Non-Fiction

It may seem like an anomaly having true tales in a fiction booklist, but these cult non-fiction books all read like a good novel. From murder to philosophy, and psychology to journeys of enlightenment, there’s sure to be something here to captivate you…

Truman Capote

“A masterful stylist who took great pride in his writing, Truman Capote was also a well-known television personality, openly obsessed with fame.” Read more in Literature Resource Centre Biography.
Using his literary talents, Capote conceived a new type of journalism - bringing the technique of journalism together with the art of the novel, thus creating the first ‘non-fiction novel’. This book, In Cold Blood, took him six years to complete, researching meticulously the events surrounding the murder of a farming family in Kansas and the men who were brought to justice. It reads like no fiction thriller ever could, being that it’s all true!

Carlos Castaneda

“More than a few reviewers and journalists have dubbed Carlos Castaneda a man of mystery and secrecy, hardly surprising adjectives for an author … whose writings are viewed as fact by some and fiction by others…” Read more in Literature Resource Centre Biography.
After meeting Don Juan Matus, a Yaqui sorcerer and holy man, at a bus stop, Casteneda became his disciple and spent many years studying with him. These experiences became the basis for Casteneda’s thesis The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge. Incorporating a mix of anthropology, allegory, parapsychology, ethnography, Buddhism and ‘perhaps great fiction’ (J. R. Moehringer), Castendeda’s best-selling thesis is gripping stuff, even if some critics no longer believe Don Juan really existed!

Nick Hornby

“Nick Hornby is a freelance journalist in England, where he has written on literary topics, football, and--in his fiction as well as his nonfiction--obsession.” Read more in Literature Resource Centre Biography.
Fever Pitch, Hornby’s memoir about growing up in 1960s London as a fanatical football fan, is more about his obsession than about football. Written with humour and a shrewd perceptiveness, it is the Orwellian story of a middle-class youth wanting to become part of the working-class world of football fans. Published in the early 1990s, Fever Pitch became part of the social phenomenon of the time which enabled closet middle-class football fans to ‘come out’ in their thousands.

Aldous Huxley

“When Aldous Huxley was sixteen he was stricken with a disease of the eyes, which left him temporarily blind and permanently disrupted his plan to enter the medical profession. Yet his scientific training remained a major force in all his future endeavors.” Read more in Literature Resource Centre Biography.
Best known for his work Brave New World, Huxley wrote The Doors of Perception in the late 1930s, chronicling his experimentations with the hallucinogen mescaline and advocating his own brand of drug-induced mysticism. In the 1960s after his death, Huxley became an icon of counterculture; with Jim Morrison naming his band The Doors of Perception, and gracing the cover of the Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper album.

Robert Pirsig

“Novelist and metaphysician Robert Pirsig explores the underlying values and morals of modern American society in his works.” Read more in Literature Resource Centre Biography.
Pirsig’s first and most acclaimed work, Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance, is an autobiographical account of Persig’s journey across American with his eleven year old son. Pirsig delivers a number of on-the-road lectures as he searches for the meaning of quality of life. Exploring various philosophies and using plenty of motorcycle metaphors, Zen is an inspired, original and thoroughly good read.

Oliver Sacks

“Oliver Sacks is among the best-known and most highly respected neurologists in the United States, and he has also made a considerable reputation for himself as an author.” Read more in Literature Resource Centre Biography.
Writing about a collection of patients he has worked with, Sacks tells their fascinating stories in The man who mistook his wife for a hat. In the title-named case history, a music instructor came to see Sacks, who didn’t understand why he had come until the end of the meeting when the man turned to grab his hat, but tried to put his wife’s head on instead. Sacks tells the man’s story with compassion and “the power of a short story writer” (John C. Marshall). Reading these case histories, including one of a man stuck in 1945 and a woman who emerged from a coma speaking perfect French, we get to see these people, not as scientific curiosities, but as individuals who struggle with very real psychological, moral and spiritual dilemmas. Touching, funny and heartbreaking in turn, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat is unforgettable.

Hunter S. Thompson

“Hunter S. Thompson ranks among the first and foremost practitioners of New Journalism, a genre that evolved in the 1960s to reflect the particular mood of those times.” Read more in Literature Resource Centre Biography.
Rethinking his journalism as a form of fiction, Thompson called his brand of reporting "Gonzo Journalism," in which the story about covering the event became the central story itself. To research Hell’s Angels: a Strange and Terrible Saga, Thompson rode with the infamous Californian motorcycle gang for about a year during the mid 1960s. Indulging in heavy drinking and massive amounts of drugs while riding with the Angels, Thompson nevertheless wrote insightfully about their road rallies, home lives and sexual exploits.

Tom Wolfe

“"Those of you who are not aware of Tom Wolfe should--really--do your best to acquaint yourselves with him," wrote William F. Buckley in the National Review. "He is probably the most skillful writer in America…"” Read more in Literature Resource Centre Biography.
Part of the “New Journalism” crowd, Wolfe wrote his magazine articles as streams-of-consciousness, with his own brand of creative punctuation and an "aural" style of writing which made it possible for the reader to experience an event first-hand.
In The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, using his distinctive brand of journalism, Wolfe wrote about the novelist Ken Kesey and his “Merry Pranksters”, a West Coast group who were LSD enthusiasts, and their pursuit of psychedelic experiences.