Need some recommended non-fiction books to read

[jinduy]

I've had a friend recommend Girl with the dragon tattoo. Anything else?

 

[BeauJangles]

Don't you mean fiction?

 

[highland145]

Don't you mean fiction?

No, he wants things like college physics.

 

[Blackjack200]

I've had a friend recommend Girl with the dragon tattoo. Anything else?

I think that's a novel.

Anyway: "The brain that changes itself"

It's a fantastic book about the emerging science of brain placticity. The opening chapter is about a blind man who had his sight restored by rewiring his eyes (or maybe they were cameras, I can't remember) to send signals to an electric diode on his tongue. His brain eventually figured out that the diode had the same information that his eyes used to have, and Bam! he could see again.

Amazing.

 

[KeithTalent]

Umm, do you know what non-fiction means? :hmm:

KT

 

[Homerboy]

Harry Potter

Spoiler

VOLDEMORT DID IT!

Spoiler

Hermione is of age!

 

[BoomerD]

You should start reading the "historical documents" that are available...

http://www.well.com/~sjroby/lcars/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Trek_novels

 

[Nik]

read this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-.../dp/1417925825

I have a 130 year old version. It's a very good read.

 

[BoomerD]

I used to have an original 1905 copy of this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Mormon-Menace-...000161&sr=1-12

VERY interesting reading...especially for us "anti-Mormons" out there.

 

[Arkaign]

Best nonfiction I've read in the past ten years or so, in no particular order :

Into Thin Air
Black Hawk Down (1489338738x better than the decent film)
The Terrible Hours

I know there's a bunch I'm forgetting, but those all come to mind, and all are extremely dramatic and well-written true stories.

 

[DingDingDao]

Any of Anthony Bourdain's books are good. If you want something to twist your brain a bit, read A Brief History of Time. Also, Feynman's Six Not-so-Easy Pieces is an interesting read.

 

[shortylickens]

The Self Esteem Trap: Raising compassionate kids in an age of Self-Importance.

Should be required reading for all Anandtechers as well as every teenager in my college.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

A Brief History of Time - Hawking
The God Delusion - Dawkins
The Looming Tower - Wright
The Hot Zone and/or The Demon in the Freezer - Preston
The Double Helix - Watson
Freakonomics - Levitt and Dubner

 

[edro]

I used to have an original 1905 copy of this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Mormon-Menace-...000161&sr=1-12

VERY interesting reading...especially for us "anti-Mormons" out there.

Wow... that seems like a pretty rare book.
Where can I get a copy for less than $50?

I been LDS has bought and destroyed all they can get a hold of.

Found it! Free: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23519

 

[blackdogdeek]

Best nonfiction I've read in the past ten years or so, in no particular order :

Into Thin Air
Black Hawk Down (1489338738x better than the decent film)
The Terrible Hours

I know there's a bunch I'm forgetting, but those all come to mind, and all are extremely dramatic and well-written true stories.

i second into thin air.
i recommend: lone survivor, genome, and too big to fail

 

[pontifex]

Rogue Warrior
Arabian Sands
The Marsh Arabs
The Life of My Choice
Among the Mountains: Travels Through Asia
My Ireland
Patches of Sunlight
While the Sirens Slept
The Sirens Wake
25 Yards of War
The Fliers of WWII
Inside Delta Force - reading right now

 

[yhelothar]

I think that's a novel.

Anyway: "The brain that changes itself"

It's a fantastic book about the emerging science of brain placticity. The opening chapter is about a blind man who had his sight restored by rewiring his eyes (or maybe they were cameras, I can't remember) to send signals to an electric diode on his tongue. His brain eventually figured out that the diode had the same information that his eyes used to have, and Bam! he could see again.

Amazing.

Thanks, I'm gonna check that out. I just recently went to a lecture by Miguel Nicolelis, a famous brain-computer interface neuroengineer and he gave a few interesting insights about brain plasticity. According to him, the motor homunculus is only wired to be area specific to our body parts as that's the way it's adapted to it. But when you choose a part of the motor cortex to control a robotic arm, it'll reconfigure its synapses to take in that new body part. Also when you use tools, that tool becomes represented in the motor homunculus, so in a sense that tool is an extension of your body. It's found that a violinist, for example, has 300% more representation in the brain for the left hand over a non violinist.

 

[BoomerD]

Wow... that seems like a pretty rare book.
Where can I get a copy for less than $50?

I been LDS has bought and destroyed all they can get a hold of.

Found it! Free: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23519

I got my copy from the Ogden, UT Salvation Army in the early 80's. I had a good friend who managed their receiving and distribution center, and she helped me obtain it. I had to outbid a couple of Mormon Bishops to get it...but somehow, once they bid more than I did, their bids were accidentally misplaced...

Some things are too important to let fanatical fundies destroy because they're afraid of the truth.

 

[XZeroII]

I just finished Packing for Mars. It's a great book. Not just for nerds, it focuses on the human aspect. There's lots about poo in space.

 

[xSauronx]

A Brief History of Time - Hawking
The God Delusion - Dawkins
The Looming Tower - Wright
The Hot Zone and/or The Demon in the Freezer - Preston
The Double Helix - Watson
Freakonomics - Levitt and Dubner

the god delusion was...nothing special. its full of arguments you can find elsewhere if youre interested in the topic and wasnt really that interesting. /has a copy

"Everyday Drinking" by kingsley amis is great, if you like drinking.

 

[ModerateRepZero]

Hmmm, off the top of my head:

-Millionaire Next Door - Thomas J. Stanley &....Dunlap
-Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham
-Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
-Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell
-Waiter Rant - Steve Dublanica
-The Big Short - Michael Lewis

 

[Spacehead]

Longitude

 

[Malak]

The God Delusion - Dawkins

The Dawkins Delusion

 

[GagHalfrunt]

The Dawkins Delusion

BWAHAHAHA!! Try recommending books you've actually read Zippy. If you'd read that piece of tripe you'd actually be laughing your ass off and distancing yourself from it because it makes you wannabelievers look even more stupid than you already are.

 

[mmntech]

I studies history and political science in university so I've got a ton of these books. Heres some decent ones.

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman
A History of Civilization by Ferdinand Braudel
Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi
The Prince and The Discourses by Machiavelli
Benjamin Franklin's autobiography (free on Kindle)
Born in Blood and Fire: a concise history of Latin America by John Charles Chasteen
Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington