Everyone has their own preferences when it comes to reading, and while some people prefer pacy thrillers with big twists, others prefer a romance or even the classics. But for others, nothing can beat a piece of non-fiction.
While fiction provides escapism and entertainment, reading non-fiction offers numerous benefits, including expanding your knowledge and fostering critical thinking. But diving into non-fiction can seem a little daunting if you largely read fiction. So whether you’re new to the literary genre or just looking for your next read, this list of the best non-fiction of all time could help you widen your reading list.
This ranking, compiled by The Greatest Books, was created by bringing together 614 ‘best of’ book lists to form one overall ranking.
Topping the list is The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, a real life account of a young Jewish girl hiding from the Nazis during the Second World War, written in diary format. The diary, which was written while Anne and her family lived in a secret annex in Amsterdam for two years, is a deeply personal insight into the horrors of the Holocaust.
The book was first published in 1947, two years after Anne’s death in a concentration camp. It later became a classic of war literature, and is often described as essential reading and a book that “changed the world”.
Essays by Michel de Montaigne takes second place on the list. This collection of essays, originally published in 1580, explores a wide range of topics, from cannibals to the nature of friendship.
Other well-known names on the list include The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir and A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf, as well as Silent Spring by Rachel Carson.
The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud, a groundbreaking work exploring dreams, also makes the list.
The best non-fiction books of all time
- The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
- Essays by Michel de Montaigne
- In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
- Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
- Walden by Henry David Thoreau
- The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
- The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud
- If This Is A Man by Primo Levi
- A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
- The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
Just missing out on the top 10 are On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin and The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley.
You can find the full list on The Greatest Books. For more book recommendations, reviews and news, you can also click here to subscribe to our free weekly newsletter, The Bookish Drop, on Substack.