Below are seven non-fiction books I recommend and one I am urging you to avoid. I use descriptions other people wrote for these books because I am lazy. Except for the bad book, which has my own description.
The Art of War, by Sun Tzu, Sunzi
“Here is a seminal work on the philosophy of successful leadership that is as applicable to contemporary business as it is to war.”
The Prince, by Niccolò Machiavelli
“Rejecting the traditional values of political theory, Machiavelli drew upon his own experiences of office in the turbulent Florentine republic to write his celebrated treatise on statecraft. While Machiavelli was only one of the many Florentine "prophets of force," he differed from the ruling elite in recognizing the complexity and fluidity of political life.”
The Devil, by Jeffrey Burton.
“This book traces the evolution of the concept of evil from ancient times to the period of the New Testament, calling attention to ideas about the Devil in Eastern and Western cultures”
Guns, Germs and Steel, by Jared Diamond
“An intriguing study of the rise of civilization argues that human development is not based on race or ethnic differences but rather is linked to biological diversity, discussing the evolution of agriculture, technology, writing, political systems, and religious belief.”
Collapse, by Jared Diamond.
“Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed is the glass-half-empty follow-up to his Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel. While Guns, Germs, and Steel explained the geographic and environmental reasons why some human populations have flourished, Collapse uses the same factors to examine why ancient societies, including the Anasazi of the American Southwest and the Viking colonies of Greenland, as well as modern ones such as Rwanda, have fallen apart.”
Dance Macabre, by Stephen King.
“Thanks to a suggestion from his former editor at Doubleday, King decided to write Danse Macabre as a personal record of the thoughts about horror that he developed and refined as a result of that course. The outcome is an utterly charming book that reads as if King were sitting right there with you, shooting the breeze.”
Comanche: The History of a People, by T.R. Fehrenbach.
“If it's possible to write five hundred pages of historical non-fiction without bias, Fehrenbach has done it in Comanches. The book is devoid of rhetoric, overstatement, or preaching. He is a man absolutely committed to fact. What he presents in Comanches is a sweeping tome on the origins and ultimate destruction of a fascinating culture.”
Note: This is the one I am reading currently.
Avoid The Age of Spiritual Machines, by Ray Kurzweil
A dull, hard to read, tedious affair of nearly endless self satisfied hyperbole, lacking even the science based credibility of Star Trek, this book flat-out wanders off into fantasy lands that Kurzweil likely find splendid but which more rational people will find incomprehensible and even disturbing. I wasted my money.
The Art of War, by Sun Tzu, Sunzi
“Here is a seminal work on the philosophy of successful leadership that is as applicable to contemporary business as it is to war.”
The Prince, by Niccolò Machiavelli
“Rejecting the traditional values of political theory, Machiavelli drew upon his own experiences of office in the turbulent Florentine republic to write his celebrated treatise on statecraft. While Machiavelli was only one of the many Florentine "prophets of force," he differed from the ruling elite in recognizing the complexity and fluidity of political life.”
The Devil, by Jeffrey Burton.
“This book traces the evolution of the concept of evil from ancient times to the period of the New Testament, calling attention to ideas about the Devil in Eastern and Western cultures”
Guns, Germs and Steel, by Jared Diamond
“An intriguing study of the rise of civilization argues that human development is not based on race or ethnic differences but rather is linked to biological diversity, discussing the evolution of agriculture, technology, writing, political systems, and religious belief.”
Collapse, by Jared Diamond.
“Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed is the glass-half-empty follow-up to his Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel. While Guns, Germs, and Steel explained the geographic and environmental reasons why some human populations have flourished, Collapse uses the same factors to examine why ancient societies, including the Anasazi of the American Southwest and the Viking colonies of Greenland, as well as modern ones such as Rwanda, have fallen apart.”
Dance Macabre, by Stephen King.
“Thanks to a suggestion from his former editor at Doubleday, King decided to write Danse Macabre as a personal record of the thoughts about horror that he developed and refined as a result of that course. The outcome is an utterly charming book that reads as if King were sitting right there with you, shooting the breeze.”
Comanche: The History of a People, by T.R. Fehrenbach.
“If it's possible to write five hundred pages of historical non-fiction without bias, Fehrenbach has done it in Comanches. The book is devoid of rhetoric, overstatement, or preaching. He is a man absolutely committed to fact. What he presents in Comanches is a sweeping tome on the origins and ultimate destruction of a fascinating culture.”
Note: This is the one I am reading currently.
Avoid The Age of Spiritual Machines, by Ray Kurzweil
A dull, hard to read, tedious affair of nearly endless self satisfied hyperbole, lacking even the science based credibility of Star Trek, this book flat-out wanders off into fantasy lands that Kurzweil likely find splendid but which more rational people will find incomprehensible and even disturbing. I wasted my money.
