The 25 Best Non-Fiction Books Ever: Readers’ Picks

in Books | June 27th, 2011

Last week, we asked Open Cul­ture read­ers to write in with your favorite non-fic­tion titles of all time, and you did­n’t dis­ap­point. We had a hard time culling from the more than 100 sug­ges­tions, but we did have a few cri­te­ria to guide us:

1. Pri­or­i­ty went to repeat nom­i­nees (Bill Bryson, Hunter S. Thomp­son, and Richard Dawkins, to name a few).

2. We leaned toward books that are avail­able for free online.

3. When all else failed, we relied on our own pref­er­ences — or prej­u­dices.

Thanks again for all of your rec­om­men­da­tions, and may we con­grat­u­late you on your excel­lent taste in non-fic­tion, equalled by only your excel­lent taste in web­sites.

The List

Hunter S. Thomp­son — Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Friedrich Niet­zsche — The Gay Sci­ence

Richard Dawkins - The Self­ish Gene

Wen­dell Berry — The Way of Igno­rance

Joseph Mitchell — Up in the Old Hotel

Bri­an Greene — The Ele­gant Uni­verse

Nor­man Lewis - Voic­es of the Old Sea

Joan Did­ion — The White Album

Ben­jamin Franklin - The Auto­bi­og­ra­phy of Ben­jamin Franklin

Tony Judt — Post­war: A His­to­ry of Europe Since 1945

Hen­ry David Thore­au — Walden

Mar­cus Aure­lius — Med­i­ta­tions

Bill Bryson — A Walk in the Woods

George Orwell — Homage to Cat­alo­nia

Han­nah Arendt — Eich­mann in Jerusalem

Book­er T. Wash­ing­ton — Up From Slav­ery

Jorge Luis Borges - Oth­er Inqui­si­tions (1937–1952)

Mar­cus Redik­er — Vil­lains of all Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Gold­en Age

Mihaly Csik­szent­mi­ha­lyi — Flow: The Psy­chol­o­gy of Opti­mal Expe­ri­ence

Lao Tzu, Stephen Mitchell, trans. Tao Te Ching

Vic­tor Klem­per­er — I Will Bear Wit­ness: A Diary of the Nazi Years (1933–1941)

Greil Mar­cus — Lip­stick Traces: A Secret His­to­ry of the Twen­ti­eth Cen­tu­ry

Philip Goure­vitch — We Wish to Inform You That Tomor­row We Will be Killed with Our Fam­i­lies

Win­ston Churchill — A His­to­ry of the Eng­lish Speak­ing Peo­ples

Last­ly, and only in part because we’ve been warned that we would be round­ly scold­ed for the omis­sion: The Ele­ments of Style, by William Strunk and E.B. White

Thanks again, and hap­py read­ing!

Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly.

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8,000 Chinese Lanterns over Poland

in Random | June 26th, 2011

Last Tues­day, the res­i­dents of Poz­nan, Poland set a world record when they released 8,000 Chi­nese lanterns into the sky to mark the short­est night of the year — or what’s oth­er­wise called Mid­sum­mer Night. The video above lets you see the lanterns in full flight. The image below offers a close-up view of a lantern before head­ing into the night sky…

via @pourmecoffee

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Peter Falk (RIP) in Wings of Desire

in Film | June 25th, 2011

Peter Falk made his career play­ing a quirky detec­tive in the 1960s and 70s tele­vi­sion show Colum­bo. But the art world will remem­ber a moment when Falk played him­self in Wim Wen­ders’ 1987 film, Wings of Desire. In the cred­its, he was list­ed sim­ply as ‘Der Film­star.’ This is our 1:46 trib­ute to Falk, who passed away Fri­day at age 83. H/T @SteveSilberman

Relat­ed:

Free Tarkovsky Films

Free Hitch­cock Films

Free John Wayne Films

Free Noir Films

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Andy Warhol Eats a Burger King Whopper, and We Watch … and Watch

in Art, Film, Food & Drink | June 24th, 2011

In 1982, Dan­ish film­mak­er Jør­gen Leth direct­ed 66 Scenes from Amer­i­ca, a film that stitched togeth­er a series of lengthy shots, each a visu­al post­card from a jour­ney across Amer­i­ca. And, tak­en togeth­er, you have a tableau of the Amer­i­can expe­ri­ence.

Along the way, the pop artist Andy Warhol makes his appear­ance. The man who coined the expres­sion “15 Min­utes of Fame” takes four min­utes to eat a ham­burg­er, most­ly with­out say­ing a word. And sim­ply because of his fame, we watch … and watch. About this scene Leth gives a few details:

[Warhol] is told that he has to say his name and that he should do so when he has fin­ished per­form­ing his action, but what hap­pens is that the action takes a very long time to per­form; it’s sim­ply ago­niz­ing. I have to admit that I per­son­al­ly adore that, because its a pure homage to Warhol. It could­n’t be more War­ho­lesque. That’s of course why he agreed to do it.

