Nonfiction

[CactusChowder]

Do you like nonfiction books (or documentaries, etc.)? What are some of your favorite nonfiction books & book subjects? What nonfiction book did you last read? What nonfiction book are you reading now? What authors do you like?

 

I like reading about physics, science generally, math, history, biographies, and personal development. I wish I had more time to read than I do!!

 

I recently read Crucial Conversations, by Kerry Patterson and others. It was pretty good; in an, "I'm not going to remember all of that, but it sounds very nice!" kind of way. I should probably read it again. The most valuable takeaway from just one read through, I thought, was to not give up at the gate & to believe that impacting a situation by communicating well is possible in the first place.

 

Sean Carroll is possibly my favorite nonfiction author, and he has a great podcast too (called 'Mindscape'). I'm really interested in his two recent books explaining physics concepts to a layman audience, but I'll have to find more time for self-study projects to really dig into those.

 

One nonfiction book I really liked was In Defense of Plants by Matt Candeias. Knowing relatively little about plants going into it (beyond what 'everybody' knows), it was really cool to get a better sense of how plants fit into ecosystems and by extension just how connected every living thing on earth is. The title refers to 'defending' plants because the author is frustrated with how, in his experience, people mostly tend to write about plants in terms of how the plants are 'useful.' The author writes from a place of being fascinated with plants in the same way someone might be fascinated about animals; 'isn't this a cool living thing/where does it live/how does it eat/etc. etc.'

[LadyMistDragon]

So this book I was reading recently was about Katanga (Katanga: 1960-63, it's the first part of the title) and it was basically about a region in what would be the southern Democratic Republic of the Congo seceding at least in part because the central government was just garbage, along with the rather charismatic figure who was the self-proclaimed president during the period. Good amounts of tragedy, intrigue, characters, and other things which I really enjoy in history books.

[Arrowhead]

54 minutes ago, CactusChowder said:

One nonfiction book I really liked was In Defense of Plants by Matt Candeias.

I'll have to check this out.

 

Been reading a lot of gardening / horticulture books as of late:

 

-Chili Peppers: A Global History

-Botany for Gardeners

-Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties

-The Fundamentals of Horticulture

 

Actually planting my entire garden tomorrow, so that'll be fun!

 

:D

[Downcologo one]

One I'm reading lately is "Papeles en el viento" It is very good.

my favorite non-fiction book is "es tan dificil volver a itaca"

[Somniac]

I enjoy reading about astronomy/astrophysics, music, military history, history in general, art, all sorts of stuff really.

 

Last thing I read was actually the Romero book, though I didn't finish it yet.

[VICE]

Most of the books I read are nonfiction. 

Got a literal small library at home consisting of anatomy and physiology, engineering, mathematics, physics, psychology, philosophy and some more esoteric stuff as well.

 

Currently reading The Games People Play by Dr Eric Berne - It's a really good analysis of different human social "games" and the underlying psychology behind them. It's the sort of stuff everyone does intuitively, for example when you're talking about your car and the other dude goes "oh what's the engine on that?" And then you suddenly start an epic duel of car stats? That's a game he calls "General Motors".

i.e Whoever has the better motor / knows more about the technical subject gets the clout (is the general).

 

It's got a bit of humor in it and does a good job of articulating a framework for these sorts of things - not strictly vital in life, but if you have a framework for this stuff you can better maneuver around these social games, identify when they come up and decide when and how you want to play them.

 

 

 

 

[taufan99]

Although I love books in general, nonfiction is my forte since I started growing up (not that I dislike fiction, but I'm more into knowing new, factual things, especially in term of history and other subjects of the humanities facet).

 

Currently I'm reading "Sugih Tanpa Banda - Mangan Ora Mangan Kumpul 2" by Umar Kayam (1932 - 2002), an Indonesian sociologist named after the Persian polymath Omar al-Khayyam. The book itself consists of a collection of essays he wrote for the Kedaulatan Rakyat newspaper published in Yogyakarta, in which he expresses his thoughts on the (then) current socio-political issues, including but not limited to the influx of modern globalism, the cultural standing of the contemporary Javanese society, national policies under Suharto, and international geo-political situations. The particular book itself consists of such essays written from late 1991 to January 1994.

 

It's a must read for those wanting to take a look at the Indonesian society in early 1990's without going all too serious while still making a good point in many subjects.

[Stupid Bunny]

2 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

So this book I was reading recently was about Katanga (Katanga: 1960-63, it's the first part of the title) and it was basically about a region in what would be the southern Democratic Republic of the Congo seceding at least in part because the central government was just garbage, along with the rather charismatic figure who was the self-proclaimed president during the period. Good amounts of tragedy, intrigue, characters, and other things which I really enjoy in history books.

This sounds incredibly interesting, especially since I was here to mention In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz (about Zaïre and the Mobutu regime) and Africa’s World War (about the Second Congo War that came on not long after Mobutu’s overthrow). I’ve been looking for a good read about the Congo Crisis and Katanga sounds like it would be a good one.

