1001 Nonfiction Books That D&Ders will want to read.

[gregweller]

135. The Language of the Goddess by Marija Gimbutas, Forward by Joseph Campbell.

A wonderful graphic catalog of Goddess symbology from Neolithic times. Would be perfect for anyone creating a Goddess-oriented religion for their world.

136. The White Goddess by Robert Graves. Crammed to the brim with interesting mythological analysis including a complete discussion of the Celtic tree alphabet.

 

[Olive]

well, its not reallt non-fiction, but then again neither are half the other books on the list:

137: Deus lo volt! A cronicle of the crusades by Evan S. Cornell
138: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
and
139: Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco

edit: to correct the numbering

 

[ColonelHardisson]

45. 1066: The Year of the Conquest -- by David Howarth

This is a fantastic book, one of my favorite history books.

My recommendations:

140. The Nature of Alexander - Mary Renault - fascinating and meticulously-rendered portrait of Alexander the Great

141. After Man

142. The New Dinosaurs

Both by Dougal Dixon. Great examples of alternative evolution, and a nice explanations of how evolution works. The former is about life 50 million years after man's extinction; the latter is about how dinosaurs might have evolved until today if they hadn't gone extinct 65 million years ago, and mammals never got a chance to dominate.

 

[Pollaxe]

143. Blood Red Roses: The Archaeology of a Mass Grave from the Battle of Towton AD 1461 - Fiorato, Boylston & Knusel (eds) - if you want to get an insight into the true effects of medieval weapons on a body...

Fascinating but very, very grim....

 

[mmadsen]

Many of these have already been mentioned, but here's Monte Cook's list of recommended references from his web site:

Medieval Life (John Guy)
How Would You Survive in the Middle Ages? (Fiona Macdonald)
The Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages (Norman Cantor)
Life in a Medieval Village (J. and F. Gies)
Life in a Medieval Castle (J. and F. Gies)
The Ancient Americas (Time-Life's Making of the Past series)
What Life Was Like... and Time Frame (Time-Life series)
Wizards and Sorcerers: From Abracadabra to Zoroaster (Tom Ogden)
Encyclopedia of Gods: Over 2,500 Deities of the World (Michael Jordan)
The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt (Ian Shaw and Paul Nicholson)

The Atlas of Ancient Archaeology (Hawkes)
Roman Architecture (Sear)
The Atlas Sacred Places (James Harpuri)
City: A Story of Roman Planning and Construction (David MacAuley)
Pyramid and Cathedral (David MacAulay)

The Hero With a Thousand Faces (Joseph Campbell)
A World of Baby Names (Teresa Norman)
The Dictionary of American Family Names (Elsdon C. Smith)
Psychiatric Dictionary (Robert Campbell)]
The International Encyclopedia of Astronomy (Patrick Moore)
The American Medical Association Encyclopedia of Medicine (Charles B. Clayman, ed.)
What's What: A Visual Glossary of the Physical World (David Fisher and Reginald Bragonier, Jr.)
Dictionary of Anthropology (Charles Winick)
AMA Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants (Kenneth E. Lampe)
The Parennial Dictionary of World Religions (Keith Crim, ed.)
Space Almanac (Anthony R. Curtis)
The Encyclopedia of Evolution: Humanity's Search for its Origins (Richard Milner)
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (John Bartlett)
A Dictionary of 19th-Century World History (John Belchem and Richard Price, eds.)
Timetables of History (Bernard Grun)
Harbrace College Handbook (of English grammar, John C. Hodges and Mary E. Whitten)

 

[Dark Helmet]

mmadsen NUMBERS. Sheesh.

175: Barmi: A Mediteranean City Through The Ages (Xavier Hernandez & Pilar Comes) (Illustrated by Jordi Ballonga)!! The most important part of the book. It shows the changes in a fictional Mediterranean city from a fortified hill-town in the 4th century BC through Roman, Dark-Ages, Feudal, Medieval, Renaissance, 17th, 18th, 19th, and into the 20th Century.

176. Anything from www.ospreypublishing.com

 

[Alzrius]

176. The Mothman Prophecies by John A. Keel (yes, this is a nonfiction book) - Very eerie true tales of bizarre happenings across America, focusing on Point Pleasant, West Virginia. A great source for any d20 Modern game.

 

[haiiro]

177. The Well of Sacrifice, by Donald Ediger. Excellent account of a Mayan archaeological site, tailor-made for Call of Cthulhu.

178. Weapons: An International Encyclopedia from 5000 BC to 2000 AD, by the Diagram Group. Covers damn near everything.

179. Arms & Armor (Eyewitness series), by Michele Byam. Mostly pictures, but has a ton of cool and exotic items.

180. Military Small Arms of the 20th Century, by Ian Hogg and John Weeks. Photos for 99% of the weapons, very solid info on all - huge book.

I'm sure I'll think of more when I get home.

 

[haiiro]

181. Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History, by Stephen Jay Gould. An account of the fascinating and bizarre evolutionary "dead ends" found in the Burgess Shale, great in its own right - but many of these creatures are perfect for Call of Cthulhu (and even mesh somewhat with HPL's history of the world). There was an old Dragon that statted some of them out, which is where I heard about the book.

 

[haiiro]

182. The Ultimate Spy Book, by H. Keith Melton. So many cool things, all with pictures and background info - from rectal storage capsules to poison gas guns. How can you not like that?

183. Deception in War, by Jon Latimer. Covers many aspects of tactical and strategic deception, with photos and backstories for all. Everything from inflatable tanks to creating completely notional units.

The next two aren't technically non-fiction, I suppose...

184. Encyclopedia Cthulhiana (revised 2nd edition), by Daniel Harms. Many, many Lovecraftian/Mythos terms with background info and extensive source listings (what stories, poems, modules, etc. you can find out more about the entry in). Essential.

185. A Cthulhu Mythos Bibliography and Concordance, by Chris Jarocha-Ernst. 2,600+ citations of Mythos works. Very thorough, and clearly a labor of love.