Favorite Nonfiction Books

At the Category Thirteen blog, my friend Joe listed the best nonfiction books he'd personally read.  I love lists, and his list had no mention of Tom Wolfe, so I thought I'd throw in my two cents on the subject. 

13)  Give Me a Break -- John Stossel -- this book was my written introduction to "classical liberalism".

12)  The Greatest Generation Speaks: Letters and Reflections -- Tom Brokaw  -- really powerful collection of letters from WWII

11)  The Life of Reilly  -- Rick Reilly -- a great collection of Reilly's Sports Illustrated articles. 

10)  Tales from Q School -- John Feinstein --  Making this list reminded me of how many golf books by Feinstein I still need to read.  The man is a machine, churning out at least one riveting sports book each year.

9)  Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court -- John Wooden and Steve Jamison  -- this book taught me more about being an effective teacher then I learned in five years of college.

8) Freakonomics -- Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt  -- interesting book that challenges conventional wisdom.

7)  Blind Side -- Michael Lewis -- much better than the movie (but aren't they all?).

6)  Everything is Wrong with Me: A Memoir of an American Childhood Gone, Well, Wrong -- Jason Mulgrew  -- funny memoir written by one of my favorite bloggers.

5)  Electric Kool-Aide Acid Test -- Tom Wolfe -- the second best book I was assigned to read in college.

4)  The New New Thing -- Michael Lewis -- the best book I was assigned to read in college

3)  Who's Your Caddy -- Rick Reilly -- the funniest sports book I've ever read.

2) Friday Night Lights -- H.G. Bissinger -- hands down, the best sports book I've ever read.

1)  Mere Christianity -- C.S. Lewis -- my favorite book by my favorite author.

While surfing through Amazon as I was trying to jog my memory as to which books I've actually read in the past decade, I stumbled into tons of books that I really need to read.  I think I'll order a few with the little bit of money I have leftover in my Amazon account from my birthday.  I'll probably grab one of John Feinstein's many golf books that I've yet to read and I'll pick one from Joe's list.  If I do so, I'll surpass my personal goal to read five books this year.