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Must Read Non-Fiction
Non-Fiction books that everyone should read before they die.
Tags: autobiography, biography, and non-fiction

1
Night
Night
by Elie Wiesel 36 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 3546
vote
2
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance...
by Lynne Truss 24 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 2380
vote
3
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everyth...
by Elizabeth Gilbert 22 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 2179
vote
4
Under the Banner of Heaven
Under the Banner of Heaven
by Jon Krakauer 22 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 2172
vote
5
The World Without Us
The World Without Us
by Alan Weisman 14 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 1379
vote
5
The Omnivore's Dilemma
The Omnivore's Dilemma
by Michael Pollan 14 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 1379
vote
7
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your Americ...
by James W. Loewen 13 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 1281
vote
8
A Short History of Nearly Everything
A Short History of Nearly Everything
by Bill Bryson 13 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 1267
vote
9
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
by Jung Chang 12 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 1174
vote
10
The Glass Castle: A Memoir
The Glass Castle: A Memoir
by Jeannette Walls 11 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 1081
vote
11
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote...
by Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin 11 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 1073
vote
12
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Ev...
by Jon Krakauer 10 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 979
vote
13
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
by Barbara Ehrenreich 9 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 880
vote
14
On Writing
On Writing
by Stephen King 9 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 878
vote
15
The Diary of Anne Frank: The Revised Critical Edition
The Diary of Anne Frank: The Revised Critical E...
by Anne Frank, Netherlands Institute For War Documentation 9 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 874
vote
16
Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science
Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfec...
by Atul Gawande 8 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 792
vote
17
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
by Anne Fadiman 8 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 781
vote
18
Mere Christianity
Mere Christianity
by C.S. Lewis 8 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 779
vote
19
Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors
Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors
by Piers Paul Read 8 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 777
vote
20
The Tipping Point
The Tipping Point
by Malcolm Gladwell 8 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 776
vote
21
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hi...
by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner 8 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 774
vote
22
Guns, Germs, and Steel
Guns, Germs, and Steel
by Jared Diamond 8 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 761
vote
23
In Cold Blood
In Cold Blood
by Truman Capote 8 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 751
vote
24
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and...
by Erik Larson, Tony Goldwyn (Narrator) 7 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 673
vote
25
The Complete Persepolis
The Complete Persepolis
by Marjane Satrapi 7 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 659
vote
26
Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World
Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Pa...
by Tracy Kidder 6 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 596
vote
27
Stumbling on Happiness
Stumbling on Happiness
by Daniel Gilbert 6 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 591
vote
28
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
by Ishmael Beah 6 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 590
vote
29
Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
by Anne Lamott 6 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 582
vote
30
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
by Azar Nafisi (Goodreads author) 6 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 575
vote
31
Blink
Blink
by Malcolm Gladwell 6 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 573
vote
32
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
by Barbara W. Tuchman 6 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 565
vote
33
Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned
Don't Know Much About History: Everything You N...
by Kenneth C. Davis 5 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 487
vote
34
The Communist Manifesto
The Communist Manifesto
by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels 5 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 485
vote
35
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
by Jared Diamond 5 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 483
vote
35
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder,...
by Simon Winchester 5 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 483
vote
37
Escape
Escape
by Carolyn Jessop, Laura Palmer 5 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 482
vote
38
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
by Anne Frank 5 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 463
vote
39
Looking through the Eyes of an Unseen Child
Looking through the Eyes of an Unseen Child
by Diana Joy (Goodreads author) 4 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 398
vote
40
Walden, or Life in the Woods
Walden, or Life in the Woods
by Henry David Thoreau 4 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 390
vote
40
Into the Wild
Into the Wild
by Jon Krakauer 4 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 390
vote
42
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those ...
by Timothy Egan 4 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 388
vote
43
Infidel
Infidel
by Ayaan Hirsi Ali 4 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 387
vote
44
The Hiding Place
The Hiding Place
by Corrie Ten Boom 4 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 386
vote
45
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
by Michael Pollan 4 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 385
vote
45
Outliers
Outliers
by Malcolm Gladwell 4 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 385
vote
47
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham...
by Doris Kearns Goodwin 4 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 384
vote
48
Marie Antoinette: The Journey
Marie Antoinette: The Journey
by Antonia Fraser 4 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 380
vote
49
Undaunted Courage
Undaunted Courage
by Stephen E. Ambrose 4 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 347
vote
50
A Short History of Progress
A Short History of Progress
by Ronald Wright 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 300
vote
50
The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey
The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin Americ...
by Che Guevara, Aleida Guevara 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 300
vote
50
God Wants You Dead
God Wants You Dead
by Sean Hastings, Paul Rosenberg 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 300
vote
53
Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women
Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islam...
by Geraldine Brooks 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 298
vote
54
Last Chance to See
Last Chance to See
by Douglas Adams, Mark Carwardine 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 295
vote
54
Basic Economics: A Citizens Guide to the Economy, Revised and Expanded
Basic Economics: A Citizens Guide to the Econom...
by Thomas Sowell 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 295
vote
56
The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory
The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dime...
by Brian Greene 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 294
vote
57
Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II's Most Dramatic Mission
Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of Wor...
