Nonfiction books
Here’s an update to this list.
Best of the best
- Last Chance to See… by Douglas Adams & Mark Carwardine
- How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams
- The Roving Mind by Isaac Asimov (%)
- 1984: Spring – A Choice of Futures by Arthur C. Clarke
- The Ancestor’s Tale by Richard Dawkins (%)
- The Eco Wars by David Day
- Collapse by Jared Diamond (%)
- The Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond (%)
- Celebrations of Life by René Dubos (%)
- Reflections of Eden by Biruté M.F. Galdikas
- Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
- David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
- Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
- The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
- What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell
- Through a Window by Jane Goodall
- The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight by Thom Hartmann
- Manufacturing Consent by Edward S. Herman & Noam Chomsky
- The Story of More by Hope Jahren
- Final Report by Rick Mercer
- The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
- Beyond Civilization by Daniel Quinn
- The Invisibility of Success and Other Investigations by Daniel Quinn
- Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
- Mind Over Medicine by Lissa Rankin, M.D.
- Drumbeat edited by Boyce Richardson
- The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan (%)
- Why Do People Believe Weird Things by Michael Shermer (%)
- Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper
- Good News For a Change by David Suzuki & Holly Dressel (%)
- Inventing the Future by David Suzuki
- Indian Givers by Jack Weatherford (%)
- Native Roots by Jack Weatherford
- What Would You Do? by John H. Yoder
Runner ups
- Gold by Isaac Asimov
- The Great Ape Project by Paola Cavalieri & Peter Singer, eds. (%)
- The Secrets of Star Trek: Insurrection by Terry J. Erdmann
- Moonwalking With Einstein by Josh Foer
- A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future by Michael J. Fox
- Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
- Why We Make Mistakes by Joseph T. Hallinan
- The Roswell UFO Crash by Karl K. Korff
- The Language of Night by Ursula K. Le Guin
- Adventures in a TV Nation by Michael Moore
- The Education of Koko by Francine Patterson & Eugene Linden (%)
- Technopoly by Neil Postman
- If They Give You Lined Paper, Write Sideways by Daniel Quinn
- Kanzi by Sue Savage-Rumbaugh & Roger Lewin (%)
- In the Beginning… was the Command Line by Neal Stephenson
- Some Remarks by Neal Stephenson
- Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
- What Makes This Book So Great by Jo Walton (%)
- Firefly: Still Flying by Joss Whedon et al
Best books on teaching
- The Excellent 11 by Ron Clark
- How to Talk So Kids Can Learn by Adele Faber et al
- Beyond Discipline by Alfie Kohn
Best autobiographies & biographies
- Star Trek Creator by David Alexander
- I. Asimov by Isaac Asimov
- Beam Me Up, Scotty by James Doohan & Peter David
- Gene Roddenberry by Joel Engel
- Warped Factors by Walter Koenig
- Beyond Uhura by Nichelle Nichols
- I Am Spock by Leonard Nimoy
- I Am Not Spock by Leonard Nimoy
- Becoming by Michelle Obama (%)
- From Sawdust to Stardust by Terry Lee Rioux (%)
- Leonard by William Shatner & David Fisher
- Star Trek Memories by William Shatner & Chris Kreski
- Star Trek Movie Memories by William Shatner & Chris Kreski
- To the Stars by George Takei
- The Anwer Is… by Alex Trebek
(%) Some books I didn’t read cover to cover but I read a significant portion and still wanted to mention them.