Best nonfiction books for general knowledge

[8Ball2/JanG5]

Thanks for your thoughts, I was kind of hoping Wilhelm would have his say too.

 

[Odin's Lapdog]

Wouldn't an encycopedia be better than that?

i would have thought an encyclopedia would have given more specific knowledge rather than general knowledge. or at least a specific volume would.

 

[Ahura Mazda]

A Universe in a Nutshell - Stephen hawking
Light Years - I forget
Cosmos - Carl Sagan
Napoleon - English author whose name slips my mind

But hey there are quite a few out there, just have to know what subjects interest you.

Art of war is a great book and you get versions of it like Art of strateg which presumes to apply the maxims of Sun Tzu to modern corporate life. It is quite well done.

 

[FunBobPants]

Cosmos by Sagan
Encyclopedias

 

[redmarvel]

i would have thought an encyclopedia would have given more specific knowledge rather than general knowledge. or at least a specific volume would.

If you want really general and easy to read get the "I Want to Know About" books... you'll have to buy them on Ebay, they're out of print, but they were a great set of encyclopedias designed for kids.

 

[DBM]

Uncle John's Bathroom Reader

 

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Great thread

The History of the World

 

[Sentinel X]

War Lord, a lot of the stories in there are completely debatable, but DON'T start a bible debate in this thread. Make your own thread for that, if you have no other books to add than "the bible," then kindly **** off.

hehe...you have a temper problem

 

[Kent]

'Demon Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark' by Carl Sagan.

From Amazon.com
Carl Sagan muses on the current state of scientific thought, which offers him marvelous opportunities to entertain us with his own childhood experiences, the newspaper morgues, UFO stories, and the assorted flotsam and jetsam of pseudoscience. Along the way he debunks alien abduction, faith-healing, and channeling; refutes the arguments that science destroys spirituality, and provides a "baloney detection kit" for thinking through political, social, religious, and other issues.

 

[echostation]

Digital Fortress

 

[Themanofbat]

Enough, don't idle on the bible. It's too well known, I want to hear about things I may not know about.

Read "The Holy Blood & The Holy Grail" by Henry Lincoln, Michael Baigent & Richard Leigh.

Even though there's evidence of the Prieurie de Sion being a hoax, the way these guys go through the last 2 millenia is facinating stuff about hostory which I never knew existed.

Highly recommended.

 

[Jonathan Archer]

Golf for Dummies.

 

[8Ball2/JanG5]

Golf for Dummies.

Your brain is going to rot. Enjoy making a career out of retirement.

 

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

Bump

 

[Kritish]

The Bible.

I think he wants something to make him a more intelligent person. Not something that'll set him back six thousand years.

no

I read part of genises and then just stopped about 25 pages in. Those works have detailed lessons to teach that I have heard summarized, but overall the whole thing just doesn't appeal to me. I want something more modern. Like, anything written after 1600 or so.

How do you feel about physics? Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time is a good read.

 

[Ender Durden]

The Da Vinci Code

 

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

I don't get this. Do people know what non fiction is? There are both fiction and non fiction books being posted in this thread.

 

[Addendum]

Thomas Paine's Age of Reason is highly recommended.

I'm a bit iffy on Paine's Rights of Man though

 

[EdRyder]

I recently picked up an oldy but a goodie
The Age of Terrorism by Walter Laqueur -1977
Its more interesting in the contemporary since its dealing with the origins and history-From terrorism in India in 1910.All the way back to London in the 1800's
Might be hard to find a copy,but Id check your local Library

 

[EdRyder]

Thomas Paine's Age of Reason is highly recommended.

I'm a bit iffy on Paine's Rights of Man though

Hows that going?
Every time I cross something Paine on the web-he sounds so radical.
Strange because something about that era always strikes me as a time of conformity

 

[Addendum]

I've not gotten in-depth into Age of Reason, yet. I'm still reading another book. But from the bit I read in the store before I bought it, it was damn good.

 

[EdRyder]

A Favoritet:
git yer edumacation on

 

[Addendum]

Yet another highly recommended book

 

[Zero_Vault]

Into the Wild.

And yes, THE BIBLE.

muahahah... *rubs hands*

 

[Addendum]

While not a regular book, this is a must-read for everyone, regardless of age.