This was pre­sum­ably not a paid place­ment by Burg­er King.

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. It’s a great way to see our new posts, all bun­dled in one email, each day.

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Relat­ed Con­tent:

Warhol’s Screen Tests: Lou Reed, Den­nis Hop­per, Nico, and More

Three “Anti-Films” by Andy Warhol: Sleep, Eat & Kiss

Andy Warhol’s ‘Screen Test’ of Bob Dylan: A Clas­sic Meet­ing of Egos

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First Meeting Between Papua New Guinea Tribesmen & Outside World

in Film, History | June 24th, 2011

Before click­ing on this extra­or­di­nary video — which shows a meet­ing of civ­i­liza­tions that may nev­er hap­pen again on our plan­et — be sure to turn the sound off and spare your­self the awful sound­track. The expres­sions on the faces of the Toulam­bi tribes­men are enough any­way, and even though his­to­ry tells us that these par­ties end bad­ly for the team with the fewest toys, you can’t help feel­ing a cer­tain amount of awe and joy while watch­ing the encounter.

This footage was shot in Papua New Guinea by Jean-Pierre Dutilleux, a Bel­gian film­mak­er and activist per­haps best known for his Acad­e­my Award-nom­i­nat­ed 1979 doc­u­men­tary Raoni: The Fight for the Ama­zon. You can vis­it Dutilleux’s web site to get more pho­tos and a lit­tle more back­sto­ry on the Toulam­bi. Have a good week­end…

via Metafil­ter

Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly.

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Darwin’s Personal Library Goes Digital: 330 Books Online

in Literature, Science, Video - Science | June 24th, 2011

When Charles Dar­win fin­ished read­ing Charles Lyel­l’s Prin­ci­ples of Geol­o­gy, a book sug­gest­ing that there are clear lim­its to the vari­a­tion of species, he wrote in the mar­gins: “If this were true adios the­o­ry.” It’s a great piece of mar­gin­a­lia. And it’s just one of many com­ments that adorn books in Dar­win’s per­son­al library, and help illu­mi­nate his intel­lec­tu­al path to writ­ing On The Ori­gin Of Species (1859).

Thanks to Cam­bridge Uni­ver­si­ty library and sev­er­al part­ners, 330 of Dar­win’s most heav­i­ly anno­tat­ed texts have now been dig­i­tized and made avail­able online at the web­site of the Bio­di­ver­si­ty Her­itage Library. More will come in due time. You can begin your tour here.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Dar­win’s Dan­ger­ous Idea

Dar­win’s Lega­cy

via Cam­bridge News (with thanks to Kirstin But­ler and Brain­Pick­er)

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The Joy of Easy Listening, BBC Documentary Online

in Music | June 23rd, 2011

A quicks heads up: If you like Herb Alpert and Engel­bert Humperdinck, then this BBC doc is def­i­nite­ly for you. Here’s what you get in 90 min­utes:

In-depth doc­u­men­tary inves­ti­ga­tion into the sto­ry of a pop­u­lar music that is often said to be made to be heard, but not lis­tened to. The film looks at easy lis­ten­ing’s archi­tects and prac­ti­tion­ers, its dan­gers and delights, and the mark it has left on mod­ern life.
From its emer­gence in the 50s to its hey­day in the 60s, through its sur­vival in the 70s and 80s and its revival in the 90s and beyond, the film traces the hid­den his­to­ry of a music that has reflect­ed soci­ety every bit as much as pop and rock — just in a more relaxed way.
Invent­ed at the dawn of rock ’n’ roll, easy lis­ten­ing has shad­owed pop music and the emerg­ing teenage mar­ket since the mid-50s. It is a genre that equal­ly sound­tracks our mod­ern age, but per­haps for a rather more ‘mature’ gen­er­a­tion and there­fore with its own dis­tinct pur­pose and aes­thet­ic. Con­trib­u­tors include Richard Car­pen­ter, Herb Alpert, Richard Clay­der­man, Engel­bert Humperdinck, Jim­my Webb, Mike Flow­ers, James Last and oth­ers.

You can watch Part 1 above, and the remain­ing ones here: Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

via Boing­Bo­ing

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The Best Magazine Articles Ever, Curated by Kevin Kelly

in Literature, Media | June 23rd, 2011

A few days ago, we asked you to send us your favorite non-fic­tion titles. We’ll be post­ing your many excel­lent sug­ges­tions soon, and, in the mean­time, we thought we should offer some­thing in return — more specif­i­cal­ly, yet anoth­er list of excel­lent non-fic­tion com­piled by some­one oth­er than our­selves.

