Non-Fiction Recommendations

Okay well, I've discovered that reading non-fiction makes me an infinitely better essay writer. Also, being in 11 AP English classes, it's a requirement to read at least 5 non-fiction books before the school year is over. That being said, I need some recommendations.

In terms of literary taste, I can handle anything. I'd prefer some philosophically enlightening book, but I can handle just about anything. I finished Mere Christianity, so that handles one book. I could use four more.

If they are translation copies, I'd like to know which translation is either the best, or one of. Thanks for everything.

Dream Team Extraordinaire,
Steven.

Off the top of my head: Anatomy of Criticism (Frye), Characters of Shakespeare (Hazlitt), The Sacred Wood (Eliot).

As for philosophy. Hell, Plato, Locke, Hume, Wittgenstein, Russell, ad nauseam, take your pick.

R. W. Emerson- Essays (especially Self Reliance)
Montaigne- Essays (Donald Frame translation)
J.L. Borges- Other Inquisitions and Collected Non-Fictions
Jean J. Rousseau- Confessions
De Tocqueville- Democracy in America
John Ruskin- The Stones of Venice
Charles Lamb- The Essays of Elia
De Quincy- Confessions of an English Opium Eater
Boswell and Johnson's travelogs (Journey to the Western Islands and A Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides) Certainly shorter than The Life of Johnson
Gibbons- Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Walton- The Compleat Angler
Sir Francis Bacon- Essays
Dorothy Wordsworth- Journals

Just a few thoughts. A great majority of these are quite sizable reads... but you can certainly focus upon a few selections

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Originally Posted by stlukesguild

R. W. Emerson- Essays (especially Self Reliance)
Montaigne- Essays (Donald Frame translation)
J.L. Borges- Other Inquisitions and Collected Non-Fictions
Jean J. Rousseau- Confessions
De Tocqueville- Democracy in America
John Ruskin- The Stones of Venice
Charles Lamb- The Essays of Elia
De Quincy- Confessions of an English Opium Eater
Boswell and Johnson's travelogs (Journey to the Western Islands and A Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides) Certainly shorter than The Life of Johnson
Gibbons- Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Walton- The Compleat Angler
Sir Francis Bacon- Essays
Dorothy Wordsworth- Journals

Just a few thoughts. A great majority of these are quite sizable reads... but you can certainly focus upon a few selections

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I think that "The Life of Johnson" is the only book I recommend in abridgement. You have a lot of other greats up here, StLuke. I wonder what you think of Cardinal Newman?

As for my contribution to the thread: Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus" as a great and influential piece.

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Originally Posted by Modest Proposal

I think that "The Life of Johnson" is the only book I recommend in abridgement. You have a lot of other greats up here, StLuke. I wonder what you think of Cardinal Newman?

As for my contribution to the thread: Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus" as a great and influential piece.

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I'm currently reading Boswell's Life of Johnson and personally I find abridgement cheating. I didn't do it for Tolstoy and I wouldn't do it for Gibbon either. There's a particular something to be learned from reading a truly giant book. It's an entirely different animal than your little novelettes. I'm talking about big game son! Where's the challenge in an abridgement? One goes to read these books when one is tired of sprinting and wishes to have a prolonged marathon of concentration. After I finish Johnson's Life, I'm thinking about reading the rest of my Gibbon, or maybe Proust, or Dream of the Red Chamber, the Shahnameh, or Faery Queen.

Rather than give a list, which could be no better and perhaps in many ways worse than StLukes, I'd like to include some quotes from nonfiction I've been reading lately and let you judge their merits for yourself.

Thus shall you think of this fleeting world:
A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream,
A flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream.
-Diamond Sutra

The moon and sun are eternal travelers.
Even the years wander on.
A lifetime adrift in a boat, or in old age leading a tired horse into the years,
every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.
-Basho, Narrow Road to the Deep North

"I made a calculation , that if I should write but a page a day, at the same rate, I should, in ten years, write nine volumes in folio, of an ordinary size and print... When a man writes from his own mind, he writes very rapidly. The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write: a man will turn over half a library to make one book.”- Dr. Samuel Johnson, p. 252 Boswell's Life of Johnson

For, in fact, what is man in nature? A Nothing in comparison with the Infinite, an All in comparison with the Nothing, a mean between nothing and everything.- Pascal, Penseés

As to those who reject Faith, it is the same to them whether thou warn them or do not warn them; they will not believe. Allah hath set a seal on their hearts and on their hearing, and on their eyes is a veil; great is the penalty they incur.
-Koran

In the second century of the Christian Aera, the empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilized portion of mankind. The frontiers of that extensive monarchy were guarded by ancient renown and disciplined valor. The gentle but powerful influence of laws and manners had gradually cemented the union of the provinces. Their peaceful inhabitants enjoyed and abused the advantages of wealth and luxury. The image of a free constitution was preserved with decent reverence: the Roman senate appeared to possess the sovereign authority, and devolved on the emperors all the executivepowers of government. During a happy period of more than fourscoreyears, the public administration was conducted by the virtue and abilities of Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonines. It is the design of this, and of the two succeeding chapters, to describe the prosperous condition of their empire; and after wards, from the death of Marcus Antoninus, to deduce the most important circumstances of its decline and fall; a revolution which will ever be remembered, and is still felt by the nations of the earth.
-Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

I recommend the prophet by Khalil Gibran

The Republic (Penguin Classics) by Plato, Melissa Lane, H.D.P. Lee, and Desmond Lee. Plato is, surely, a must read.

