Non-fiction and play recommendations

[wildeabandon]

I think I would like to read a bit more non-fiction than I do currently, and I have a couple of things on my to-read list, but not a lot. Most of what I have read recently has been about psychology or economics, but I'm keen to broaden my horizons (as well as reading more interesting stuff in those genres).

What are your favourite non-fiction books? What do you like about them? Are there any that you found life-changing?

I would also like to read more plays (which, outside of readthroughs, I almost never do), so the same questions apply.

Comments

[sfred]

I don't think I could call it life-changing, but I loved Concretopia - architecture and social geography and stuff. Very accessible and absorbing.

I also loved H is for Hawk but that's the sort of non-fiction that almost falls into the same category as fiction (it's a memoir). Weepy. Similarly Corvus: a life with birds.

John Stuart Mill's On Liberty was formative for me, and his style is very readable for the subject matter (philosophy/politics).
Also from my philosophy A-level or degree I remember being really interested in A J Ayer's Language, Truth and Logic but I don't remember as much of its content.

It's a long time since I read it, but I found the Catechism of the Catholic Church interesting and informative. Also Quaker Faith & Practice, which is a lovely (to me) mixture of procedure and spirituality. Both were life-changing for me in different ways.

[highlyeccentric]

Plays: David Auburn, 'Proof'. I'm not sure if it'll have quite the same gut-punch effect without the blackout at intermission to leave you hanging, but it's... it's really impressive. I'm told the film adaptation is not, however, much good.

[sfred]

Also: Life Among the Pirates - David Cordingley

[lovingboth]

Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff - wonderful story of the Mercury space programme. Doesn't cover the women who were stopped from qualifying for astronauts.

There's plenty of interesting stuff in sexuality and computer strategy games on my shelves.

Most plays don't read nearly as well as they perform. Stoppard is an example of the difference not being as great as it usually is. If you like Shakespeare, his contemporaries are well worth looking at (but best done via the Globe's 'Read Not Dead' semi-staged performances...)

[damerell]

How Steam Locomotives Really Work, ISBN-13: 978-0198607823, because I am a giant nerd. It does not, alas, start by telling you "haha, it's really all goblins, did you believe all that coal-and-water rubbish?". It's quite readable, with only a slight tendency to leave you going "yeah, but what is a foundation ring, anyway?", and since they're basically enormous heaps of moving parts there's a lot of obscure Facts to know.

The Hornblower Companion, ISBN-13: 978-1557503473, which is a bit of a wheeze since I like it because I like the fiction so much. Each book gets a bit of explanatory text and a map or two from C.S.F., and then there's a chunk of insight into how he came to write the books, the writing process itself, and plot summaries for the stuff he didn't write by virtue of dying at an awkward time. (There's also one or two misogynistic digressions...)

Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail: The Evolution of Fighting Tactics, 1650-1815, ISBN-13: 978-0785814269. You may be spotting a theme here. This is another large solid work full of useful facts, maps, diagrams, etc (and none of the usual pop-hist explanation of how life as an Age of Sail sailor was utterly dismal, because we know that). The authors' central thesis is that developments in tactics and signalling went hand in hand.

This is just off the top of my head...