How do you decide what books to read? Recommendations? Reviews? Go to the bookstore and read a chapter? I often find myself overwhelmed with the zillions of choices. How do you narrow it down?
posted by SampleSize on Jan 9, 2013 - 40 answers

More non-fiction please! As a strange antidote to having to read a lot of dry academic articles, I enjoy pleasurable non-fiction writing about jobs and work. Books I've liked in the past include May Roach (Stiff); Atul Gawande (Complications, Better); Barbara Ehrenreich (Nickeled and Dimed); and Tracy Kidder (House, Among Schoolchildren). I'd like recommendations for more non-fiction along those lines. [more inside]
posted by jeanmari on Sep 23, 2011 - 36 answers

Help me feed my obsession with all things Russia. [more inside]
posted by triggerfinger on Jun 1, 2011 - 27 answers

Summer Reading-Filter: intelligent true crime? Essentially, I want all the gruesome pleasure of the content, without having to cringe through a sensationalistic treatment thereof. [more inside]
posted by Beardman on Jun 9, 2010 - 49 answers

I'm looking for suggestions for a "common read" book for a large public university. Any ideas? [more inside]
posted by Madamina on Feb 9, 2010 - 26 answers

I really enjoy reading those anthologies of the best American non-fiction stories that come out every year -- particularly because they a) are easy to finish in 20-40 minutes and b) introduce me to new magazines/writers/concepts. I'm looking for other compendiums of magazine-style writing or articles or suggestions on where to go to find new collections of feature-length non-fiction pieces. [more inside]
posted by melodykramer on Jan 14, 2010 - 17 answers

Books about Peru & Bolivia? [more inside]
posted by UbuRoivas on May 18, 2009 - 10 answers

I'm looking for readable accounts of revolutionary movements. [more inside]
posted by serazin on Dec 18, 2008 - 13 answers

Writers like John McPhee, writing in Spanish, French, German, Italian, or Russian? [more inside]
posted by kristi on Apr 21, 2008 - 5 answers

I would like to read some literate, accurate portraits of what it's like to be an attractive person in present U.S. or European society. [more inside]
posted by cgc373 on Aug 7, 2007 - 25 answers

Recommendations for well-written narrative nonfiction books about Seattle? [more inside]
posted by The corpse in the library on Jun 20, 2007 - 6 answers

I am looking for well regarded books/scholarly papers about writing. Most specifically in the areas of Nonfiction (the essay style of article writing) and Children's Fiction (for a young adult audience). Any tips? Go as far and broad as you can. I'll be off to the British library tomorrow, so the sky is the limit. [more inside]
posted by 0bvious on Jan 9, 2007 - 6 answers

I'm looking for the longest sentence in Proust's Remembrance of Things Past. [more inside]
posted by rorycberger on Mar 24, 2006 - 16 answers

TeacherFilter: I'm looking for a NON-fiction text for my tenth-grade students. [more inside]
posted by etc. on Sep 23, 2005 - 67 answers