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Will Storr's Top Book Recommendations

Want to know what books Will Storr recommends? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Will Storr's favorite book recommendations of all time. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.

Bad Wisdom book cover1

Bad Wisdom

Bill Drummond, Mark Manning

4.3
Drummond and Manning undertake an epic journey to the North Pole to sacrifice an icon of Elvis Presley. Two very different accounts emerge as the pilgrims venture into the frozen wastes at the top of the world.
The People of the Abyss book cover2

The People of the Abyss

Jack London

4.2
In 1902, Jack London purchased some secondhand clothes and, posing as a stranded American sailor, set out to discover how the London poor lived. His research makes shocking reading. Moving through the slums as one of the poor; eating, drinking, and socializing with the underclass; lining up to get into a flophouse, London was scandalized and brutalized by the experience of living rough in Britain’
3

The Shadow of the Sun

Ryszard Kapuscinski

4.5
In 1957, Ryszard Kapuscinski arrived in Africa to witness the beginning of the end of colonial rule as the first African correspondent of Poland's state newspaper. From the early days of independence in Ghana to the ongoing ethnic genocide in Rwanda, Kapuscinski has crisscrossed vast distances pursuing the swift, and often violent, events that followed liberation. Kapuscinski hitchhikes with carav
Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall book cover4

Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall

Anna Funder

4.3
In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell; shortly afterwards the two Germanies reunited, and East Germany ceased to exist. In a country where the headquarters of the secret police can become a museum literally overnight, and one in 50 East Germans were informing on their countrymen and women, there are a thousand stories just waiting to get out. Anna Funder tells extraordinary tales from the underbelly of th
Them: Adventures with Extremists book cover5

Them: Adventures with Extremists

Jon Ronson

4.1
From the bestselling author of The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry and So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed.

A wide variety of extremist groups -- Islamic fundamentalists, neo-Nazis -- share the oddly similar belief that a tiny shadowy elite rule the world from a secret room. In Them, journalist Jon Ronson has joined the extremists to track down the fabled secret room.

As a journal