Your standout authors of non-fiction

[rousseau]

I thought this thread might dig out some gold..

Usually when I read non-fiction I'm not too focused on the author, and instead the subject. But there have been a few authors that have really grabbed my attention with their work.

Some that come to mind:

• Crawford Young
• David Christian
• Ted Gioia (mostly for the more serious, historical stuff)
• Peter Berger
• Paul Johnson (mostly his stuff on religion)

Just off the top of my head.

So what do you like?

 

[Keith&Co.]

Usually when I read non-fiction I'm not too focused on the author, and instead the subject.

Ah.
Well, most of the non-fiction I read is autobiography, so that isn't an issue.

I just read Gilliam's and Cleese's memoirs. I don't think I've ever before read two memoirs covering the same events. Very interesting how the two recall Python.

Would also like to read Tommy Chong's if he has written any, compare them to Cheech's.

 

[James Brown]

Bill Bryson

Sophocles

Carl Sagan

Richard Dawkins

Epictetus

 

[rousseau]

Bill Bryson

Sophocles

Carl Sagan

Richard Dawkins

Epictetus

I'm surprised I didn't mention Dawkins, I guess it's been a while since I've read any of his stuff. The Ancestor's Tale's by him is underrated, and undermentioned.

 

[Tharmas]

Never thought of Sophocles as non-fiction, although I guess the Oedipus Complex is real enough.

I read a lot of the history of warfare once, and John Keegan (The Face of Battle and The Mask of Command) stands out. Also Len Deighton, although primarily known as a novelist, produced some excellent histories with Bomber and Fighter. (Bomber may be considered a fictionalization, I guess, but it reads well as history I think.

Also journalists such as John Hersey (Hiroshima).

Lets not forget scientists like Feynman.

 

[rousseau]

Never thought of Sophocles as non-fiction, although I guess the Oedipus Complex is real enough.

I read a lot of the history of warfare once, and John Keegan (The Face of Battle and The Mask of Command) stands out. Also Len Deighton, although primarily known as a novelist, produced some excellent histories with Bomber and Fighter. (Bomber may be considered a fictionalization, I guess, but it reads well as history I think.

Also journalists such as John Hersey (Hiroshima).

Lets not forget scientists like Feynman.

I own A History of Warfare by Keegan. I remember enjoying it but feeling he could have executed on it better. I may have to pick it up again soon.

 

[Horatio Parker]

Never thought of Sophocles as non-fiction, although I guess the Oedipus Complex is real enough.

I read a lot of the history of warfare once, and John Keegan (The Face of Battle and The Mask of Command) stands out. Also Len Deighton, although primarily known as a novelist, produced some excellent histories with Bomber and Fighter. (Bomber may be considered a fictionalization, I guess, but it reads well as history I think.

Also journalists such as John Hersey (Hiroshima).

Lets not forget scientists like Feynman.

I like John Keegan as well.

I'd add B. H. Liddell-Hart for military history.

Alan Moorehead. Barbara Tuchman.

 

[Tharmas]

Never thought of Sophocles as non-fiction, although I guess the Oedipus Complex is real enough.

I read a lot of the history of warfare once, and John Keegan (The Face of Battle and The Mask of Command) stands out. Also Len Deighton, although primarily known as a novelist, produced some excellent histories with Bomber and Fighter. (Bomber may be considered a fictionalization, I guess, but it reads well as history I think.

Also journalists such as John Hersey (Hiroshima).

Lets not forget scientists like Feynman.

I own A History of Warfare by Keegan. I remember enjoying it but feeling he could have executed on it better. I may have to pick it up again soon.

To be honest, I haven't read A History of Warfare. It could be that the subject matter is too sweeping. The two I mentioned are fairly narrowly focused. The Face of Battle deals with the experience of the front-line soldier in three historical battles that occurred in roughly the same piece of territory (Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme). The Mask of Command is a study of four commanders in history: Alexander. the Duke of Wellington, Ulysses S Grant and Hitler. I highly recommend them.

 

[rousseau]

Never thought of Sophocles as non-fiction, although I guess the Oedipus Complex is real enough.

I read a lot of the history of warfare once, and John Keegan (The Face of Battle and The Mask of Command) stands out. Also Len Deighton, although primarily known as a novelist, produced some excellent histories with Bomber and Fighter. (Bomber may be considered a fictionalization, I guess, but it reads well as history I think.

Also journalists such as John Hersey (Hiroshima).

Lets not forget scientists like Feynman.

I own A History of Warfare by Keegan. I remember enjoying it but feeling he could have executed on it better. I may have to pick it up again soon.

To be honest, I haven't read A History of Warfare. It could be that the subject matter is too sweeping. The two I mentioned are fairly narrowly focused. The Face of Battle deals with the experience of the front-line soldier in three historical battles that occurred in roughly the same piece of territory (Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme). The Mask of Command is a study of four commanders in history: Alexander. the Duke of Wellington, Ulysses S Grant and Hitler. I highly recommend them.

Quite possible. Trying to fit certain subjects into a single volume is a common problem. Too short and to the point and people don't find it worth buying, too long and you need to split it into multiple volumes which I assume Keegan didn't want to do.

I probably would have enjoyed the subject more if he had done either of those things. Still a good book, but not a perfect one.

 

[James Brown]

Never thought of Sophocles as non-fiction, although I guess the Oedipus Complex is real enough.

Drat! I meant to say, Seneca.

 

[Mediancat]

Mike Sowell wrote three very good books on baseball history and then just stopped.

Dougal Dixon's books fired up my imagination when I was younger.

Martin Gardner, Raymond Smullyan, Isaac Asimov . . .

Rob

 

[ideologyhunter]

John McPhee wrote for the New Yorker in its Late Golden Age. He is a master stylist, and some of his essays would stretch out over two, three, or more issues. He would pick fairly obscure topics and sweep you up in his passion. (Sample topics -- the New Jersey Pine Barrens, the remote Scottish island of Colonsay, the Swiss civil defense system, bark canoes) He is 88 now, and he may be inactive. Happily, most of his work came out in book form and a good amount of it is available today. I didn't read him for the subject matter so much as the craft embodied in every sentence. He's one to study if you aim to improve your own writing.

 

[Tharmas]

John McPhee wrote for the New Yorker in its Late Golden Age. He is a master stylist, and some of his essays would stretch out over two, three, or more issues. He would pick fairly obscure topics and sweep you up in his passion. (Sample topics -- the New Jersey Pine Barrens, the remote Scottish island of Colonsay, the Swiss civil defense system, bark canoes) He is 88 now, and he may be inactive. Happily, most of his work came out in book form and a good amount of it is available today. I didn't read him for the subject matter so much as the craft embodied in every sentence. He's one to study if you aim to improve your own writing.

^^^ I second this.

 

[Bomb#20]

Winston Churchill

William Shirer

Richard Preston

Stephen Jay Gould

Steven Weinberg

 

[WAB]

Israel Zangwill - primarily a novelist but his non-fiction was far better than his fiction, IMO. Check out Italian Fantasies.

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

Jared Diamond
Jonathan Haidt
Carl Sagan

 

[Tars Tarkus]

David McCullough

 

[southernhybrid]

Frans de Waal, is my absolute favorite.
Jared Diamond
Howard Zinn

I rarely read anything other than non fiction, but don't have any other favorites.