The type of content you mentally imbibe often flows through your writing. Carefully calibrating a steady diet for your brain can be just as important as learning the nuances of writing itself. Whether you choose a regimented menu of specific genres in nonfiction, or completely randomize your intake of knowledge, great books can serve as excellent inspiration for any nonfiction writer.
Ultimately, the input of your brain should remain up to you, the writer. But if you’re looking for some recommendations of inspirational works, here’s a great shortlist.
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Ever wonder why you can drive without much mental exertion but when it comes to deciphering a BC Calculus problem in high school your mind becomes exhausted? Daniel Kahneman, the eminent psychologist, enumerates precisely why, and how, such cognitive functions operate in his masterclass work, Thinking, Fast and Slow.
Kahneman details subtle heuristics for identifying the induction of system 1 (fast) or system 2 (slow) cognitive thinking by using some colorful examples from everyday life. From maneuvering the mundane “auto-pilot” tasks of every day to the more vibrant dilemmas of major life decisions, your two cognitive systems are critical to decision-making.
Pitting your intuition (system 1) vs. your deliberate analysis (system 2), Kahneman arms the reader with tools and self-reflection that every writer can wield for their benefit. His analysis of how we make decisions can help refine how you approach your writing, and imbue a little more humility into your profession once you realize how easy it is to make mistakes of the simplest variety.
Now more relevant than ever, Tim Wu (the progenitor of net neutrality) brilliantly lays out the context and historical framework for “The Cycle,” a venerated series of familiar molds that emergent information technologies take over decades. Wu dives deep into the history of some of humanity’s most powerful technologies (e.g., telephones, radio, etc.), describing their hobbyist origins, early dispersion, and eventual consolidation by large corporations and government.
At a time when the misgivings of the Internet are manifesting themselves with data intrusions by big tech firms (looking at you, Facebook), Tim Wu’s portrait of the Internet on the cusp of falling into the same cycle as radio, TV, and telephones is prescient.
If you’re one of the tens of thousands of writers populating the Internet today, understanding the cycle in “The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires” is critical to understanding your canvas of thought and how to monetize your creations.
Actually a series of four books and one semi-book, this is cheating a little bit. Incerto is a collection of books (he calls them essays) by Nassim Taleb, the famous options trader and writer. He covers the implications of randomness, black swans, convexity, antifragility, risk, and more through a practical (and stubbornly) empirical lens. The books include:
[*] Fooled by Randomness
[*] The Black Swan
[*] Antifragile
[*] Skin in the Game
Incerto is not only piercingly insightful, but is one of a handful of nonfiction books that can literally change how you think, evaluate, and understand everyday situations. And Taleb presents arguments in a way that is unavoidably confrontational, seizing your attention throughout the series.
Incerto is a must-read for any writer searching for refinement of their skills, or one simply looking to glean some ancient yet relevant heuristics from a gripping collection of works.
The surprising (albeit, perhaps unintentional) creator of the meme, Richard Dawkins’ magnum opus The Selfish Gene is the type of evolutionary biology text that is riveting to the layman and scientist alike.
Dawkins, building on Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, exposes the savage vicissitudes of Mother Nature in the process of natural selection. Nature is a harsh bastard, and Dawkins portrays a world where subtle mutations in the human genome (and broader life) are in the driver’s seat of evolutionary processes.
The Selfish Gene directly refers to the characteristic anti-altruism of the gene, and how it has one goal: survival at all costs.
From a writer’s perspective, Dawkins gives flow and clarity to typically dull scientific prose. The book is a phenomenon in that regard and is an excellent inspiration for nonfiction writers tackling some of the more convoluted topics out there.
Arthur Koestler’s striking classic, The Sleepwalkers is a subversive critique on the hubris of man, specifically knowledge.
Koestler portrays vivid characters in an often morose light, largely a consequence of his experience (and eventual disillusionment) with the Communist Party of Germany and Stalinism in the late 1930s. The best writing often draws from personal experience, and a life fit for a movie screen made Koestler one of Europe’s most influential writers of the 20th century.
He articulates many fallacies of modernity that have come about since our perceived conquering of knowledge during The Enlightenment, exposing many of the adverse consequences of our hubris.
Koestler’s writing is both humbling and enlightening, giving nonfiction writers a dose of unadulterated reality that changes the way they inspect their own pen strokes.
It wouldn’t be right to forego some ancient texts here. While Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations seems to be the ancient book du jour for people nowadays (it’s excellent), let’s go down a similar, but different path—another Stoic’s route.
Stoicism is a resurgent school of thought with origins rooted in the Hellenistic Philosophy of Athens, Greece. Founded by Zeno of Citium, Seneca the Younger might be Stoicism’s most lauded proponent. Focusing on tempered personal ethics and logical analysis of the practical world, Seneca, a Roman Stoic and statesmen, was the manifestation of Stoic principles, committing suicide following accusations of complicity in Emperor Nero’s attempted assassination. Although believed to likely be innocent, Seneca went to his death with his principles intact.
