20 best classic non-fiction books

[gingerhills]

I realise I have read a lot of classic novels but if you asked me to list classic non-fiction books, I wouldn't really know where to start.

What are the non-fic equivalents of Pride & Prejudice, Gatsby, To Kill A Mockingbird etc? The books you really should read before you die?

Having said I don't know where to start, I would recommend Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics. It's surprising accessible in translation and it changed my view on friendship for the better, forever.

The snow leopard, The Road to Wigan Pier, A Room of Ones Own, Danziger’s Travels, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. I love non-fiction.

All of these were published in the last 50 years so perhaps more the equivalent of modern literary fiction than proper classics,
Akenfield by Ronald Blythe
A Midwife's Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
The Sceptical Feminist by Janet Radcliffe Richards
First Light by Geoffrey Wellum
H is for Hawk by Helen McDonald

Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall. I also love Danzigers Travels

It really depends on what type of material you like. I'd not list my choices as classics, but things that I really liked, and stayed with me:

• primo levi: if this is a man
• Siddhartha Mukherjee: The Emperor of All Maladies
• Walter Isaacson: Steve Jobs
• Patti Smith: Just Kids
• Yuval Noah Harari: Sapiens

@EdithStourton

All of these were published in the last 50 years so perhaps more the equivalent of modern literary fiction than proper classics, Akenfield by Ronald Blythe A Midwife's Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich The Sceptical Feminist by Janet Radcliffe Richards First Light by Geoffrey Wellum H is for Hawk by Helen McDonald

Wow. I have only ever heard of/read one of them - H is for Hawk, which I loved.

Thank you all so much for your replies. Two people have suggested Danziger's Travels. Never heard of it, but I will look into it.

Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc.

In Patagonia

Fiction in the Archives and The Return of Martin Guerre by Natalie Zemon Davis

De Re Publica by Cicero

The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sachs

Herodotus' Histories

Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

The Black Swan by NN Taleb

Testament of youth
Wild swans

Fly Fishing by JR Hartley.

Hiroshima - John Hersey

An amazing read but probably not the right time to be reading it.... I studied it at A level & it affected all the class - even the wanna-be-cool 17/18 year olds.

Ta-Nehisi Coates is good, as is Tressie McMillan Cotton.

Ditto Random Family. Blows your head off.

The invisible woman by Claire tomalin. Biog of dickens’ girlfriend; the end is unforgettable.

For some feminist non fiction
-A vindication of the rights of women by Mary Wollstonecraft
The female eunuch - Germaine greer
Delusions of gender - Cordelia Fine

Invisible Women by Cariline Criado Perez is the single most important book I've read in decades. I buy copies for everyone!

Bad Science by Ben Goldacre

Freakanomics (or any of the other fascinating books looking at economics, including Tim Hartford's books)

I found Wilding by Isabelle Tree a fascinating read.

Sapiens mentioned upthread.

The Selfish Gene or The Blind Watchmaker by Dawkins

Trans by Helen Joyce is a great analysis of the rise of gender ideology and how it interacts with material reality

How could I have forgotten Cordelia Fine??

The Art of War - Sun Tzu
The Prince - Niccolò Machiavelli
The Ten Days That Shook The World - John Reed
The Analects - Confucius
Areopagitica - John Milton
Silent Spring - Rachel Carson
Fake Law - The Secret Barrister
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon - Rebecca West
Eminent Victorians - Lytton Strachey
The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell
Pepy's Diary
Confessions of an English Opium Eater - de Quincey
Goodbye to All That - Christopher Isherwood
Testament of Youth - Vera Brittan
A Vinducation of the Rights of Women - Mary Wollestonecraft
Ariel - Sylvia Plath
The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins
The Double Helix - James Watson

I thought Kitchen Confidential by Anthony bourdain was fabulous, have read it many times

Also The Hot Zone

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.

Oh so many great Books mentioned above!

I will add The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker about human history and violence (in a nutshell)

Wild Swans is the only book to have stuck with me

I vastly prefer nonFic to fiction.
Can't believe no one has mentioned

Touching the Void
The Songlines (Chatwin)
Full Tilt: Ireland to India With a Bicycle
Freakanomics
Diary of Anne Frank
Do No Harm (Henry Marsh)
Black Boy (Richard Wright)

I also recommend The Tao of Pooh, The Wrecking Crew, Heart of the Sea.

Silent Spring & some others are no doubt very good, I just can't stomach very depressing text.

Not a 'classic' but I really enjoyed The Adventure of English by Melvyn bragg.

Not read the invisible women yet will have to go get a copy.

@lljkk - I did mention Freakanomics!