Kevin Kel­ly, web-pio­neer, co-founder of Wired Mag­a­zine, for­mer edi­tor of the Whole Earth Cat­a­log, and one of the best all-around liv­ing argu­ments for ditch­ing col­lege and trav­el­ing the world instead, has put togeth­er a crowd­sourced list of the best mag­a­zine arti­cles from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s and 10s, almost all of them avail­able on the web. He’s also gath­ered the top 25 of all time (based on the num­ber of votes received) on one thrilling page.

The list includes pieces like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thomp­son, David Fos­ter Wal­lace’s Con­sid­er the Lob­ster, and Gay Tale­se’s leg­endary 1966 Esquire cov­er sto­ry, Frank Sina­tra Has a Cold. It’s an invalu­able resource, whether you’re an aspir­ing jour­nal­ist or nov­el­ist, a his­to­ry buff, or just a per­son who wants to enjoy the evo­lu­tion of the past 60 years of the Eng­lish lan­guage.

You may already be famil­iar with the sites Instapa­per, Lon­greads, and Long­form. All three can help you find great read­ing mate­r­i­al on the web, orga­nize it, and down­load it to your Kin­dle, iPad, or tablet. Enjoy.

Get more clas­sics from our col­lec­tion of Free eBooks.

Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly.

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Renata Salecl: The Paradox of Choice

in Current Affairs, Psychology | June 22nd, 2011

With free­dom come choic­es. Every choice is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to select the best pos­si­ble out­come, the one that would make us hap­pi­est. More choic­es lead to more hap­pi­ness, right? Of course we find the oppo­site to be true. As choic­es increase, so does anx­i­ety. In the lat­est install­ment of the RSA ani­mat­ed lec­ture series, Sloven­ian social and legal the­o­rist Rena­ta Sale­cl argues that this anx­i­ety, cou­pled with the cap­i­tal­ist ide­al of the self-made per­son, leads to a kind of social paral­y­sis. “Today’s ide­ol­o­gy of choice,” says Sale­cl, “actu­al­ly paci­fies peo­ple and makes us con­stant­ly turn crit­i­cism to our­selves instead of orga­niz­ing our­selves and mak­ing a cri­tique of the soci­ety we live in.” The ani­mat­ed fea­ture was adapt­ed from a lec­ture Sale­cl gave last sum­mer in Lon­don. (You can watch the entire lec­ture here.) It draws on ideas pre­sent­ed in her book, Choice.

Oth­er RSA Videos:

Sir Ken Robin­son: A Cre­ative Edu­ca­tion

Good Cap­i­tal­ist Kar­ma: Zizek Ani­mat­ed

Smile or Die: The Per­ils of Pos­i­tive Psy­chol­o­gy

Steven Pinker: How Innu­en­do Makes Things Work

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The Elements of Creativity

in Art, Creativity, Technology | June 22nd, 2011

The Ele­ments of Cre­ativ­i­ty. They come down to this: Copy. Trans­form. Com­bine. Noth­ing is tru­ly orig­i­nal. Every­thing is a remix, more or less.

Direc­tor Kir­by Fer­gu­son first traced this idea through lit­er­a­ture and music, then through film­mak­ing. Next up? Tech­nol­o­gy, com­put­ers and user inter­face. Above we have the third and penul­ti­mate install­ment in the “Every­thing is a Remix” series. (You can watch it in large for­mat here.) Look for the final seg­ment to appear this fall, and con­sid­er sup­port­ing the project here.

Nice work Kir­by and h/t Brain­Pick­ings.

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Anatomy of a Computer Virus: A 3.5 Minute Primer

in Science, Technology, TED Talks | June 21st, 2011

Last week, Cit­i­group admit­ted that hack­ers exposed the pri­vate finan­cial data of more than 360,000 cus­tomer accounts. Mean­while, in an unre­lat­ed attack, Lulz Secu­ri­ty man­aged to bring down the CIA web­site, and this week they’ve declared war on gov­ern­ment agen­cies around the world.

Now might be a good time to beef up on your knowl­edge of mal­ware, cyber­crime, and cyber­war­fare, start­ing with Stuxnet, a com­put­er virus that was launched against Iran­ian nuclear infra­struc­tures in 2010 (most like­ly by the U.S.). For a quick primer on Stuxnet, check out Anato­my of a Com­put­er Virus. It’s only three and a half min­utes long, but you’ll learn enough to decide whether or not to set your lap­top on fire, sell every­thing you own, and run scream­ing for the Yukon.

For a more detailed explo­ration of the virus, watch Crack­ing Stuxnet, A 21st-Cen­tu­ry Cyber Weapon, a TED talk by cyber-secu­ri­ty expert Ralph Langn­er. Dis­claimer: It won’t nec­es­sar­i­ly put you at ease — the pre­sen­ter clos­es by thank­ing Mr. Langn­er for “scar­ing the liv­ing day­lights out of us.”

Via PopTech and Hun­gry Beast

Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly.

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