RANDOM JOTTINGS

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Long time blogger just moved to wordpress. Love music, theatre, movies, sport (tennis and cricket) and cooking. Two great daughters, two great granddaughters.

100 Greatest Non-Fiction Books from the Guardian

via www.guardian.co.uk

As I love lists could not resist checking this out. Gorgeous pic of the reading room at the British Museum as well.

As I scrawled down the list I began to feel increasingly ignorant and 'But I haven't read ANY of these' was my cry. Thankfully, I ended up with a few and they are:

Eminent Victorians – Lytton Strachey; Diary of Anne Frank; De Profundis – Oscar Wilde; Homage to Catalonia – George Orwell; Venice – Jan Morris; The Female Eunuch – Germaine Greer and A Room of One's Own – Virginia Woolf.

Would be interested in anybody's thoughts and how many of these titles they have dipped into!

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11 responses to “100 Greatest Non-Fiction Books from the Guardian”

  1. Elaine Simpson-Long Avatar
    Elaine Simpson-Long

    I love lists and they always get a good response as everyone has their own ideas about what should and should not be on the list. I have read seven but have dipped in and out of others at school etc but I don’t regard this as having read them so cannot in all honesty add them to my paltry seven. I am lost in admiration at the numbers some of you have come up with.

    Reply
  2. Erika Avatar
    Erika

    Hurray. I have read 19. But I’m older than you so I should be ahead! I also comfort myself by thinking that several on the list are very lightweight but all such lists are quirky.
    I want to recommend “Tolstoy and the Purple Chair” by Nina Sankovich, in which the author tells about her ‘read one book a day’ project. I was a bit doubtful but its reviews were good and I am half way through now–well worth reading.

    Reply
  3. Nicola Avatar
    Nicola

    I mainly read novels, but I have read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. A brilliant book – glad to see it listed.

    Reply
  4. SLK in SF Avatar
    SLK in SF

    With bookshelves overflowing onto the floor, last week I finally splurged on a Kindle — so this post couldn’t have come at a better moment for me. (I love nonfiction.) A quick check revealed that some of the books on The Guardian’s list are available for free at Amazon or Project Gutenberg; among other titles, I’ve already downloaded the Macaulay and Mr. Strachey’s Eminent Victorians (which I’m hoping will be as fun to read as was his Queen Victoria!).

    Reply
  5. Liz F Avatar
    Liz F

    Oh good grief, it’s lists like this that make me realise what a lightweight (intellectually speaking) I really am!
    I’ve read seven: Anne Frank, Machiavelli (I did Renaissance history at A-Level), In Cold Blood, Venice, A Time of Gifts, The Rings of Saturn and Hard Times, but that is rather better than I feared!

    Reply
  6. Harriet Avatar
    Harriet

    I’ve read some and dipped into several others but you’d expect that as I was/am an academic. But nowadays I much prefer fiction and rarely if ever read any non-fic, unless it’s a biography. The picture is lovely but sadly this beautiful room is no longer in use as the library has moved to a much less photogenic site in St Pancras.

    Reply
  7. Sheila Beaumont Avatar
    Sheila Beaumont

    I’ve read more than I expected (15 if I’ve counted right), most of them quite a long time ago: Silent Spring, Hard Times, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Uses of Enchantment, Diary of a Young Girl, Walden, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (for a college class; would never have read it on my own!), The Communist Manifesto (also for a class), The Second Sex, The Female Eunuch, The Varieties of Religious Experience, The Golden Bough (I think it was an abridged version), The Feminine Mystique, In Cold Blood, Slouching Towards Bethlehem (of interest because I live in California). I started Gödel, Escher, Bach, but it was way over my head and I didn’t make it all the way through.
    I think the list should have included Bulfinch’s Mythology and Edith Hamilton’s Mythology.

    Reply
  8. Debbie Rodgers Avatar
    Debbie Rodgers

    I admit that I prefer fiction, although I always enjoy the learning I experience when I read non-fiction.
    I’ve read only four on this list: Diary of a Young Girl, de Montaigne’s Essays (at least 2 of 3 volumes), Thoreau’s Walden, and Hawking’s A Brief History of Time.
    Happen to have Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and Terkel’s Hard Times on my library reserved list.

    Reply
  9. Cath Avatar
    Cath

    Gosh, I feel rather ignorant. Three: The Diary of Anne Frank, A Time of Gifts and Innocents Abroad. And I have the Oscar Wilde on my Kindle. What an interesting list though. Will save it, and thanks for the link.

    Reply
  10. stujallen Avatar
    stujallen

    I d read about twelve of the list looked through it last night ,all the best stu

    Reply
  11. Annabel Avatar
    Annabel

    Of course I had to go straight off and check out the list. I’ve read just seven fully, but I do own copies of another eleven some of which I’ve dipped into, including my new Folio edition of Primo Levi’s periodic table which is a book I’ve wanted to read for ages. I was actually pleased I’d read that many – seven that is!
    I may copy that list for future reference – I would have included Suetonius’ the 12 Caesars on the list.

    Reply

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