Today, we will try to make a list of Top Nonfiction books. Let’s see which books can make our list of 8 Top Nonfiction Books you can read any time. It is quite easy to lose yourself in a good book, it can be of the fantasy genre, can be a romantic novel, or some historical period piece. But the best nonfiction books can evenly detain your attention and draw you into their worlds.
These works can take many figures and focus on anything and everything from true crime, science, history, and travel to gender, race, politics, and economics. They may offer a broad view of a topic, provide essential tips that make your life easier or even change the way you look at the world. Let’s look at a list of Nonfiction books that will change our perspective in a significant manner.
Top Nonfiction Books of All Time
1. God: An Anatomy by Francesca Stavrakopoulou
This book takes us to Israel & Palestine three thousand years ago. Their people worshipped many deities. The author tries to search for the history of Gods to date even before the Bible was written. He narrates that God was originally imagined by ancient worshippers with a distinctly male body, and with superhuman powers, earthly enthusiasms, and a desire for admiration.
The author narrates how the conception of God has changed through time & cultures which has founded principles of Western culture.
2. The Rise and Reign of the Mammals by Steve Brusatte
In this book, palaeontologist Steve Brusatte weaves together the history and evolution of mammals & tells us stories about the fieldwork of scientists & their discoveries which motivates our knowledge.
We also come to know that today the mammals we find around us are very limited in numbers compared to the pre-historic era. In his last book, Brusatte explains complex research methods and scientific concepts based on DNA chains.
3. The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning by Maggie Nelson
Cultural critic Maggie Nelson’s book depicts the history of violence across media and the arts, inspecting the moral insinuations of our obsession with acts of brutality performed against living bodies. This is an essential book for anyone interested in how ethics and aesthetics intersect.
Today both reality and entertainment crowd our fields of vision with brutal descriptions. The occurrence of images of torture, horror, and war has all but demolished the twentieth-century hope that such descriptions might shock us into a less alienated state, or aid in the creation of a justified social order.
4. How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention by Jenny Odell
We live in a fast-paced capitalist world which always pushes us to lead an action-oriented life. The author here states strongly that we should redirect our attention towards our natural surroundings. Rather than being a participant in the rat race, the author encourages us to live a content & meaningful life.
Sometimes we do things not because of our love for it, but for social pressure. The author narrates that participation in those social obligations is entirely optional.
5. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
The author of this book legal scholar Michelle Alexander states that justice is not truly blind, in fact, the criminal justice system in the United States of America methodically targets people of color and performs racial oppression.
The government arrests more people of black skin due to some prejudice than white people. Some of them are criminals, yes, but many of them are innocents. If the arrested person is lucky enough he/she may receive justice, but even after getting released, he/she will be termed as a felon for the rest of his/her life.
6. The Psychology of Stupidity by Jean-Francois Marmion
In this book, the classification of stupidity is brought to you by some of the brightest brains, including a Nobel Prize winner. This book explains how lazy thinking leads to bad conclusions, why even bright people can believe baloney, and how media manipulation makes us all dumber & make us believe in their utter garbage without questioning.
Stupidity is all around us, from the colleagues who won’t stop hitting ‘reply all’ to the former school friends posting Government propaganda on Facebook which he found on WhatsApp. But to battle absurdity, we must first understand it, then we can go ahead & tackle it.
7. The Book of Minds: How to Understand Ourselves and Other Beings, From Animals to Aliens by Philip Ball
Philosophers & scientists have spent a great deal of time trying to understand the workings of the human mind. The author wonders about non-human minds too. He says we need to break the notion of judging everything on a scale of the human mind.
We need to question ourselves what we understand about the minds of others, from a bird to apes as well as more advanced minds like artificial intelligence & aliens too. The more we understand the more our views will change about the conception of the mind of a living thing.
8. Scary Smart: The Future of Artificial Intelligence and How You Can Save Our World by Mo Gawdat
In this book, Google’s former Chief Business Officer states how artificial intelligence is becoming smarter than us. It is predicted to be a billion times more intelligent than humans. Free from interruptions and working with incredible efficiency, AI can look into the future and make informed predictions, looking around corners of the world, both real and virtual.
But it doesn’t mean AIs are flawless, the human minds who designed & wrote the algorithms for AI are not flawless. In the near future, the flaws will also be reflected in the AIs. Mo Gawdat, drawing on his unmatched expertise in the field, delineates how and why we must modify the terrifying course of AI.
Conclusion
It is kind of hard to make a list of the Top Nonfiction books of all time. It’s like saying to fill up a small box with the riches of Treasure Island. There are so many good books that have made thousands of fans worldwide. Still, here is a list of Nonfiction books you can consider reading.