What non-fiction book was the best eyeopener you ever read?

https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/9t22f/what_nonfiction_book_was_the_best_eyeopener_you/

created by Scarker on 11/10/2009 at 23:25 UTC

125 upvotes, 80 top-level comments (showing 25)

Comments

Comment by kru5h at 12/10/2009 at 16:05 UTC*

54 upvotes, 1 direct replies

[This is a repost from another thread. Technically two of these books (Flatland and Flatterland) are fiction, but it's more of a pseudo-narrative to keep you engaged in the topic than a true fiction.]

**Guns, Germs, and Steel** - Jared Diamond
**Atheism: The Case Against God** - George H. Smith
**The Selfish Gene** - Richard Dawkins
**The Blank Slate** - Steven Pinker
**The Game** - Neil Strauss
**Freakonomics** - Levitt & Dubner
**The Little Schemer** - Friedman & Felleisen
**Flatland** - Edwin Abbot
**Flatterland** - Ian Stewart
**A Brief History of Time** - Steven Hawking

*Guns, Germs, and Steel**

A very thorough book about the origins of civilization and the ways that available resources and the structure of the continents shaped future technology and civilization. The book includes some truly surprising insights backed up with the most evidence-backed amount of information that I've ever encountered. Tedious at times, but should be required reading because of its impact.

*Atheism: The Case Against God**

Another extremely thorough book. The author dissects every philosophical argument for theism that you could possibly imagine, including every counter argument and rebuttal. Any tiny loophole that you think you find is smashed to bits on the next page. The arguments are airtight and will leave you saying, "Fuck... I guess I'm an atheist now."

*The Selfish Gene**

This book is about evolution and how life diversified, but more than that, it takes a gene's-eye view of everything and turns your ideas of evolution upside-down. The book includes sections on game-theory in evolution, and how it affects such things as mating behavior in different species. This is the book that coined the word "meme".

*The Blank Slate**

The author argues against three common (and outdated) ideas about how our minds work. The three ideas he argue against are: The Blank Slate, the idea that humans are born with little or no preferences and that culture and environment completely shape the mind; The Noble Savage, the idea that early societies were peaceful and almost utopian; and The Ghost in the Machine, the idea that the mind and physical brain are separate, that is, that there is a "ghost", "spirit", or even a central area of the brain controlling the rest. Not only well-argued, but includes many interesting examples and stories about how our minds work. What happens when our brain is impaled? Cut in two? Mis-wired?

*The Game**

Controversial, but fascinating. The book is about a (mostly) true story in a secret society of pickup artists. I disagree with many of the central ideas, but it still flipped my world upside-down and inside out. What you think you know about how popular guys attract attractive women is wrong.

*Freakonomics**

Human nature and using statistical data to show you that many things that you think you know about society is wrong. This books seeks out and highlights deception and shows you that teachers will help students cheat, management is more likely to steal, and how an increase in abortion has actually improved society. (Yeah, they really go there.)

*The Little Schemer** This book is about a programming language, Scheme. But if you're not a programmer, don't let that stop you. The book is tough, but intuitively taught. Every little detail is covered and can be followed if you think about it for a while. There's nothing you can't figure out, even if you've never programmed before. Now that I've gotten that out of the way: This book is amazing. It actually improved my skills in math more than programming because it increased my ability to think recursively.

*Flatland** A book about a 2-dimensional world. They have their own culture and unique universe. Things change, though, when the main character discovers a third dimension. Not only does this book have a fascinating culture and story, but it bends your minds in new ways. By seeing how a 2-dimensional being understands a 3-dimensional world, it helps us imagine a fourth dimension, or more. This is a great mind-opener about how we can only see what we look for and expect.

*Flatterland** An unauthorized sequel to the above. The story is poorly written and completely destroys and re-invents the original story, but the new mathematical ideas are fascinating. Instead of 3 and 4 dimensions, this book is about fractional dimensions, distorted time, hyperbolic space, and many other mathematical and topological ideas.

*A Brief History of Time** Of course. This book is what made me study Physics as my major. It's been so long since I've read it, but I believe it simply and brilliantly covers the major topics of physics: Relativity, space, time, and black holes.

Comment by Sysiphuslove at 11/10/2009 at 23:38 UTC

24 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. I was fourteen. I was never quite the same again.

The Dancing Wu Li Masters is a close second.

Comment by Ho66es at 12/10/2009 at 07:02 UTC

17 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Off the top of my head, in no particular order:

The Undercover Economist[1]: Easily the best of those "Economics in everyday life - books"

1: http://www.amazon.com/Undercover-Economist-Tim-Harford/dp/0345494016/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255329891&sr=8-1

The Blank Slate[2]: Steven Pinker on the nature/nurture debate. This really opened my eyes on questions like "Why are the same people who fight against abortion *for* the death penalty", for example.

2: http://www.amazon.com/Blank-Slate-Modern-Denial-Nature/dp/0142003344/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255330018&sr=8-1

Complications[3]: This and his second book, *Better*, gave me an incredible insight into medicine.

3: http://www.amazon.com/Complications-Surgeons-Notes-Imperfect-Science/dp/0312421702/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255330184&sr=1-2

Why we get sick[4]: Very good explanation of the defence mechanisms our bodies have and why treating symptoms can be a very bad idea.

4: http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Sick-Darwinian/dp/0679746749/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255330175&sr=1-1

How to read a book[5]: An absolute classic. Turns out I've been doing it wrong all those years.

