(You can read part one here.)
The real world is a fascinating place, and a good work of nonfiction can draw me in as much as any novel – if it’s beautifully written and true to the human spirit, that is.
(I have decided to include autobiographies here, though some would argue that they belong with fiction, or in their own category. But I don’t really care, so there.)
So here are ten nonfiction works that have deeply influenced me:
- Cosmos, by Carl Sagan
- Moab is my Washpot, by Stephen Fry
- The Autobiography of Malcolm X, by Malcolm X and Alex Haley
- Heretics and Orthodoxy, by G. K. Chesterton
- On Fairy-Stories, by J. R. R. Tolkien
- Why Socialism?, by Albert Einstein
- Malcolm & Martin & America: A Dream or a Nightmare?, by James H. Cone
- The Stranger from Paradise: A Biography of William Blake, by G. E. Bentley, Jr.
- On Writing, by Stephen King
- The Elements of Style, by William Strunk and E. B. White
Each and every one of those I heartily recommend. Some of them might change your life.
