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.

I’m just having a look through the non-fiction folder on my kindle (I read quite a lot of non-fiction). My favourites are probably:
SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome - Mary Beard
The Checklist Manifesto - Atul Gawande
Servants: A Downstairs View of Twentieth-century Britain - Lucy Lethbridge
The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell
Prisoners of Geography - Tim Marshall
Hons and Rebels - Jessica Mitford
Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood - Oliver Sacks
War by Timetable - AJP Taylor
Paranormality: why we believe the impossible - Richard Wiseman

I expect the ones in italics are most likely to be considered “classics”

Down and Out in Paris and London, 1984, and Animal Farm.
Schindlers Ark

The Age of Reason Jean Paul Sartre

Great thread!

I'd add:

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing

Gut: the inside story of our body’s most under-rated organ by Giulia Enders.

The day of the triffids
The Narnia books

I missed off The Structure of Scientific Revolutions - Thomas Kuhn. That’s definitely a classic.

Sorry, not non fiction. Should read the title!

Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson is a brilliant read, especially for anyone interested in language.

I’ll also vote for his ‘A Short History Of Nearly Everything’ but skip the section on dust mites if you’re squeamish!

Singled Out is one of those books that has really stayed with me and makes me very grateful for my lot however annoyed I might be with DH/the DC/my job etc. I am so fortunate to have the options that I do.
Invisible Women was eye opening
The Chimp Paradox taught me a lot and led me down a similar line of books. I'm not sure any are classics as such as I think it was one of those "moment in time" books
I ended up picking up one of Matthew Syed's books in a book exchange once, reading it and promptly ordering all of his others and find each one fascinating. I regularly refer to examples from them.
I don't think I can single any particular one out but I always enjoy biographies and autobiographies as I love to get an insight into other people's lives.

Empires of the Dead by David Crane - about the creation of the Commonwealth War Graves.

So many here I can’t wait to explore! I’ll add The Outrun by Any Liptrot.

Olivia Laing's To the River, The Lonely City and The Trip to Echo Spring.
Rebecca Solnit's Wanderlust and A Paradise Built in Hell
Laurie Lee's As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning
Walking the Himalayas, Walking the Americas and Walking the Nile all by Levison Wood.

Excellent thread. My recommendation is ‘Long Walk to Freedom’ by Nelson Mandela. So fascinating and moving.

@UpEarly

Excellent thread. My recommendation is ‘Long Walk to Freedom’ by Nelson Mandela. So fascinating and moving.

Oh yes. I really should (and want to) read this.

@table4chairs

Great thread!

I'd add:

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing

Gut: the inside story of our body’s most under-rated organ by Giulia Enders.

Brilliant. I've never heard of Gut but that is exactly the sort of thing I'd like to read. I've heard so many theories about there being a second 'brain' in the gut, that it is far more responsible for our personality, mood and opverall health than we credit (though medieval times recognised this.

I'd love to read that,. On the short list.

Another vote for Guns, Germs and Steel. I've read several other books by Jared Diamond but this is probably the one to start with.

I haven't read it, but in the light of various current issues around the world, I'm seriously minded to read The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity by Douglas Murray, which got good reviews.

A Life in Secrets and If This is a Woman, both by Sarah Helm. Astonishing research.

A future classic, The Five, about Jack the Ripper's victims.

Please can I endorse these things already mentioned for your short list?
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing- one of the most inspiring, moving books I have ever read

Akenfield- YES what an amazing book, utterly fascinating to hear voices from the past, the whole community of an English village

The Road to Wigan Pier, and collected essays of George Orwell- I guess everyone probably already knows them, but SO good

@TwoBlondes

A Life in Secrets and If This is a Woman, both by Sarah Helm. Astonishing research.

A future classic, The Five, about Jack the Ripper's victims.

To add to my flippant reply above I was just coming back to suggest The Five. Rereading it now.

Also The Railway Man by Eric Lomax
All of Me by Kim Noble
The Lost Child of Philomena Lee (less schmaltzy than the film)
Witness by Carol Ann Lee - this is about David Smith, the brother in law of Myra Hindley, who helped stop the murders but was branded for life because of it.

I'd like to add Quartered Safe Out Here (George MacDonald Fraser) and Night (Eli Wiesel) to my list.

@gingerhills and @escapingthecity, if you both liked Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, you might find Stolen Continents well worth your time. I've read both, they're very different but equally well written.

Rise Up, Women! By Diane Atkinson. It's about the suffragette movement