What kinds of fun books are there in the adult nonfiction category? Who are the top publishers?

Best Nonfiction Books for Adults

Categories of nonfiction books for adults include:

Publishers have their own styles. Below is information on some top publishers of fun nonfiction books of interest to teens and adults.

Random House Publishers

Random House is a leading publisher with many household-name books in their book portfolio. Their cookery books include authors: Martha Stewart; The Barefoot Contessa (Ina Garten); Julia Child; The Neelys; Rachel Ray; Giada De Laurentiis; Bobby Flay; as well as a range of health-related food books, including ones by the American Heart Association and gluten free cookbooks.

Prima Games, a division of Random House, is the world's leading publisher of video game strategy guides, game cheats, and walkthroughs. Games on which they publish guides include Pokemon, Sims, Halo, Warhammer, Spore, FIFA, NCAA, Star Wars, Legend of Zelda, Dragon Age, and Samurai Warriors.

Travel books from Random House include Fodor's guidebooks, Knopf Mapguides, Compass guides, National Geographic titles and books by Bill Bryson. These are all highly rated books, as are the nature guides by the National Audubon Society and Sibley Guides to birds, trees and birding.

Craft and hobby books by Random House publishers focus heavily on knitting and sewing. They also publish nonfiction titles on other hobbies including: crochet and felting; clay art, beading, and jewelry; soapmaking and candlemaking; home projects; woodworking; homesteading and traditonal crafts including blacksmithing and instrument making; origami, bookmaking, pop-up books, collage. Many of their craft and hobby titles sell for under $20.

Notable among Random House's gardening titles are How to Grow More Vegetables... than you ever thought possible by John Jeavons and Grow Great Grub by the founder of the site YouGrowGirl.com. Despite a nice selection of gardening books this is not a strength for Random House as a publisher.

Also under Random House is the Ballantine Books brand which publishes fun books, such as Garfield, and Del Rey, a leading publisher of fantasy and science fiction books. Del Ray authors include include Douglas Adams, Terry Brooks, Orson Scott Card, Arthur C. Clarke, Peter F. Hamilton, Anne McCaffrey, China Mieville, Richard K. Morgan, and Harry Turtledove.

Pearson Publishers

Pearson are perhaps best known for their academic division - not particularly fun books! However Penguin and Puffin (children's books) are part of the Pearson publishing group. Other publications and titles which come under their umbrella include Rough Guides, Complete Idiot's Guides, Dorling Kindersley, and Beatrix Potter books. Oprah's Book club books are published under Penguin.

Fun game books from Pearson include Sudoku books, crosswords, and Mad Libs. Some fun science book offerings include The Physics of Superheros. Many of their craft and paper books are priced under $10. Home and garden books cover topics of greening your life, vegetable growing, Feng Shui, and home maintenance - with the majority of titles under the Complete Idiot's Guide series. Sports topics include baseball, soccer, golf, running, cycling, and fitness. Pearson's strength though is in the academic market, thoughtful approaches to nonfiction topics, and in paperback fiction under the Penguin label.

You may also be interested in Adult Fiction for more adult reading suggestions.