by Hampton Sides 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 293
vote
58
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Co...
by Charles C. Mann 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 292
vote
58
The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother
The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to Hi...
by James McBride 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 292
vote
58
Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
by Ron Chernow 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 292
vote
61
Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why
Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why
by Laurence Gonzales 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 290
vote
61
Salt: A World History
Salt: A World History
by Mark Kurlansky 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 290
vote
63
The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way
The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way
by Bill Bryson 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 289
vote
64
Love, Janis
Love, Janis
by Laura Joplin 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 285
vote
65
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
by John Perkins 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 284
vote
65
Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War
Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the ...
by Tony Horwitz 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 284
vote
65
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian Histor...
by Dee Brown 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 284
vote
68
Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools
Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools
by Jonathan Kozol 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 282
vote
69
The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley
The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex...
by Malcolm X, Alex Haley 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 280
vote
70
The Scottish Enlightenment: The Scots' Invention of the Modern World
The Scottish Enlightenment: The Scots' Inventio...
by Arthur Herman 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 279
vote
71
Grace [Eventually]: Thoughts on Faith
Grace [Eventually]: Thoughts on Faith
by Anne Lamott 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 278
vote
72
Notes from a Small Island
Notes from a Small Island
by Bill Bryson 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 272
vote
73
Cider with Rosie
Cider with Rosie
by Laurie Lee 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 263
vote
74
Letting Go: An Ordinary Woman's Extraordinary Journey of Healing & Transformation
Letting Go: An Ordinary Woman's Extraordinary J...
by Nancy A. Kaiser (Goodreads author) 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 200
vote
74
True Competition: A Guide to Pursuing Excellence in Sport and Society
True Competition: A Guide to Pursuing Excellenc...
by David Light Shields (Goodreads author), Brenda Light Bredemeier 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 200
vote
74
Soldiers of Reason: The RAND Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire
Soldiers of Reason: The RAND Corporation and th...
by Alex Abella (Goodreads author) 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 200
vote
74
Up from Slavery
Up from Slavery
by Booker T. Washington 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 200
vote
78
Ulysses S. Grant : Memoirs and Selected Letters : Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant / Selected Letters, 1839-1865
Ulysses S. Grant : Memoirs and Selected Letters...
by Ulysses S. Grant 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 199
vote
78
In the Presence of My Enemies
In the Presence of My Enemies
by Gracia Burnham, Dean Merill 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 199
vote
78
The Complete Maus
The Complete Maus
by Art Spiegelman 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 199
vote
81
How To Keep Your Man: And Keep Him For Good
How To Keep Your Man: And Keep Him For Good
by Darren G. Burton (Goodreads author) 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 197
vote
82
The Real James Herriot: A Memoir of My Father
The Real James Herriot: A Memoir of My Father
by Jim Wight 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 196
vote
83
Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park
Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardine...
by Lee Whittlesey 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 195
vote
83
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: Murder and the U...
by Kate Summerscale 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 195
vote
83
Orthodoxy
Orthodoxy
by G.K. Chesterton 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 195
vote
83
Brave Companions
Brave Companions
by David McCullough 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 195
vote
83
Sky Burial: An Epic Love Story of Tibet
Sky Burial: An Epic Love Story of Tibet
by Xinran 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 195
vote
83
The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History
The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Dead...
by John M. Barry 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 195
vote
89
The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do
The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out t...
by Judith Rich Harris 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 194
vote
90
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capita...
by Naomi Klein 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 193
vote
91
The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood
The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an Africa...
by Elspeth Huxley 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 192
vote
92
Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think
Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think
by Brian Wansink 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 191
vote
93
The Virtue of Selfishness
The Virtue of Selfishness
by Ayn Rand 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 190
vote
94
The Guns of August
The Guns of August
by Barbara W. Tuchman 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 187
vote
95
For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand
For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn...
by Ayn Rand 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 185
vote
96
How to Lie With Statistics
How to Lie With Statistics
by Darrell Huff 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 183
vote
97
Small Victories: The Real World of a Teacher, Her Students, and Their High School
Small Victories: The Real World of a Teacher, H...
by Samuel G. Freedman 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 182
vote
97
Desert Solitaire
Desert Solitaire
by Edward Abbey 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 182
vote
99
Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil
Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Beh...
by Deborah Rodriguez, Kristin Ohlson 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 180
vote
99
Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America
Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian ...
by فیروزه جزایری دوما / Firoozeh Jazayeri Dumas 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
score: 180
vote
List started by: Craig (votes)
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people who voted on this list (202)

Cornelia
Cornelia
414 books
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Louis
Louis
420 books
6 friends
Vanessa
Vanessa
143 books
3 friends
Carolina
Carolina
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Mike
Mike
61 books
1 friend
Geneven
Geneven
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Jaime
147 books
11 friends
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Missy
890 books
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post a comment »
comments (showing 1-3 of 3) (3 new)

dateDown_arrow    newest »

message 1: by Lud (new)
Feb 25, 2009 06:07AM

424064 If this is a best non-fiction list, why is "Killer Angels: A NOVEL of the Civil War," winner of the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for FICTION, included??? Just curious.


message 2: by Susanna (new)
Apr 25, 2009 11:16AM

1109068 Yeah, I was wondering that as well.


message 3: by booklady (new)
Apr 25, 2009 06:25PM

350218 It shouldn't be.


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