I just keep going back to certain books, and finding more in them.
Here's a library of little books for those who don't have time to read much, but who are looking to know some bits about many things. All are small but pithy, so they are good for readers with busy lives, but with a real desire to broaden their knowledge. Alphabetical by author.
Allen, Woody, Getting Even. Woody Allen, in his prime, takes on art, literature, philosophy, death, and the difficulty of getting a plumber on weekends.
Ammons, A. R., The Selected Poems, Expanded Edition. Just savor a randomly chosen poem in this collection. Bet you can't read just one.
Borges, Jorge Luis, Labyrinths. Some of the most imaginative short stories of the Twentieth Century. As mind-bending as science fiction, but without the bad writing.
Bronowski, Jacob, Science and Human Values. Science and creativity, science and values, science and art, science and literature: finding unity in the variety of human pursuits.
Calvino, Italo, Cosmicomics. Calvino writes playfully about science's most complex concepts, as his ageless narrator, Qfwfq, reminisces about the history of the universe. You may think you have seen it all, but Qfwfq remembers the Big Bang and just about everything since.
Carroll, Lewis, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass. (as collected in The Annotated Alice, by Martin Gardner). You know Alice already, from the Disney's animated dilutions of Carroll's concentrated cleverness. Now it's time to meet the bright young lady in the flesh. But you may miss some of the in jokes of Carroll's time. Without intruding, Martin Gardner helps you out.
Copland, Aaron, What to Listen for in Music. Train your ear and your mind to find meaning in music itself -- early to modern -- simply by informed listening. After studying Copland's exquisitely organized and clear guide, your enjoyment of music will no longer require insider information such as the composer's biography, the soap operas of her or his life and times, or the tabloid stories about riots breaking out during performances. And now, you can also listen to all the musical excerpts provided as scores in the book. Just click HERE to find videos of the excerpts and many other aids for readers of this book.
Crease, Robert P., The Prism and the Pendulum -- The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments in Science. History, details, and consequences of some of science's most beautiful and momentous experiments, including Erathosthenes's measurement of the diameter of the earth, Fouceault's pendulum, Millikan's oil-drop experiment, and Young's two-slit experiment. Enough experimental detail to satisfy your curiosity about what these keen minds conceived.
Dillard, Annie, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Dillard focuses her sense of wonder on nature and nature's only moral creature.
Eiseley, Loren, The Immense Journey. Give your mind a makeover, so it can begin to encompass the scale of evolution.
Epstein, Lewis, Relativity Visualized. Be the first kid on your block to understand that relativity is more than the empty phrase, "It's all relative." Clearest nonmathematical explanations anywhere of the paradoxes of time and space.
Faraday, Michael, A Chemical History of a Candle (a course of lectures for children, at Britain's Royal Institution during the Christmas holidays of 1860-1861). The children who heard these lectures could never have imagined that so much basic science and chemistry could be illuminated with a humble candle. The range, clarity, and cleverness of Faraday's lectures will surprise you, too.
Feynman, Richard, The Character of Physical Law. Feynman's little philosophy of science. Philosophers don't care for it. It's too clear.
Russell, Bertrand, The Problems of Philosophy. A tiny but remarkably complete introduction to philosophy's lasting problems.
Searle, John, Mind: A Brief Introduction. Finally! A book about brain and mind that is not completely over your head. Concise, clear, and rational discussion of modern philosophy of mind, informed by the latest scientific findings.
Thomas, Lewis, Lives of a Cell. Medical man reflects on the meaning of biology.
A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh. Part of what I miss about the childhood of my children is the Hundred Acre Wood and its denizens, Pooh, Piglet, and their friends. I've read the Pooh books and Milne's poems to myself several times since my children got too old for me to read to them. "When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?" "What's for breakfast," said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?" "I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today," said Piglet. Pooh nodded thoughtfully. "It's the same thing," he said. (I think I was reading them to myself from the very beginning.)
White, E. B., The Elements of Style. Throw all those thick style manuals away, This is the shortest, funniest, clearest book about how to write, and the only style manual that's worth reading from cover to cover.
