Non-fiction recommendations

I've decided I might as well go to the library tomorrow since I have nothing better to do after getting back from my little camping trip/"vacation". I've always had trouble getting into fiction novels so now I'm looking for something unique. My recent aspiration to become a roadie drove me to want to check out an autobiography/"how-to" book written by someone who has experience doing stuff like that. I'm also going to be looking into paranormal-related stuff. I'm even down for something more avant-garde that you guys might know of...

So any recommendations for non-fictional reading? Just list anything you enjoyed reading.

reply to post by BirdOfillOmen


"Lies my teacher told me" by James Loewen
Everything your American history book got wrong.

Its really good, and not at all like you would expect. Very good content exploring "heroification" and the negative impact it has on our ambitions.

reply to post by Lono1

Thanks. I just might check this out of the library. That honestly sounds interesting to me.

The Fourth Turning, by Strauss and Howe.

It changed the way I viewed absolutely everything.

www.fourthturning.com...

reply to post by BirdOfillOmen

Two absolute must reads are by the same author, journalist Mark Bowden.......
Black Hawk Down- Better than the movie, and that was an AWESOME movie.
Killing Pablo- The hunt for, and killing of Pablo Escobar. If he hadn't stuck his nose in politics he'd still be alive.

Into Thin Air... by Jon Krakauer- This one is about the 1996 Everest tragedy and offers a lot of insight into human behavior under extreme circumstances.

The Theory and Practice of Hell.....by Eugen Kogon- A fantastic book, if you can find it. Written by an inmate of Buchenwald concentration camp and used as a basis for the Nuremberg investigations. The author was afraid to release it out of fear that someone might use it as a blueprint for another holocaust.

The Dragons of Eden...by Carl Sagan- A brilliant investigation into the history of human intelligence, no other single book offers as much information in under 250 pages.

The Heroin Diaries....by Nikki Sixx- The title pretty much sums it up, I could not put it down.

The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band....by Lee, Strauss, Mars, Neil and Sixx- The absolute best rock biography in print, a lot of good road stories too which is right up your alley.

May I suggest The Winds of December.

It is about the Cuban revolution.

It was written by a person who was one of the top people involved in the revolt but left Cuba when he found out Castro was a Communist.

I read this book 30 plus years ago and it was fascinating about how a small band of revolutionaries brought down a corrupt government.

This is what idealistic young people with nothing to lose and everything to gain,can accomplish.

I wouldn't buy it though,they should have it in the library.

Because you mentioned being a roadie, you might like the book Into the Wild. There is also a movie based on the story that is also good that you can probably get at the library. It's about a young man who graduates from college but decides to travel the United States on his own carrying a dream to live off the Alaskan wilderness until he figured out his life. It's full of lots of surprises with an incredible ending.

You can read more about the man here en.wikipedia.org... but it does spoil what happens of course.

reply to post by Xaberz

That sounds pretty cool. I'll check it out next time.

But for now, I got "Lies My Teacher Told Me" because of the guy who suggested it up above. Also got "Why People Believe Weird Things", a book on body language, and "Precious Metal: The stories behind 25 extreme metal masterpieces", lol. Its really just a collection of interview dialogue but everyone seems to have an awesome sense of humor so I have no doubt (after reading just a few pages) that I'll enjoy it.

Got a great one, it's an easy read and if you are into some of the mysteries of WWII this is one that is just being looked at now. It's called The Monument Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the greatest treasure hunt in history.
www.amazon.com...

If you are interested in that sort of thing it isn't like reading a history book, even though it is one if that makes sense. It's more like reading something like Indiana Jones goes to WWII. I highly recommend it.

Originally posted by BirdOfillOmen
reply to post by Xaberz

 

That sounds pretty cool. I'll check it out next time.

But for now, I got "Lies My Teacher Told Me" because of the guy who suggested it up above. Also got "Why People Believe Weird Things", a book on body language, and "Precious Metal: The stories behind 25 extreme metal masterpieces", lol. Its really just a collection of interview dialogue but everyone seems to have an awesome sense of humor so I have no doubt (after reading just a few pages) that I'll enjoy it.

PLease let me know what you think of "Lies". It has opened my mind to a much greater degree.

Cheers!

Generation Kill by Evan Wright is AMAZING. It's about the some of the first marines into Iraq. It doesn't matter how you feel about the war, following these men, hearing about what they experienced and the challenges they face is enthralling. There's almost no editorializing, the writer only mentions himself when necessary and all opinions and thoughts come from the soldiers themselves. It's really incredible and HBO made a great adaptation of it a few years back.

Shadow Box by George Plimpton. It's about boxing. I don't like or know anything about sports, boxing included, and I love this book. It starts out with the writer deciding to participate in boxing, but he realizes quickly that's not going to work. What follows is a brief history of boxing, then it mostly follows Muhammad Ali. Plimpton focuses more on what goes on around the sport than the actual sport itself. He takes weird deviations, such as surveying other writers about their strangest dreams and detailing a robbery. Very enjoyable.

Dispatches by Michael Herr is a somewhat disjointed account of the author serving as an embedded journalist in Vietnam. It captures the feelings and conditions of the soldiers, while also giving insight into what it's like to be a civilian in the middle of all of it.

Hell's Angels by Hunter S. Thompson. Thompson's reporting is somewhat suspect at times, but this is an interesting book about a topic that's surrounded by a lot of myth.

The People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. This is an obvious choice, but it compliments "Lies My Teacher Told Me" very well.

If you have an interest in punk music "Please Kill Me" is a great and fairly comprehensive oral history put together by Legs McNeil. For early religion, check out "History of Religious Ideas Volume 1" by Mircea Eliade.

reply to post by SaulGoodman

All of those sound like good options but the last two really caught my attention. I just might check them out next time I go to the library

reply to post by BirdOfillOmen


Have you finished lies yet?

I'm a big fan of the book What To Eat? By Marion Nestle, she's a NYU Nutritionist and it clarifies all the lingo used at the supermarket and the politics of the labeling and such. I think everyone here would enjoy that book.