First a work of fiction by Walter Kirn called Up In the Air about a business traveller who, among other things, is trying to acheive his long term goal of flying a million miles. Light and fun reading. By the way, if you are plotting out some flight schedules, or even a land based trip, you might find the Great Circle Mapper a handy tool. Here's what my last trip looked like.
The other book, non-fiction, is The Code Book from Simon Singh. An accessible and entertaining account of cryptography over the ages.
And while I'm at it there's the huge tome, On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee. This is a must if you have an interest in what food is all about and how it has developed through the ages. Did you know that margarine was heavily regulated and taxed in the US and stores needed a license to sell it? In some states you weren't allowed to sell colored margarine and folks had to buy the die separately to color it themselves. There were federal taxes on margarine until the 1950's and it didn't become legal to sell margarine in Wisconsin until 1967. Here's a tasty summer soup recipe without margarine: Avocado and Ginger Vichyssoise.
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