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40 Best Nonfiction Books of All Time


Our goal: Find the best Nonfiction books according to the internet (not just one random person's opinion).

    Here's what we did:
  1. Type "best nonfiction books" into our search engine and study the top 5+ pages.
  2. Add only the books mentioned 2+ times.
  3. Rank the results neatly for you here! 😊
    (It was a lot of work. But hey! That's why we're here, right?)

(Updated 2024)

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Last Updated: Monday 1 Jan, 2024

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  1. 1
    A Brief History of Time
  2. 2
    Silent Spring

    Silent Spring

    Rachel Carson

  3. 3
    In Cold Blood

    In Cold Blood

    Truman Capote

  4. 4
    The Right Stuff
  5. 6
    The Sixth Extinction
  6. MOST RECOMMENDED!
    7
    Sapiens
  7. 8
    How To Win Friends and Influence People
  8. 9
    When Breath Becomes Air
  9. 10
    Between the World and Me
  10. 11
    A Short History of Nearly Everything
  11. 13
    A People's History of the United States
  12. 14
    The Emperor of All Maladies
  13. 15
    The Elements of Style

    The Elements of Style

    William Strunk Jr.

  14. 16
    Wild Swans
  15. 17
    The Road to Wigan Pier
  16. 18
    I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
  17. 19
    The Second Sex

    The Second Sex

    Simone de Beauvoir

  18. 20
    Alexander Hamilton
  19. 21
    The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
  20. 22
    The Year of Magical Thinking
  21. 23
    H Is for Hawk

    H Is for Hawk

    Helen Macdonald

  22. 24
    Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
  23. 25
    Hiroshima

    Hiroshima

    John Hersey

  24. 26
    The Souls of Black Folk

    The Souls of Black Folk

    W. E. B. Du Bois

  25. 27
    The Feminine Mystique
  26. 28
    No Logo

    No Logo

    Naomi Klein

  27. 32
    A Room of One's Own

    A Room of One's Own

    Virginia Woolf

  28. 33
    Black Boy

    Black Boy

    Richard Wright

  29. 34
    Notes of a Native Son
  30. 35
    All the President's Men
  31. 36
    Ariel

    Ariel

    Sylvia Plath

  32. 37
    Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
  33. 38
    Good-Bye to All That
  34. 39
    How to Cook a Wolf

    How to Cook a Wolf

    M.F.K. Fisher

  35. 40
    Life on the Mississippi

FAQ

  • How was this Nonfiction books list created?

    We searched for 'best Nonfiction books', found the top 5 articles, took every book mentioned in 2+ articles, and averaged their rankings.

  • How many Nonfiction books are in this list?

    There are 40 books in this list.

  • Why did you create this Nonfiction books list?

    We wanted to gather the most accurate list of Nonfiction books on the internet.

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