h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Let's start this one of with 'Last Chance to See' Douglas Adams' favourite of his own books!

Here are two essential additions to the non-fiction section.

'Homage to Catalonia' by George Orwell is a must read. A wonderfully human reflection on what it was like to fight for what you believed was right in the Spanish Civil War just before WW2. Orwell arrived in Spain in 1936 intending to report on the war and then joined up and fought. Orwell is my hero and this is his best non-fiction book. Simple as that, please read it.

'Longitude' by Dava Sobel is a fascinating tale of the search for a way to discover accurately the logitudinal position of a ship on long voyages. Hard to imagine it now, but as soon as a ship left sight of land it was more down to luck than judgement if it arrived at its destination. It was called the greatest scientific problem of its age and was solved by an untrained woodworker called John Harrison.
This is a little gem of a book that manages to get over the political intrigue and scientific problems of the time with an easy style.

I must add a reference to Howard Marks's autobiography "Mr. Nice" about his days as Public Enemy Number 1, i.e. Welsh ex-Oxford-Uni cannabis-smuggler extraordinaire. He has recently become something of a guru for the modern counter-culture movement and adopted by The Super Furry Animals.
It is a right riveting read.
As well as the years he spent on the run and living the high life, it also covers the several years he spent in US penitentiaries and various other places you'd rather not set foot.

I am reading "A Man On the Moon" by Andrew Chaikin at the moment. I have to recommend it. It's a step by step account of the Apollo landings in the sixties and early seventies.

I've been reading Primo Levi's books about his time in Auschwitz. Which are amazing, however depressing. And ought to be essential reading, but I have a problem finding them.