics textbooks for fun. *Sociolinguistics*, by Janet Holm, is excellent.
*Talking About Detective Fiction* by PD James is a fun short romp through the history of detective fiction, by an acclaimed writer of the same. I think it’s her only non-fiction work.
*Longitute* by Dava Sobel is about history, politics, technology, the “Age of Exploration”, and clock-making. And is as fascinating as it sounds. The central character is George Harrison.
All the Living and the Dead: From Embalmers to Executioners, an Exploration of the People Who Have Made Death Their Life’s Work by Hayley Campbell
Anything by Asne Seierstad.