By Leo Babauta

I’m an avid reader of fiction and just love a novel that transports me, that is so gripping that I can’t put it down. But I also enjoy a good non-fiction book, from self-help stuff to philosophy to biographies to just about anything that makes me think.

After the warm reception of my post on novels (50 Amazing and Essential Novels to Enrich Your Library), a number of people asked for a list of non-fiction as well. Well, here it is!

I was hesitant to do this as there are so many classic non-fiction texts, from the Greeks to philosophers through the ages to biographies of amazing people to first-hand accounts of surviving wars and much more. It’s overwhelming, and it would be hard to be comprehensive.

But then I decided not to be comprehensive. Instead, I wanted to find 20 books that convey some of the philosophy of Zen Habits in different ways, books that influenced this site and that I think will enrich your library and your life if you haven’t read them yet.

So this list is far, far from being authoritative or comprehensive. It leaves off just about every classic work — histories, philosophy works, scientific classics, and so on. It doesn’t have the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, anything by Descartes or Nietzsche or Kant, accounts by Anne Frank or slaves, or anything else on the 100 Best Non-fiction Books list. Not that those books don’t hold great value — they do — but they’ve been done elsewhere.

This list is just a few of my favorites. I hope you enjoy them, find inspiration from them, and share some of your favorites in the comments below!

Bonus update — I forgot a few that I really want to add to this list. So here are a few more books:

So there are hundreds and thousands of great non-fiction books that I’ve left off this list, mostly because I don’t have the time to compile a bigger list, and also largely because there are so many I haven’t read personally.