Recommend me a non fiction book with interesting short articles

[bowelpain]

I am looking for a non fiction book with short articless. Something easy to pick up and put down. An example would be BillBryson's notes from a big country.

59 Seconds by Richard Wiseman

Mantel Pieces by Hilary Mantel.
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris.

Chewing the Fat by Jay Rayner.

Far From The Tree by Andrew Solomon. one of the most fascinating books I have ever read but broken down into discrete chapters that can be read on their own.

It deals with hard stuff though.

Thanks for the suggestions! I also like the freakanomics books for a simmilar style.

Ok, that make it easier (I was focusing on the short’ side of things)

Bad Science by Ben Goldacre, Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez - both excellent, but will make you shout at the news in frustration sometimes.

Clive James’s memoirs are excellent and you can dip in an out. The History Of The World In 100 Objects (adapted from the radio series) is in another one.

Yes to Clive James' memoirs. Highly entertaining and yet more substantial than a lot of autobiographies.

If you are interested in literature, check out Virginia Woolf's The Common Reader.

Since you mention Bryson, meaning you're not averse to Americans - every year, there is a book called something like "Best American Essays" and I think there are some specific ones like best science essays. A library or bookstore could help you track them down.

Rebel Ideas by Matthew Syed. I love his programmes on R4 and this book was fascinating.

A Field Guide to the English Clergy was great. Very funny true stories about eccentric vicars from History.

The ‘Mermaid of Morwenstow’ excommunicated a cat for mousing on a Sunday. When he was late for a service, Bishop Lancelot Fleming commandeered a Navy helicopter. ‘Mad Jack’ swapped his surplice for leopard skin and insisted on being carried around in a coffin. And then there was the man who, like Noah’s evil twin, tried to eat one of each of God’s creatures…
In spite of all this they saw the church as their true calling. These portraits reveal the Anglican church in all its colourful madness.

Aldous Huxley and George Orwell are both wonderful essayists. I also have a collection of Bertrand Russel's newspaper articles. They're very short (no more than two pages each) but great – warm, witty and wise.

Came here to recommend Orwell’s essays, so another vote for those.

I enjoyed A Little History of Religion by Richard Holloway. Really easy to pick up and put down and tackles a huge subject in an appealing and digestible way.

Thanks for starting this op. Very interesting.

Thanks all its great to see what you all suggest and hope they'll allow me to read arround kids.

Paul Auster - True Tales of American Life. He curated a book of stories from people's past on a variety of topics. Some cute, some sad, some leave you scratching your head, and at some you'd laugh out loud.

Lovely for dipping into a book, and people's lives

I love science and nature so mine are all in this genre. Sorry!

Natural Histories - Brett Westwood and Stephen Moss.
The Flight of the iguana - David Quammen
The Golden Mole - Katherine Rundell.

Most of them have chapters about specific animals. My favourite is the Quammen book. It muses on everything from genetics to evolution to an incident with whales in USSR. My top essay is one on street trees in New York.

One on One by Craig Brown is very enjoyable. It describes encounters between people in a circular way: X meets Y, then in the next section Y meets Z... Of course I can hardly remember any of it now but I seem to think that one "chapter" is about Helen Keller's friendship with Mark Twain.

If you want something more light hearted, there’s a few authors who have published books of their newspaper/magazine columns. Have a look at Marian Keyes Under the Duvet/Further Under the Duvet, Jilly Cooper Between the Covers, Sue Townsend Confessions of a Middle Aged Woman, David Mitchell Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse/Dishonesty Is The Second Best Policy. Lots more but those are a few that come to mind immediately.

In the Blood by Steve Jones

Womanhooded by Lambe you can read a chapter at a time complete and reach your potential in your life ;)

Unquiet Women by Max Adams (biographies of various women in history)
The Madman's Library by Edward Brooke-Hitching (weird books)
The Compendium of (not quite) Everything by John Elledge (random stuff)

Bollocks to Alton Towers, and More Bollocks to Alton Towers, by Robin Halstead, Jason Hazeley, Alex Morris and Joel Morris.

The title is misleading, these are lovely warm books. The premise is that they are fed up with big brash places like Alton Towers and seek out less obvious attractions. Each chapter is a write-up of a different attraction, written with appreciation rather than sneering, leaving you feeling that you might just check out the British Lawnmower Museum or the Margate Shell Grotto.

They were written in the 2000s so they are out of date and quite a few of the attractions are closed now, but others have become well known.

101 Essays that will change how you think. It's by Brianna Weist. Amazing book.