The book Letters from a Stoic is the stuff of legends, comprising his comprehensive interpretation of Stoicism. It’s not quite the same as reading the original Latin texts (from what I hear), but, nonetheless, is a fascinating read.
One of the most compelling aspects of ancient writings is the ability of the ancients to convey powerful truisms and heuristics through entertaining vignettes. Seneca is among the best in this regard and the type of pithy revelations that his writing exhibits is a valuable tool for any nonfiction writer.
Yes, that English Aldous Huxley. The same one who authored the famous Brave New World, perhaps only rivaled by Orwell’s 1984 in its dystopian portrayal of the human condition. However, as Brave New World is fictional, we will overlook it here, and instead, focus on one of Huxley’s more obscure works: The Doors of Perception.
In what is quite possibly the greatest setup for a book, the 20th-century literary genius, Aldous Huxley serendipitously collides with a now-legendary psychedelic experiment in the spring of 1953. Huxley was critically involved in Dr. Humphry Osmond’s famed clinical experiment with mescaline in what was one of the first trials of its kind. And Huxley was the subject.
Give a writer of the literary pantheon like Huxley an experience like that, and magic is born. In The Doors of Perception, Huxley articulates his experience with his revered wit and intellect, diving deep into the reasoning behind seemingly innocuous everyday encounters.
If you’re a writer, delving into Huxley is almost a requirement. Armed with formidable, creative prose and a mind that would make a narcissist blush, Huxley will inspire your inner conscious to its core.
It’s virtually impossible to do justice to The Doors of Perception via a snippet summarizing the work, but I’ll leave you with something so simple yet so complex that Huxley manages to confirm: a rose is a rose is a rose….
The famed American transcendentalist, Ralph Waldo Emerson was a stirring poet, essayist, philosopher, lecturer, and an all-around incredible writer. Many reflections of Emerson’s works, particularly the essays “Nature” and “Self-Reliance,” often leave the reader with a hopeful outlook on life and inner peace towards existential fears.
An avid fan of Emerson’s book of essays and lectures, Essays, I believe that the essay “Self-Reliance” is a singular work that is a must-read for anyone, writer or not. You won’t regret it, I promise.
As a transcendentalist, Emerson’s writing is peppered with existential riffs and practical truisms as he navigates the intellectual complexities of life. He is revered as a lecturer as well, with Essays encompassing some of his most inspirational speeches, including “The American Scholar,” an oration so compelling that Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. concluded it was America’s “Intellectual Declaration of Independence.”
Reading and studying Emerson will not only improve your writing but will expose how truly powerful ideas can become when conveyed through enthralling prose.
The incisive (and very British) G.K. Chesterton was always entertaining. The author of the famed principle of “Chesterton’s Fence,” he remains an intriguing fellow among those who admire his early stage-setting for what would become modern literature.
Chesterton is renowned for his inimitable style where he takes ancient proverbs or allegories and puts his memorable stamp on them. His book, Orthodoxy, is a masterclass of divesting, evaluating, and piecing back together religion from subconscious desire. It’s occasionally considered an exploration of the famed “Pascal’s Wager” that has provoked philosophical debates for centuries.
The book is controversial among some critics for being a common piece referenced by Christian apologists, but really it’s much more than that. Chesterton lays out the existential need for humans to believe in the otherworldly, with Christianity his canvas for the argument. When opponents of a book’s thesis grudgingly recommend it: that’s when you know it’s good.
Digesting diverse points of views and styles is critical to being a successful nonfiction writer. G.K. Chesterton’s style is about as unique and forthright as they come and can help you inject a little edge into your work.
The pithy writer’s handbook, so they say. The ardently stubborn William Strunk, Jr. is the king of concise writing. So much so, that he would have probably hated putting “ardently” in front of “stubborn” in that last sentence.
Strunk’s The Elements of Style is a toolkit for any writer, fiction or nonfiction. However, his emphasis on precision and the strict usage of age-old writing rules is more relevant to the nonfiction variety of writers. The book is an easy read, entertaining (because of how stubborn he is), and is immediately practical to your writing.
At a time when content is converging further towards short-form, pithy quips (e.g., Twitter), writing for blogs and digital media publications increasingly requires brevity on the part of nonfiction writers. Strunk’s The Elements of Style will get you there, and then some.
Randomize Your Reading:
It’s often best to randomize reading habits. Digesting a library of diverse books in an arbitrary fashion can help expand your intellectual scope and, specifically, craft your unique style.
Your writing is a reflection of what content you consume, and bridging the ancient with the modern, with everything in between, can help you take your writing to the next level.
All great writers are voracious readers. As the saying goes:
“A great writer wants to devour the entire library before writing anything worthwhile.”
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