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Nonfiction Recommendations

In reviewing my reading last year, there was quite a significant lack of nonfiction, and I've decided this year that I would like to more actively seek out nonfiction to read.

I know I will always prefer and probably have more fun reading fiction (although I'd love to hear of books that will challenge this assumption), but I do enjoy biographies and some memoirs (not of the celebrity or gimmicky variety i.e. I liked Reading Lolita in Tehran, reading Kim Kardashian's memoir I would regard as a punishment), and I've enjoyed being challenged by Stephen Hawking's The Theory of Everything and Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene. Bill Bryson has been recommended to me, so he's on the list, and I think I would be fond of travel writing, which I've heretofore mostly pursued in article rather than book form.

What nonfiction books do I have to read? Which authors will make me change my mind about the relative entertainment value of nonfiction? Which books will make me think, but not overload me with the nitty gritty?

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