Affiliate Disclosure: Links on this page may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. Read our affiliate policy
Non-Fiction Books in Order
Below you'll find the complete list of Non-Fiction books in publication order. This is generally the recommended reading order for the series.
Reading order verified: April 2026
Quick Answer
What order should I read the Non-Fiction series? Start with "If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home" (1973) and follow publication order through all 17 books.
The complete Non-Fiction reading order is listed below in publication sequence.
Publication Order

If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home
1973

The Things They Carried - Levels of Understanding
2012

Dick Kinzel
2015

Inner Story
2015

Ripley's Believe It or Not! Baseball Oddities & Trivia - Ball Two!
2016

Buzz Stories at Thirty Thousand Feet (With: David Price)
2018

Dad's Maybe Book
2019

Tim O'Brien's Roadside Pics & Picks
2020

Ripley's Believe It or Not! Amusement Park Oddities & Trivia
2020

Ploughshares Spring 1976 Guest-Edited by Tim O'Brien with DeWitt Henry and Henry Bromell
1976

The Literary Ghost: Great Contemporary Ghost Stories
1991

The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction
1999

The Putt at the End of the World
2000

40 Short Stories: A Portable Anthology
2000

The Eloquent Short Story: An Anthology of Narrative Styles
2004

Selected Shorts: Wartime Lives
2007

On War: The Best Military Histories
2013
Affiliate Disclosure
As an Amazon Associate, Reading Order Books earns from qualifying purchases. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you. This helps us maintain the site and continue providing reading order guides. Read our full disclosure