Your fave Non-fiction

Anything by Erich Von Daniken... (can his work be classed as non-fiction?..lol)

guess my favourite non-fic books of the last few years would be a couple by Martin Amis. they are 'The War Against Cliche' - very funny, very astute, Amis gives a master-class in literary criticism. and 'Experience', a master-class in structured prose. i also like reading literary biographies - always find they're a good starting point for getting into the work of difficult writers.

This guy Gleick has written several books I've enjoyed enormously, though they are not exactly recent. The best known is CHAOS, from the late 80s I believe, talking about chaos theory. Then he wrote one called GENUIS, mostly talking about Richard Feynman and more generally about the nature of what we call genius. His most recent effort is called FASTER, which talks about the cult of continuous improvement. This is the weakest of the three, as it is a bit repetitive...more than a bit, actually....but it's still not bad. Tom Wolfe's most recent collection of essays Hooking Up is quite good, though not as good as his older stuff. He hasn't been writing essays for a number of years and the results show. His earlier stuff from the 60s and 70s is truly classic. I've started reading a book called OULIPO, which is a discussion of the French literary movement of the same name....an acronym which expands into Workshop of Literature of the Potential in English, something like that. The French really go in for this experimental stuff. Some of it works out very well, some of it falls flat. My jury is out on oulipo so far, as I've just barely begun. Georges Perec and Italo Calvino are examples of writers in this movement. I've got two of their novels, now I just need the time to read them.

I very much enjoy reading the form books published by the Racing Post.

So how was your Cheltenham? Mine was a disaster - first overall loss for many a long year. Ho Hum. I read a lot of history. Reading 'Secrets of the Flesh' - a life of Colette at the moment by Audrey Thurman. She's spent nine years researching this book - and it shows. It's meticulous but it's also difficult to read. The content is so interesting that I will get through it but it could be so much better!

I'm reading 'Hollywood Babylon' by Kenneth Anger at the minute as a corrective to the Academy Awards. It's a lovely edition with loads of photos or people like Clara Bow, Frances Farmer etc. I read a lot of non-fiction too, a lot of stuff about writing, philosophy, politics etc. Three favourites are: 'The End of Time: Faith and Fear in the Shadow of The New Millenium' by Damian Thompson, which is a fascinating overview of millennial belief through the ages: 'Anarchy in the UK' by Tom Vague which is a day by day timeline of the activities of The Angry Brigade and 'England Is Mine: Pop life in Albion from Oscar Wilde to Goldie' by Micheal Bracewell, which is the most amazing book on 'Englishness' in art. I also read 'England's Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock' by Jon Savage about once a year.

I lost money on Cheltenham, but I did have "Best Mate". This was a great year for favourites, so how did we end up losing? "Hollywood Babylon": that amazing story of the girl who died having sex with Fatty Arbuckle! d.beswetherick.

The latest Fukyama book - 'A post-human future' was interesting and Naomi Klein's 'No Logo'

Well, if I'm to commit I'd say anything by Shunryu Suzuki. I'm reading D.T. Suzuki at the moment but I don't appreciate him in the same way. He's too Rinzai for my timid tastes.

I usually have some sort of non-fiction going along with any fiction I am reading. Any of Wendell Berry's non-fiction books are excellent. His most recent, "Life's A Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition," is a beautiful asault on reductionism. Christopher Lasch's collection of essays, "The Revolt of the Elites" changed my understanding of politics profoundly. Currently I am reading "The Death of Adam" by Marilynne Robinson. This is an excellent book of essays on everything from Darwinism to the Psalms. Robbinson has an excellent prose style, and leaves the normal dichotomies in disarray as she seeks a "third way." I especially enjoy her slights to such cultural giants as Max Weber or Darwin.

Like you Rokkitnite, I went through a long phase of reading only non fiction, generally books on politics and history. One of my fave writers has to be Anthony Beevor, not so much for Stalingrad as the earlier one he wrote with his wife 'Paris after The Liberation', it is a model of how to write history. I also love Charles williams' De gaulle a superbly readable account of a very complex character.

9 put of the 10 books I've read are non-fiction. Currenrtly reading JK Galbriath's 'The Culture of Contentment', which is nice.

Last non-fiction I read was "Stupid White Men" by Michael Moore. It's really funny as well as being full of information about how George Bush rigged the election and how corrupt America is. All the way through you're either gnashing your teeth or crying with laughter.

Me and my dad share a love of biographies.. have the Billy Connolly ready to get stuck into. Best biog of recent years was Harry Thompsons one on Peter Cook.. and a great alternative Lennon one.. 'The Lives of John Lennon'.. which I was intrigued by.. the blurb quoting Paul McCartney and Cilla Black.. 'Utter Trash' and suchlike.

someone bought me jim davidsons autbiog once....for gods sake... i loved holly johnsons "a bone in my flute" and boy george;s was hugely entertaining (and obviously libelous (i i r c) .. frank skinner's is hilarious.