Well, Pinotfan, I agree with the great, great Will and Ariel Durant series The Story of Civilization, which sits behind me on my bookshelf as I type these words. Also Halberstam's wonderful book on 1964 and Ball Four. 

Ayn Rand's work could be subtitled "Why I would have sided with Sauron in the Lord of the Rings". 

As for the Communist Manifesto, I gather that its prediction, in 1848, that the world would come to be made up of employers and employees (most Europeans were still peasants in Monarchies, much of North America was in the hands of Native Americans or had slavery, India had the caste system etc.), and would be united by a world market whose spread could not be arrested by any means has turned out to be false? 

I wish it were only so.

I must admit, including The Manifesto under fiction was a barb directed specifically at you,  Prof!

edit: I'd gladly pick up the gauntlet on Marx, but I don't want to hijack the thread ...

Atlas Shrugged: in which John Galt thinks the rest of humanity is inferior because HE wants to build a railroad even though the airplane already exists. 

Ok, pinotfan, I'm over it ! :-)

let the thread proceed, un-hijacked...

"This Book is Not Required", but Inge Bell.  Non-Fiction.

Fiction

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Fletch by Gregory McDonald
When Eight Bells Toll by Alistair MacLean

Classics

Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Sports

The Historical Baseball Abstract by Bill James
The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons

Non-Fiction

Tune In by Mark Lewisohn

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond should sneak in there as well

The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien (Fiction)

Classics: The Quiet American by Graham Greene; Been there done that
Fiction: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair; The one book that had the most impact on me in my entire life
Non-fiction: The March of Folly by Barbara Tuchman
Sports: The Celebrant by Eric Rolfe Greenberg; The very best "baseball" book ever written
The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Proprietor; An absolute must read for WIS fanatics
The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract; Duh

Posted by italyprof on 5/17/2015 4:11:00 PM (view original):
Atlas Shrugged: in which John Galt thinks the rest of humanity is inferior because HE wants to build a railroad even though the airplane already exists. 

Ok, pinotfan, I'm over it ! :-)

let the thread proceed, un-hijacked...

Fighting every fiber in my body not to hijack this thread ...

So I won't. However, let me relate an observation I made a few days ago. Driving to work, I saw what I believe to be the ultimate expression of irony: a "Who is John Galt?" license plate holder on a Prius ...

Cool thread, Kudos on doing it!   Lots of interesting replys, too.  Some smart folks around here.  And some good readers.  The categories suggested made me realize, sports fan that I am, I haven't really read that many sports themed books, and most (that I recall) of them were Biographies. So I'm going to ignore that category out of ignorance. Also,  what is a classic?   Too much opinion involved therein for me.  That said, a few already mentioned certainly meets my criteria for Classic like Kesey's "Once a Great Notion" or "Huck Finn" or "To Kill A Mockingbird"...........            In the interest on not repeating,  I've omitted anything already listed by others.

FICTION

"The Road"-----Cormac McCarthy
"Black Sun"---- Edward Abbey (In his opinion, and mine, his finest piece of fiction)
"Little Big Man"---- Thomas Berger
"The Wonderful Country"---- Tom Lea
"Treasure of the Sierra Madre"--- B. Craven?
"The Vanishing American" ----- Zane Grey

Historical Fiction

"Shadow Country" ----- Peter Matthiessen
"Deadwood" -------   Pete Dexter
The Bible --------   Various

Non-Fiction

"Desert Solitaire" ---- Edward Abbey
"Indian Country"----- Peter Matthiessen
"Indeh" ------ Eve Ball
"Under The Banner Of Heaven"----- Jon Krakauer
"Killing The Hidden Waters" ------ Charles Bowden

Historical Non-Fiction

"Devil's Gate"-----Brigham Young and the Great Mormon Handcart Tragedy----- David Roberts
"Trust Me"  ----- Charles Keating and the Mission Billions ------  Michael Binstein and Charles Bowden
"The Devil's Highway" ---- Luis Alberto Urrea
"A Little War Of Our Own"  The Pleasant Valley Feud Revisited ---- Don Dedera
"The Education of Little Tree" ----- Forrest Carter

So many others, so little memory.   So old .................

Please don't omit something you like that has already been mentioned. The way this works is that the books with the most nominations will move on to the voting stage of this extravaganza. Nominate! Nominate! Nominate!

Posted by hacker7 on 5/17/2015 11:40:00 PM (view original):
Classics: The Quiet American by Graham Greene; Been there done that
Fiction: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair; The one book that had the most impact on me in my entire life
Non-fiction: The March of Folly by Barbara Tuchman
Sports: The Celebrant by Eric Rolfe Greenberg; The very best "baseball" book ever written
The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Proprietor; An absolute must read for WIS fanatics
The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract; Duh

hacker...totally agree on The Celebrant. Are we the only guys here to have read that? the UBA, Inc was pretty quirky. Intriguing though. And let's not forget the Iowa Baseball Confederacy.

tremendous site..at the moment I will nominate my favorite one off story..
Replay by Ken Grimwood.

Posted by dino27 on 5/23/2015 12:52:00 PM (view original):
tremendous site..at the moment I will nominate my favorite one off story..
Replay by Ken Grimwood.

I love Replay...I may use it in my new Sci Fi class next year.

Can I assume Replay is fiction?