What are /r/nonfictionbookclub's favorite Products & Services?

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• Prometheus Rising - Robert Anton Wilson
• Man's Search for Meaning - Victor Frankl
• Simply Einstein - Richard Wolfson
• Economics of the Madhouse - Chris Harman
• SPQR - Mary Beard

Haven't read it, but heard good things from other people:

• A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson

I'm in favor of skipping The Art of War, but that's just because I'm not a huge fan of that book. Are you accepting nominations for the next book? Because if so, I have a few: * The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson * Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright * any book by Mary Roach * The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston feat. Mario Spezi * Cod: a Biography of the Fish that Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky * The Secret Life of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore * The Ominvore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

I hope this was OK; if not, then sorry!

Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl
His story of living through the Holocaust in a concentration camp and how he found the "right"way to find meaning in life. The story is as terrifying as it is profound.

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage - Alfred Lansing
The story of the ill-fated attempt to make the first land crossing of Antarctica. It's full of examples of people enduring amazing hardships to survive and save each other. One of the most exciting stories (fiction or nonfiction) I've ever read.

Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman
The summary of the life's research of one of the founders of behavioral economics. I read his work for years in more academic settings, but this is the first time it's been presented specifically for popular audiences.

The Entrepreneuria​l State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths - Mariana Mazzucato

The Limits of State Action - Wilhelm von Humboldt

Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East - Scott Anderson

IBM and the Holocaust - Edwin Black

Kill Chain - Andrew Cockburn

The Pinochet File - Peter Kornbluh

Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor E. Frankl

Manufacturing Consent - Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky

Orientalism - Edward Said

Muqtada Al-Sadr and the Battle for the Future of Iraq - Patrick Cockburn

Revolutionary Iran: A History of the Islamic Republic - Michael Axworthy

Future Crimes - Marc Goodman

Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World - Bruce Schneier

The Thistle and the Drone - Akbar Ahmed

Here a my top three so far and a bit of commentary on them:

A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell:

A book which presents a rather convincing theory for the left/right political bifurcation in western culture. This book is short but it made me understand on a much deeper level the foundational principles behind liberalism and conservatism in western society. If you ever ask yourself "How can liberals/conservatives think that way?" then read this book.

The Better Angels of our Nature by Steven Pinker:

A book which provides evidence for and details the decline of violence over the course of human history. It covers everything from animal cruelty to genocide to corporal punishment to war and murder. The conclusion of this book is heartening but also cautious and is a must read for anyone interested in the dark side of human nature.

The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris:

A book which promotes the use of science in answering ethical questions. It provides a framework which explains what we should value and why. The ethical theory that is presented here is progressive and intuitive but in my view, incomplete. Regardless, I think anyone interested in questions of moral right and wrong should read this book.

Honorable mentions:

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond; Why Does the World Exist by Jim Holt; Our Mathematical Universe by Max Tegmark; Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell; The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker; Doing Good Better by William MacAskill, Free Will by Sam Harris.

5 that come to mind. They were all pretty influential on my thinking, and reading them was hugely rewarding.

• Understanding Power - Noam Chomsky [Politics, Sociology, Philosophy, etc.]

• Godel,Escher,Bach - Douglas Hofstader [Very unique book]

• Delirious New York - Rem Koolhaas [Architecture, Urbanism]

• The Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham [Finance, Investing]

• Treasure Islands - Nicholas Shaxson [Corporate Tax Evasion]

For all the visual learners out there, I recommend checking out cartoonist Jessica Hagy's work. She published The Art of War Visualized in March of this year, but it appears as if an earlier version of the project (from 2013) is available free at Forbes.

Happy reading, everyone!

Stealing Fire. It’s not expressly about psychedelics but does cover a lot of ground on them and us really well written. Also has a great audiobook on audible.

https://www.amazon.com/Stealing-Fire-Maverick-Scientists-Revolutionizing/dp/0062429655/ref=nodl_

it's on amazon, different isbn's depending if you want the book or ebook.

Hot Zone if you feel like having the bejesus scared out of you. It actually managed to scare Stephen King, which is saying something.

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! is timeless. I read it all in one day. Feynman is so much more than a Nobel prize winning physicist, he was a great human being. It's a tragedy that someone of his talent died so young.

Check out Surveillance Capitalism and Chaos Monkeys.

The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem: The Definitive Work on Self-Esteem by the Leading Pioneer in the Field Paperback – May 1, 1995

Are you looking for specifically non-fiction books?

You might start with the letter from Orwell's former teacher mentor congratulating him on completing 1984 here.

If you are looking for other nonfiction works related to Orwell's view of the world then Homage to Catalonia shows a lot of how his socialist, anti-authoritarian politics informed 1984 (spoiler: he fought with the anarchists in the Spanish Civil War.)

You might also appreciate Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death which begins by contrasting the fictional world of Orwell with that of Huxley's Brave New World and begins exploring the parallels in our world.

Going on from that, Foucault's Discipline and Punish lays out a lot in regards to surveillance but Foucault is notorious for being dense and somewhat impenetrable to the layman so you will likely need to get across the basics of philosophy/post-structuralism if you haven't already.

