Can you recommend some non-fiction?

What about funny?

Anybody know of funny non-fiction?

I like Augusten Burroughs okay.

I'm going to look for the "Schotts Original Miscellany" at the library tommorrow.

"A History of Celibacy" by Elizabeth Abbot (I think).

"Buried Alive", author escapes me. Jan Something.

"Stiff" by Mary Roach

My tastes are varied and tend towards the bizarre =P

and I strongly, stronly recommend:
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0812967941.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Wanted to add: I liked Enemies at the Gate because it made something I don't give a shit about (business) a compelling and human drama. It also flowed.

Is there a book like this about history? I like the PBS series lately about searching for Shakespeare and the Six Wives of Henry the VIII. Something readable.

" My Husband ; a Life." By
Ethelfreda Batthingthwaite-Winterbotham of Little Peover, Cheshire, as told to Peter Tatchell and Peter Hain , MP.
Quote from the Quarterly Magazine of the Preston Guild of Master and Journeymen Toothbrush Handle Hole Borers & Ancillary Trades :-
This is in three Volumes with an Appendix of 1,282,419 references. Almost half the pages in each volume are made up of references. Volume one is entitled:-
" Toothbrush Handle Hole Boring from the Iron Age to the 20th Century"
Chapter 1 " Iron Age Toothbrush Handle Hole Boring Sites and Artefacts" argues that the 2,180 sites where artefact such as discarded bow-drills and partly bored toothbrush handles made of ivory and walrus tusks shows Toothbrush Hole Boring was the major industry and trade of the British Isles in this period, and exported as far away as Gwalior where the Gwaikor of Gwalior had gold toothbrush handles sent to the British Isles to have their holes bored; the Chinese Wo-shan Wun ( Marsh lands of the Yiang ‘se Kiang) where the tooth brush handles were smuggled in exchange for Chia or Green Tea, pre-packed Chow Mien and Number 14 with Egg Noodles in a Pak Choi Sauce; and Easter Island, where most of the mysterious giant statues are meant to be holding toothbrushes.
Chapter 2. " Attila the Toothbrush Handle Hole Borer." This chapter discusses the derivation of the word " Hun" from a phrase in Germanic language; an acrynom meaning United Tribes of Toothbrush Handle Hole Borers; and claims Attila the Toothbrush Handle Hole Borer was right to attack and sack Rome, because the Senate had imposed huge duties on imported toothbrush handles, to protect the failing toothbrush handle hole boring industry of Tuscany. The Praetorian Guard and other Roman Legions had been decimated because a shortage of toothbrushes had lead to an outbreak of toothache and gum diseases; an early example of a rich and despotic lifestyle without proper dental hygene resulting in catastrophe.
(to be continued )

Prize: The epic quest for oil, money and power by Daniel Yergin, which as the title says is a history of the Petroleum industry may sound dry, but this book is both incredibly well researched and detailed and still amazingly readable.

Anything by Giles Milton. English author who writes popular histories. Titles include Nathaniels Nutmeg, Big Chief Elizabeth and Samurai William.

Based on Shakespeare/Henry VIII - you may be interested in Shakespeare's Kings by John Julius Norwich. He is readable and his subject matter is suitably racy. If you like this you may want to try some of his other histories on Venice and Byzantium.

Have you read "Single Wife" by Nina Solomon?
Oblomov plays a pretty major role.

Elaine Pagels' "The Gnostic Gospels" is great too.

Clellie : Single wife by Nina Solomon? nope but I will keep an eye out for it. Oblomov because i enjoyed the original russian book and found myself identifying with the main character.

Michael W: Yeah I suppose that some of Lord Norwich's subjects can be classified as a 'more than a little racy" *grin*. As someone interested in Byzantine history, he is a must read.

And will second Barbara Tuchman both Guns of August and a Distant Mirror, which is her history of the 14th century, told in the form of a biography/ xamination of the life of a french nobleman Enguerrand de Coucy.

Oh and another thought Robert Massie's Biography of Czar Peter the First; "Peter the Great". Again well researched, eminently readable and a incredible subject.

An exhilaratingly well-written book about a 1967 march on the Pentagon. Read it and weep.

Cod by Mark Kurblansky is great too, and on a similar, but more prehistoric theme, I really enjoyed A Fish Caught in Time by Samantha Weinberg

Best of all, Once More With Feeling by Victoria Coren and Charlie Skelton. More than a little racy mind you...

this is perhaps the greatest book ever written.

Barbara Tuchman's "A Distant Mirror" (about mediavel Europe) and "The Proud Tower" (the world poised on the brink of armageddon, 1890-1914) are fascinating.

Jon Savage's "England's Dreaming" (about punk) is the greatest book about mass culture ever.

David Clay Lodge's book about Berlin is great, if you are interested in Berlin, although it doesn't have the Ampelmannchen in it.

There's one called "My Grandfather's Ram" which must be the most hilarious short story ever written !

I thought of you all when I saw BookTV this weekend.

They had Wolf talking about Truman Capote.
Some lady talking about Eudora Welty.
And Dude reading from Twain.

Good stuff all.