5: http://www.amazon.com/How-Read-Book-Touchstone-book/dp/0671212095/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255330418&sr=8-1

The Art of Strategy[6]: Game Theory, applied to everyday situations. Always treats a topic like Nash equilibrium, Brinkmanship etc. theoretically and then goes into many examples.

6: http://www.amazon.com/Art-Strategy-Theorists-Success-Business/dp/0393062430/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255330466&sr=1-1

A Random Walk Down Wall-Street[7]: Made me see the stock market completely differently.

7: http://www.amazon.com/Random-Walk-Down-Wall-Street/dp/0393325350/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255330594&sr=1-2

The Myth of the Rational Voter[8]: The shortcomings of democracy.

8: http://www.amazon.com/Myth-Rational-Voter-Democracies-Policies/dp/0691138737/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255330755&sr=1-1

The White Man's Burden[9]: Fantastic account of the problems faced by the third world today, and why it is so hard to change them.

9: http://www.amazon.com/Myth-Rational-Voter-Democracies-Policies/dp/0691138737/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255330755&sr=1-1

Comment by [deleted] at 12/10/2009 at 00:41 UTC

41 upvotes, 1 direct replies

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.

Comment by [deleted] at 12/10/2009 at 02:03 UTC

25 upvotes, 2 direct replies

The Power of Myth and The Hero with a Thousand Faces, both by Joseph Campbell.

Comment by ablakok at 12/10/2009 at 00:46 UTC

12 upvotes, 1 direct replies

The Portable Jung, edited by Joseph Campbell.

Comment by AlphaSquad7 at 12/10/2009 at 01:43 UTC

9 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Anything by Carl Sagan.

But for the sake of specificity I would say Pale Blue Dot was the first eye opener I ever read. However I have a feeling that Cosmos will be the real -for lack of a better word- mindfuck, though I haven't gotten that far in my queue.

Comment by [deleted] at 12/10/2009 at 01:48 UTC

53 upvotes, 3 direct replies

Guns Germs and Steel* by Jared Diamond. Also James Howard Kunstler's *The Geography of Nowhere*. *Chaos* by James Gleick. Also, *Asimov's Guide to the Bible.*

Comment by RoflPost at 12/10/2009 at 00:10 UTC

26 upvotes, 0 direct replies

The Autobiography of Malcom X with the assistance of Alex Haley.

Comment by qpwoeir at 12/10/2009 at 00:17 UTC

9 upvotes, 1 direct replies

The Moral Animal by Robert Wright

Comment by ollokot at 12/10/2009 at 01:34 UTC

10 upvotes, 2 direct replies

The Discoverers by Daniel J. Boorstin
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
In the Absence of the Sacred by Jerry Mander (yes, that's his real name)
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins

(Sorry, I couldn't narrow it down to just one)

Comment by pythor at 12/10/2009 at 01:24 UTC

19 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter made me realize that I wanted to actually do something with my life when I read it in high school.

Comment by tuzemi at 11/10/2009 at 23:41 UTC

42 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Three: Lies My Teacher Told Me, A People's History of the United States, and The Making of a Radical.

Comment by butalala at 12/10/2009 at 02:25 UTC

19 upvotes, 1 direct replies

The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan changed my eating habits and how I look at food.

Comment by [deleted] at 12/10/2009 at 03:51 UTC

27 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Freakonomics[1].

1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freakonomics

Comment by [deleted] at 12/10/2009 at 05:57 UTC

7 upvotes, 2 direct replies

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man and The World Without Us.

Comment by paul_harrison at 12/10/2009 at 11:29 UTC

6 upvotes, 0 direct replies

The Selfish Gene.

Comment by [deleted] at 12/10/2009 at 10:13 UTC

8 upvotes, 0 direct replies

[deleted]

Comment by patsmad at 12/10/2009 at 11:54 UTC*

7 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Off the top of my head:

Moral Animal by Robert Wright - although it would seem like a religious bating subject, Wright keeps in on topic better than Dawkins can.

Extended Phenotype by Dawkins - Selfish Gene was great, but I thought extended phenotype was a little more mind blowing.

The Elegant Universe by Greene - while I still don't understand a lot of it, and I don't exactly do back flips over the sketchy nature of M-theory, I did appreciate this book for getting me to think about things in crazy and new ways. One of those books that changes the way you think in my opinion.

I read non-fiction almost exclusively, these were probably my favorite three.

Comment by [deleted] at 12/10/2009 at 07:47 UTC

10 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Every one of Noam Chomsky's books.

Comment by [deleted] at 12/10/2009 at 03:20 UTC

18 upvotes, 2 direct replies

Outliers[1] by Malcolm Gladwell. He takes people from different fields that were insanely successful like Bill Gates, Michael Jordan and the Beatles, then looks at why they got so good at what they did and how they became famous and rich doing it. You may be surprised to find how incredibly deterministic these factors are. 99% of becoming a global success is totally out of your control.

1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliers_%28book%29

Comment by 321 at 12/10/2009 at 07:16 UTC

3 upvotes, 0 direct replies

"Failed States" by Noam Chomsky. Absolutely terrific book. Talk about eye-opening.

Comment by orbiscerbus at 12/10/2009 at 10:25 UTC

4 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Carl Sagan: Cosmos,
Raymond Smullyan: The Tao is Silent,
Bertrand. Russell: Religion and Science,
Isaac Asimov: titles forgotten :)
A New Testament - seeing the world differently than christians taught me is partly due to this book(s). The other part is on A.C. Clarke and Russell. Also, New Testament affirmed my stance that the atheism is the way to go.