Consider <em>Games People Play</em> by Eric Berne.

It describes (in quite dated detail) the "games" people play with each other. An example would the husband-who-drinks-too-much and the nagging-wife-that-forgives are playing a repeated game where they unconsciously address their needs but in a dysfunctional way.

It's dated -- it obviously predates feminism. But it might be interesting to consider the many games that we play with each other and, ultimately, with ourselves.

Consider <em>The Fourth Turning</em> by Strauss and Howe. It poses a kind of structural theory of generational dynamics and recurring crises. It's not exactly what you're describing, but highly relevant in my view.

Very similarly, and a bit more academic, you might look into Peter Turchin's work (Ages of Discord might be best starting place). He proposes that overproduction of elites is causing major imbalances in society and screwing us up.

Neither will be as engaging as Harari, but hope they're of interest.

I HIGHLY recommend you add Mannahatta to your list. One of the best books on NYC out there.

I also recommend "Delirious New York" by Rem Koolhaas, especially the first section all about Coney Island.

I just recently published my first book. If you’re interested in self-help/self-improvement, I think you’ll enjoy the read! Today, the ebook is also completely free - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1736378104?pf_rd_r=FFCJK5BVH07GWPS868CN&amp;pf_rd_p=89879054-2e37-4233-9fd7-bd5a93dd076a&amp;pd_rd_r=7f9d8b90-3627-4091-8fc6-930a547aca4c&amp;pd_rd_w=WDsRS&amp;pd_rd_wg=Cfssy

Hot Zone - Richard Preston

Amazon Link Goodreads Link

>The bestselling landmark account of the first emergence of the Ebola virus. A highly infectious, deadly virus from the central African rain forest suddenly appears in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. There is no cure. In a few days 90 percent of its victims are dead. A secret military SWAT team of soldiers and scientists is mobilized to stop the outbreak of this exotic "hot" virus. The Hot Zone tells this dramatic story, giving a hair-raising account of the appearance of rare and lethal viruses and their "crashes" into the human race. Shocking, frightening, and impossible to ignore, The Hot Zone proves that truth really is scarier than fiction.

I usually use this app to do the same:

Loop Habit Tracker https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.isoron.uhabits&amp;hl=en

There are also many other options to choose from:

https://www.lifehack.org/668261/best-habit-tracking-apps

The Klondike Gold Rush: The History of the Late 19th Century Gold Rush in Alaska and the Yukon

by Charles River Editors It's been a while but I think this is the one. Couldn't put it down.

The Gene: An Intimate History

by Siddhartha Mukherjee

There is this trilogy that looks good to me:

https://www.amazon.com/Pax-Britannica-Trilogy-Farewell-Trumpets/dp/B0000COIG4

Conspiracy by Ryan Holiday https://www.amazon.com/Conspiracy-Peter-Gawker-Anatomy-Intrigue/dp/0735217645

It's about Peter Thiel bankrolling Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker. Read it in a few sittings.

We aren't going to have a few hundred people reading it. Even on r/BookClub, with their 19k subscribers, the discussion threads are 4-10 comments long. Our sub is 5% the size of theirs—if we lose even a few of the readers, we lose most (if not all) of the discussion.

(And we definitely would lose readers on chapters like "Typographical Number Theory" or "On Formally Undecidable Propositions of TNT and Related Systems," especially considering the trouble people were having with The Art of War, which is infinitely simpler.)

You're right that it's an understandable book if you put the effort in, but it's a hell of a lot of effort. Check out r/GEB; the sub is filled with people who've read the book, and the consensus there is that it's a helluva project to take on. Or r/rational, which has more subscribers than us, more activity, and is devoted to exactly this kind of book—by the end of their group read the discussion threads had dropped off from 50-60 comments to 3-4. Starting from much fewer readers, if we have a drop-off like that, we're screwed.

Like I said, I'm happy to do this if the community wants to, and I can provide a lot of background (you're right that math or physics won't be necessary, but readings in logic, the philosophy of neuroscience, and similar subjects will be, if not necessary, at least immensely helpful). But I don't want anyone voting for this who doesn't realize that it's a massive undertaking.

Chris Hedges — <strong>Death of the Liberal Class</strong>

Hedges tries to cover a lot of ground in ~200 pages, but the book seems like a good introduction to his political thought, which has roots in Noam Chomsky and is becoming more mainstream, though fractured, with people like Elizabeth Warren, Rand Paul, and Bernie Sanders.

I think it's a good book for the sub to dip into some politics. It's fairly short and not too difficult, but he raises some interesting and challenging points that I think we'd all benefit from hearing. Also, it will probably be controversial, so it should lend itself to lively conversation.

From the back cover:

> The Death of the Liberal Class examines the failure of the liberal class to confront the rise of the corporate state and the consequences of a liberalism that has become profoundly bankrupted. Hedges argues there are five pillars of the liberal establishment — the press, liberal religious institutions, labor unions, universities and the Democratic Party — and that each of these institutions, more concerned with status and privilege than justice and progress, sold out the constituents they represented. In doing so, the liberal class has become irrelevant to society at large and ultimately the corporate power elite they once served.