 

I read a lot of nonfiction. I went through a phase a few years back where I read a bunch of books about the 1890s Populist movement and the subsequent Progressive era up through the 1912 election and Wilson and such, a transformative period that gets overlooked a lot. Of course lots of biographies of autocrats throughout history. 

[Baron T. Mueriach]

Never found myself involved in fantasy nonfiction (Star Wars, Harry Potter, Narnia, etc. But I am an absolute sucker for any LoTR or the Hobbit). If I ever read anything nonfiction, I prefer realistic nonfiction, as in it certainly could happen but never actually has.

 

Though I don't read much of these, I'm inclined to read things that are factual, statistical, scientific, or educational. Currently reading "The Curse of the High IQ" by Aaron Clarey. It's very interesting, highlighting the common struggles high IQ individuals face daily. It's reassuring to see I'm not the only one constantly ramming heads with a world tailored to average, and mostly below-average, IQ individuals.

 

4 hours ago, CactusChowder said:

I wish I had more time to read than I do!!

 

Also, I feel you on this.

[VICE]

3 minutes ago, Baron T. Mueriach said:

It's reassuring to see I'm not the only one constantly ramming heads with a world tailored to average, and mostly below-average, IQ individuals.

The struggle is real man.

[CactusChowder]

26 minutes ago, Baron T. Mueriach said:

 It's very interesting, highlighting the common struggles high IQ individuals face daily. It's reassuring to see I'm not the only one constantly ramming heads with a world tailored to average, and mostly below-average, IQ individuals.

 

I never formally did an IQ test & idk if it's strictly accurate to call myself 'gifted,' but if I'm not gifted I damn sure got a stocking stuffer. I'm frustrated because I don't always feel allowed to even act like it's a thing to face unique impacts and challenges related to smart shit. Because it could be seen as bragging or something. There's no humble version that also actually captures the truth. Like if I try to "forget about being 'special' and just join in with everybody else for god's sake," I would keep doing it wrong. But if I try to embrace the differences I have and join in with everybody else as like a friendly ambassador from my weird planet that I like and am proud of, maybe that's also doing it wrong because maybe it's not okay to like and be proud of intelligence. So it's like there's this permanent hole in trying to relate to a lot of people, and it's like a slider puzzle; I can change where the hole is, but not that there's a hole. And even being aware that the hole is there is the hole. That's kinda where I've been stuck lately. Mega shrug!! Not to get all 'Princess and the Pea' about the hidden costs that come with what is undeniably an advantage, but yeah it sure is trippy when you can't even talk about a problem because talking about the problem is the problem. Humans are a social species, man... I wanna complain to the fullest & truest depths of my complaining potential. Maybe I should check out Clarey's book!

[VICE]

That's exactly right. There is no way to talk about it that normies don't interpret as bragging or are able to comprehend in the first place.

 

Nowadays, I usually just don't mention it.

 

Unless people blatantly disrespect me, then I reveal the fact and dunk on them.

 

If you really want to be brutal, you can state a simple fact:

Mental Retardation is 30 IQ below average or lower (actual definition)

Being gifted is 30 IQ above average or higher.

So a normie is to a gifted person what a bona-fide mentally disabled person is to a normie. (And normies need special needs education and specialized training before they are even expected to deal with them.)

 

I've made people squirm with that one. 

 

Cherry on top of the dungpile?

IQ is not a linear scale, every point carries more weight than the previous one, so the above statistical comparison is actually an understatement.

 

/rant

Edited May 25 by VICE

[Mr. Freeze]

Most of what I read is nonfiction, I just learn more from real history than genre fiction. Going to pick up Nuclear War: A Scenario soon.

 

 

[Doom64guy]

There are at least 2 books I'd highly recommend to anyone:

 

1. Hans Rosling's "Factfulness"

Really eye-opening and made us be able to see the world in a better way.

 

2. Michael H. Hart's "The 100" and "A View from the Year 3000"

A great way to learn history through the world's most influential figures, and a way to predict the future with said knowledge.

[Wahrnehmungskrieg]

Thoughts on IQ:

An IQ test could never capture the ability to see the benzene ring in the ouroboros that Kekulé managed, which is the only important thing to study. IQ tests can never quantitate insight or creativity because, like a photographic flash, it's instant and that power vanishes equally as instantly.

 

And on-topic, I'm currently focusing on (all rereads except for PoS):

Kershaw - Hitler

Hegel - Phenomenology of Spirit; Lectures on Aesthetics

Kandinsky - The Art of Spiritual Harmony

 

Will recommend the first to you all, reads like air and the final chapter feels like Downfall as a novella. Worth reading for far more than that last fact though

[mrthejoshmon]

I got a B in History.

 

I love history, I used to go on massive deep dives into (mainly military/war) history for ancient cultures (mainly Egypt and the Ptolemaic dynasty, also colonial Britain and the great atrocities that we did they didn't like teaching us). Games like Total War only fueled this fire in me.

 

It's fascinating the ways in which we planned, plotted and innovated for the sole reason of killing eachother, its also very grim and a horrible reminder that we are in a time of previously unknown relative peace.

