What are actual essential non fiction books? Essential in the

>guns, germs, and steel

isn't it interesting how jewish historians always say that whoever ends up with all the money just got that way by luck, as if they were just "chosen", and not through specific strategies

classics my dude.
there is a reason why they are classics.
everyone will get something from anything he reads, there is no particular road map for them.
search them by themes which you think you might be into.

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>>9865939
Try this.

>>9865976
oh I thought you wrote fiction lol
going to bed now

>>9865978

>Theory of world history

What a load of bullshit

>>9865939
>What are actual essential non fiction books? Essential in the sense that they give you really useful frameworks or important knowledge.
The Greeks. I'm not kidding, knowing your Greeks (fiction, philosophy, mythology) is insanely useful to understand literally anything in Western thought and art.

>Really fucking hard mode: Recommend a book that's also enjoyable and couldn't be easily summarised.
Same.

>Super fucking hard mode: Help me stop caring about the opinions of pseuds in the first place. Help me give up on books mid-read or ignore books without feeling guilty.
Again, the Greeks (Socrates, Aristotle, Stoics, Hedonists in particular) will make you comfortably skeptic about pretty much everything, while still being able to enjoy life.

Apart from that, I might suggest looking into Zen Buddhism in a non-pseud way.
Get Thomas Gethin's Pali Canon (nd other stuff by him), some stuff by Kodo Sawaki, Shunryu Suzuki and Katsuki Sekida. When you feel you have a good grasp of the core Buddhist thought, give Dogen (The Shobogenzo) and Hakuin Ekaku a shot.
The Shobogenzo might be one of the most overlooked philosophical gems out there. (Tho it has been gaining attention lately.)
From there you should be fine. Just make sure that any secondary literature you get, is by actual scholars and not hippies/esoterics.

>>9866004
You don't have to read it. But that title is what is called marketing. Many books have such titles.
Also nice reddit spacing my friendo.

>>9866017

>1 post by this ID

The Technological Society

The Culture of Narcissism

The Genealogy of Morality

The Doctrine of Fascism

How to do things with Words

the bible

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>>9865939
-Highly-readable - the author specifically avoids involuted jargon and aims for clarity.

-No real "pretenses" - just a lengthy survey of western history from several angles and periods of time, gradually threading the book with the main ideas about western history and its direction.

-A very rich pastiche of references to other works, thinkers, writers, theorists, etc. from a range of different fields as he tells the story, with illustrative quotes pulled to the side of the text as highlights.

-Resolutely defies easy summary, since it is a sociocultural, political, philosophical, and aesthetic survey of five centuries.

-Very much layered - casual thinkers/readers will learn plenty; more educated readers will be familiar with more of his references and will understand more of how he constructed his approach to the history of ideas.