Non-Fiction Book Recommendations

[Happy]

I think we need a thread to share non-fiction book recommendations. I personally am always on the lookout for non-fiction books to read, and I'm guessing you other NTs are largely similar in this regard.

Consider the following format a minimum for posting (because let's face it, a book title alone generally isn't enough to spark curiosity) :

1. Book title
2. Author
3. Cover image
4. Short description
5. Why was it interesting?

I'll kick things off with an absolute gem that I recently devoured.

The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande

It's a book written by a surgeon who was in charge of developing the WHO's Safe Surgery Checklist. He describes his findings regarding the significance of checklists in his research, which involved dissecting the use of checklists in various industries - aviation, construction, etc. and ultimately implementing his findings into the Safe Surgery Checklist, which is used pretty much everywhere now.

What's surprising about this book is how exciting it is to read. I couldn't put it down. It sounds like the dullest piece of literature out there, but it's filled with all sorts of good stuff - awesome, gory, against-all-odds surgery stories; recounts of miraculous plane crashes; more surgery stories; etc. There was barely a single dull moment in the whole book. And by the end of it, I was totally sold on the importance of checklists. Job done. That was one damn fine read...

 

[Ex-User (14663)]

The Mating Mind by Geoffrey Miller

It's an extremely well-written exposition on how sexual selection shaped the human mind. By reading this I realised how little I knew about evolution, and how much of the talk on evolution, even among various intellectuals, is severely misguided. For example, a lot of people think about the evolution of the human brain in terms of survival of the fittest, or that it evolved primarily as a tool for making smart decisions or something like that. This book provides a very sophisticated in-depth look at these various theories and gives lucid arguments against them. An eye-opening read for me at least.

 

[TransientMoment]

In a perhaps shocking if not simply an odd way, complementary to Serac's recommendation...
John Paul II's Theology of the Body.

It's an enlightening insight into the human body and God's intentions for mankind to begin with. If you're curious as to why Catholicism is against homosexuality, adultery, porn, and divorce, this book has the answer, and it won't give it to you in that simple, naive fashion you're average Evangelical will. For once, a book that appeals to a more sophisticated audience. But bring a dictionary. You will need it.

 

[TransientMoment]

I also recommend QED: The Strange Theory of Matter and Light. (book cover varies) There is a text book, but this isn't it. The textbook seems confusing, at least to me. The book I'm recommending is small (less than 200 pages) and is made up of the four lectures Feynman gave at a university (Princeton? I forget). It's geared towards people who don't have the slightest understanding of the topic, so most thinker types should understand fairly easily.

 

[Pizzabeak]

Only reading non-fiction is overrated. It doesn't make you smarter. People start only reading non-fiction because they think it makes them smarter, because otherwise you're wasting time reading fiction which holds "no intellectual value". Most fiction stories probably suck granted, and since we have limited time, it seems like not reading fiction is the smartest choice. But there's a lot to be got from fiction, and some it is even based off real events. You can still learn something. Non-fiction can be bullshit too, brainwashing and altering facts happens so often these days you'd be surprised.

 

[TransientMoment]

This isn't a which-is-better thread or only-read-this thread, but INTPs do have a general tendency to enjoy non-fiction over fiction. Let's stick with just making suggestions, please.

 

[beautifulies]

Apparently, autobiographies are non-fiction. Thus, I recommend The Story of My Experiments with Truth by Gandhi. Can I also get a summary? Because I stopped at page 5. It'd be great to get it by Wednesday.

 

[Lurker]

Reading tomorrow.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/299700.Today_I_Will_Nourish_My_Inner_Martyr

From the Inside Flap:

Tonight, by moonlight, I will rake my
leaves into my neighbor's yard.

Had it up to here with sugary-sweet affirmation books that ignore the pleasures of resentment and mean-spiritedness? Tired of the self-helpaholics who've been sipping too much chicken soup? Then this book is for you.

Here are 365 splendidly bitter daily meditations that will appeal to the cynic in you. Nowhere else will you find such odes to self-absorption as:
·Today I will equate material possessions with love.
·Today I will taunt others until they cry, then tell them they are too sensitive.
·Today I will make a new friend based solely on how he or she can further my career.
·Today I will respect my need to sabotage everyone else's success.

 

[BurnedOut]

Forensic pathology was one of the fatass books I have read with utter excitement as compared to fiction. I dislike fiction because it seems to me like a magnanimous waste of time and not informative except to enhance your social-acceptibility rate drastically under normal circumstances

Sent from my SM-J730GM using Tapatalk