[Lippeth]

The last book I bought is called Zen and the Art of Mixing which is like a technical manual for the more philosophical aspects about mixing music and audio. I've enjoyed what little I've read so far, though it sits on an end table next to me while I play video games or actually mix or produce music. I don't read that much in general, and when I do, it's usually reference guides that aren't designed to be read from front to back. The most common type of non-fiction books I own are Brady Games strategy guides, or game guides in general.

 

A total aside: I can't usually sit still to read longer than a few minutes without getting an urge to do anything else, and before I know it my eyes have gone several pages forward while my mind is thinking about something else or even dwelling on one part that I had previously read. It's even worse with audio books because I actually am doing something else and often end up focusing on the timbre and cadence of the speaker rather than what's being said, or again, letting something they've said trigger me into thinking about a topic while the voice keeps speaking which disrupts my own thought.

Edited May 27 by Lippeth

[VICE]

6 hours ago, Wahrnehmungskrieg said:

An IQ test could never capture the ability to see the benzene ring in the ouroboros that Kekulé managed, which is the only important thing to study. IQ tests can never quantitate insight or creativity because, like a photographic flash, it's instant and that power vanishes equally as instantly.

I'm not interested in having an argument over this or to diss on you, and I know this is probably not exaclty what you meant by this, but I have a pet peeve with this and think this needs to be said:

People like to bring up creativity as a counterpoint when IQ is discussed, as if it were an entire other mental domain.
Most people don't (and in fact can't) consider that high IQ leads to accelerated learning (because they don't have that experience).

High IQ individuals interested in developing their visualization skills, their divergent thinking and their creativity will do so at a much faster rate, particularly if they are tackling an intellectual problem that requires this form of thinking. Neurogenesis happens faster and the brain has more neural plasticity.

 

This often happens subconciously when striving for some other goal. It makes perfect sense for Kekule to see his solution in a dream after pondering it for some time.

This type of dream solution, as well as daytime ''flashes of inspiration'' are common occurence for myself and other high IQ people I talked to. For some of us this happens on a dailiy basis, with varying degrees of significance but always with extremely high efficacy.

 

This story is made into a myth because it seems mystical to people who don't experience it often. And the degree to which this ''power'' as you called it is transient depends on your ability to retain complex information, again correlated with IQ, and again something that can be improved rapidly for high IQ people when there is utility in it.
 

See how I came off as a braggart just by describing what I know and sharing my perspective? Struggle is real.

Btw, the best estimate for Kekule's IQ is 160 - Genetic Studies of Genius by Catherine Cox Miles (another non-fiction book :)). - that's four standard deviations above the norm - the tail end of the bell curve. Even if this estimate is somewhat inaccurate, you can't reasonably claim he was of average intelligence or anywhere near that - he had that intellectual advantage, was a proffessional and had knowledge in interconnected fields, and his subconcious thinking process consolidated a solution for an issue he was pondering for an extended period of time.

 

Why do I care? I've seen the generalized ''creativity is magic and is so different from intellect'' line of thinking more than 1000 times at this point, no cap, and have never seen it laid out logically or factually.

Edited May 25 by VICE

[Murdoch]

I read almost exclusively non-fiction, primarily history and archaeology related but enjoy other topics like mythology, true crime and other mysteries. Watch a lot of TV on similar topics.

[ALilGrayBoi]

I’ve been reading a lot of neuroscience stuff. The weird stuff that happens to the brain during dreams or dementia fascinates me. I’ve also been reading a lot of world war 2 history. 

[Kinsie]

I mostly read non-fiction, and mostly while eating out. A while back I spent a year or so chewing through all of John Dickie's books on the Italian Mafia(s). Some 1,500+ pages covering 150 years of sinister plots, shady deals and monstrous violence, piece by piece.

 

Haven't quite worked up the gusto to tackle something on that scale again yet.

[The Royal We]

“Ma: entre-espaço da arte e comunicação no Japão“, by Michiko Okano

”Tempo e espaço na cultura japonesa”, by Shuichi Kato

“Concepção Estética de Kawabata Yasunari em Tanagokoro no Shosetsu”, by Meiko Shimon

”On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears”, by Stephen Asma

 
…and, well…

 

”DOOM: SCARYDARKFAST“, by Dan Pinchbeck (the true “Masters of Doom” in my opinion)

 

These are the ones I remember off the top of my head, and that I come back to revisit from time to time.

 

I also enjoy reading academic theses and articles on subjects that interest me.

[Aaron Blain]

On 5/24/2024 at 5:45 PM, LadyMistDragon said:

So this book I was reading recently was about Katanga

Here's a book which offers a contrasting perspective on the First Cold War, which I highly recommend to everyone:

 

https://williamblum.org/books/killing-hope

[LadyMistDragon]

On 5/29/2024 at 5:32 AM, Aaron Blain said:

Here's a book which offers a contrasting perspective on the First Cold War, which I highly recommend to everyone:

 

https://williamblum.org/books/killing-hope

Is that like a general history then? Because all of those sound rather familiar but that was something that was kind of advocated for/explored in my last college history class anyway