so add your top 5 ideas to a make a list of non-fiction books that you think are 'must read'.

To start:

The Australian Oxford Dictionary
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
Beauty Myth - Naomi Wolf ... Naomi of course - thank you mallowpuff!
One World, Many Religions: The Ways We Worship - Mary Pope Osborne
The God Delusion - RIchard Dawkins

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff (and it's all small stuff) - Richard Carlson

Catherine's gift - John Little
The Art of Happiness - Delai Lama

OP I think you mean Beauty Myth - Naomi Wolf

I'll add:
The Shock Doctrine - Naomi Klein

Great thread! I'll say:

Civilisation by Kenneth Clark,
Tracks and Desert Places by Robyn Davidson

Can't think of any others yet.

ETA: Songlines by Bruce Chatwin, except it's fiction-ish.

Norman Doidge "The Brain That Changes Itself"

For me, "The Innocent Man" by, believe it or not, John Grisham, bought out a lot of emotion in me - anger, sadness, happiness .... for me that is everything I could want from non-fiction. Highly recommend for anyone interested in how stuffed the judicial system can be

OP, you read the dictionary?

+1 for The God Delusion

Guns, Germs and Steel - Jared Diamond
It's Not About the Bike - Lance Armstrong
The Omnivore's Dilemma - Michael Pollan

"Look Me in the Eye" John Elder Robison.

He is the brother of Augustin Burroughs and was finally diagnosed as Aspie in his fifty's.

+2

'Freakanomics', followed by
'Superfreakanomics' - Both by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner.

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert ( I know some people hate this book but I absolutely loved it)

An Evil Cradling - Brian Keenan ( a journalist is held hostage in Lebanon for 5 years - this is his recount and it is incredibly disturbing but very powerful)

Forgiveness and other Acts of Love - Stephanie Dowrick - loved this book, explains emotions very well and how we can get through lifes challenges.

Follow your heart - Andrew Matthews - love his simplistic style very easy to read follow and apply.

Would love to read the Beauty Myth, might put it on my wishlist

"The Last Empire: DeBeers, Diamonds and the World" - Stefan Kanfer

"The Blind Watchmake" and "The Selfish Gene" - Richard Dawkins

"Quantum Evolution" - Johnjoe McFadden

"Blink. The Power of the Unconscious Mind" by Malcolm Gladwell

This was going to be one of mine too! I have given this book to so many people.

Also:

A Fortunate Life by A B Facey (a must read for Australians)

April Fools Day by Bryce Courteny. Such a powerful story of haemophillia as a disease, HIV and AID's in it's early days and the prejudice of people. I still cry at what his son endured.

I second 'Guns, Germs and Steel' by Jared Diamond or anything by him actually .. 'Collapse,' The Third Chimpanzee - all very relevant to our world today and how we use our resources

Also Touching the void - Joe Simpson - amazing mountain climbing accident true story very easy read as well!

The World That Was Ours - Hilda Berstein, about the Rivonia Trial when Nelson Mandela was imprisoned
Pity The Nation - Robert Fisk about Lebanon
Fast Food Nation - Eric Schlosser
Smile or Die - Barabra Eirenreich (or anything else she's written for that matter)
A People's History of the World - Chris Harman, a view of history from the working class point of view
Hitler - Ian Kershaw
Any of Anthony Beevor's books
Vive la Revolution - Mark Steel - funny but useful look at the French Revolution
Any of Mungo McCallum's books
Hillsborough - The Truth by Phil Scraton - about the Hillsborough disaster when 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death in 1989

Hitler and Stalin by Allan Bullock

Can I minus a vote for Eat Pray Love??? Only kidding (sort of!)

Gogo Mamas-true stories of women in Africa. Amazing book.

The boy who was raised as a dog and other stories from a child psychologist's notebook by Dr Bruce Perry

Very interesting and easy to read cases of the detrimental effect of abuse and neglect on children, but also the way the brain develops can help them heal. Sad but I couldn't put it down.

Oprah link