Montaigne is also a must, but to have a chance of reaching your reading target, without reading night and day, seek out a good selection. For example: "The Essays: A Selection" (Penguin Classics) by Michel Montaigne translator, M. Screech. Screech is a more recent translator that Frame, and tends to gets the nod, these days, from Gore Vidal and other reviewers. I'm certainly enjoying reading Screech's translation of the complete essays at the moment, but at 1200 pages long of small print I wouldn't recommend it to a school kid with a deadline!

Borges is superb - The Total Library: Non-fiction, 1922-1986 (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback) by Jorge Borges (Author), Esther Allen (Translator), Suzanne Levine (Translator) looks good. But ask the Borges experts for detailed recommendations.

Two short works that are easy on the brain (but still stretch it!):

J.S. Mill Autobiography - Mill was not only a great philosopher, but a great writer, and he had a very interesting life!

Edmund Gosse - Father and Son - Gosse wasn't quite the towering figure that Mill was, but he writes like a dream and his father was the ultimate eccentric Victorian gentleman of science *and* religion (He led the Plymouth Brethren and invented the aquarium, amongst much else...)

Desert Solitaire -- Edward Abbey. It's a personal narrative about some time spent in Arches National Monument. Abbey's prose style is fantastic. And you'll get humor, philosophy, narrative and beautiful description in this book.

The Botany of Desire -- Michael Polan. Excellent writing -- the natural history of four culturally significant plants.

Brian Greene's The Fabric of the Cosmos might be a nice one, if you are interested in learning some of the more popular ideas about the nature of physical existence. But I wouldn't expect to finish it too quickly. It's written for the layman, but is often pretty challenging in any case.

It isn't a classic, and probably never will be because science is always advancing, and there are undoubtedly sections that the author would consider outdated already--but I think it is still a good choice, maybe for another 5 or 10 years or something.

Solid historical reads are never a waste.

I'd particularly like to recommend The Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. In translation, the style is decent, the historical content important and the worldview is very informing.

Also, regarding The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire be aware that Gibbon imports some concepts into a historic period where they did not exist (at least as such). In college we read Gibbon to learn about the Enlightenment and not about Rome.

If you don't mind an autobiography of someone during war-time, I would recommend Seven Pillars of Wisdom, by T.E. Lawrence. The style of writing isn't the best; after all, he was an amateur, but I like it, and maybe it would be something different than regular history. Good luck on deciding what to read.

I appreciate the recommendations. Hopefully a few more will be posted so I have a larger selection to choose from. My time in poring over fiction has led me to be ignorant to some great non-fiction, so thanks for the recommendations.

By the way, I realize in comparison to most of us, I'm not very well read, but I'm still an exceptional reader in general (not to pad my appearance, or anything). If anyone has lengthy pieces to read, I'm all for it; after all, I have until early June to finish these 4 books.

Out of curiosity, has anyone read The Mismeasure of Man, by Gould? I really was looking forward to that one.

Thanks, once again.

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Originally Posted by IceM

has anyone read The Mismeasure of Man, by Gould? I really was looking forward to that one..

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*raises his hand* It's great. Of course, anything by Stephen J. Gould is usually informative, well-written, and insightful. I can certainly recommend that title and author.

Gould is a good idea. If you want to take the 'modern over-arching view of human nature' approach, rather than 'old classics', then try:

Gould (...for science)
The Western Canon by Harold Bloom (...for literature)
Confessions of a Philosopher by Bryan Magee (...for philosophy & music & media(!))
The Story of Art by E.H. Gombrich (...for visual arts)
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (...religion ... and he is Gould's harshest critic!)

Greene's "Fabric" is a good suggestion if you want more physical science...

I'm reading Ellman's biography of James Joyce at the moment and it is remarkable!

I've just finished reading a selection of Clive James' essays called "The Meaning of Recognition" which covers a wonderful array of low to high brow topics in a very entertaining, humorous fashion. Try this if you feel the need of *some* light relief from all the heavy stuff people are recommending :-) (...he has essays on Aldous Huxley, Shakespeare and translation theory - so it it isn't all low brow!)

I'm also reading "Boyhood" by J.M. Coetzee, a wonderful account of his upbringing in South Africa. A very easy, but profound, read.

Eiger Dreams- Jon Krakauer