What single book is the best introduction to your field (or specialization within your field) for laypeople

[helena]

Right now it's Shirkey's Here Comes Everybody.

For my next field ... Beer School of course.

[Stone]

Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us

 

http://www.amazon.com/Without-Conscience-D.../ref=pd_sim_b_2

Try "Guilty By Reason of Insanity."

[Wilfrid1]

Next best thought:

 

[Suzanne F]

Recipes Into Type by Joan Whitman and Dolores Simon and The Recipe Writer's Handbook by Barbara Gibbs Ostmann and Jane L. Baker. If only people who are professionals in other fields but think they can write books with recipes would read these.

 

The Copyeditor's Handbook by Amy Einsohn.

 

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

 

And, of course, the ever-popular Chicago Manual of Style.

[hollywood]

For the legal profession, I'd suggest Interview With The Vampire.

[Carolyn Tillie]

The Complete Metalsmith by Tim McCreight. My edition is so old (twenty years+) that it was not even set-up with non-serif font, but was reprinted from the author's hand-written text and almost childish, hand-drawn line drawings as illustrations. It is still a seminal work.

[Sneakeater]

Bleak House

[Sneakeater]

Or else,

 

Faust, Pt. 1

[Ron Johnson]

"A Civil Action"

 

"Don Quixote de la Mancha " Miguel de la Mancha

 

 

[g.johnson]

They're all crap. The ones written by physicists are far too detailed. The ones written by radiologists are full of mistakes.

[Rebecca]

They're all crap. The ones written by physicists are far too detailed. The ones written by radiologists are full of mistakes.

The ones by physicists are especially humiliating. The tricky word here is "layman" comprehension, especially those who can't walk on water. The History Channel this morning was about the New York City Ballet and George Balanchine. It said subtle movements are the most difficult to learn.

[Gavin]

I'm sorry but I'm a geek.

 

Kernighan & Ritchie's (K&R) The C Programming Language. Follows the geek law of showing you, inside three pages, how to make the computer print out "Hello World".

[Behemoth]

I'm sorry but I'm a geek.

 

Kernighan & Ritchie's (K&R) The C Programming Language. Follows the geek law of showing you, inside three pages, how to make the computer print out "Hello World".

 

That is a great book.

 

For the time being I will pretend to be someone who still does something useful for a living and recommend Hardy and White's An Introduction to the Theory of Numbers.

[Country Cook]

http://www.silvafor.org/publications/library/purchase.htm

 

Seeing the Forest Among the Trees has four good chapters on what forests are, how we use them and how we impact them, the politics. The solution he puts forth well who knows? it would take a paradigm shift in our culture, but interesting reading for one and all.

[flyfish]

http://www.silvafor.org/publications/library/purchase.htm

 

Seeing the Forest Among the Trees has four good chapters on what forests are, how we use them and how we impact them, the politics. The solution he puts forth well who knows? it would take a paradigm shift in our culture, but interesting reading for one and all.

Glad to see you, CC!