The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood by James Gleick

Summary: The subtitle might say it all - in this book, Gleick summarizes the history of communication and knowledge and how people think about both.

Comments: A fascinating read. Gleick takes us through history, from talking drums to dictionaries to information theory to the internet. Masterfully arranged, and incredibly informative.

The Totally Useless History of Science, by Ian Crofton

Summary: This book is a chronologically-organized series of blurbs about ridiculous scientific ideas, ideas that were ahead of their time, the research that might or might not have been in the running for an Ignoble Award, and other randomness from science through the ages.

Comments: I didn't have to get too far into this book before concluding that someone knows me too well (this was a Christmas present a few years back). I rather enjoyed all the useless facts this book has to share, and the chronological order seems like a rather good way to organize all of them.

You are Not so Smart, by David McRaney

Summary: a description of some of the many ways our brains delude us or work against us.

Comments: This is a really fascinating, accessible read. Many of these are things I'd already learned, but it's still worthwhile it have everything laid out like this. And while the book is written at a level anyone can understand, there's a bibliography at the end if you want to delve deeper. Definitely worth reading and a good read.

Furiously Happy, by Jenny Lawson

Summary: a series of essays about Jenny's adventures, strange thoughts, and struggles with depression and other mental illnesses.

Thoughts: a lot of the book is incredibly amusing. It's hard not to laugh about attempts to get a taxidermied raccoon to ride cats, for example. But the subtheme about the value of being open and honest about mental illness because it affects a lot more people than you realize is also very important. The two parts tie together well to make a book everyone should read and most people would enjoy.

The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce

Summary: In a nutshell, this book is a collection of snarky definitions interspersed with some poetry relevant to those words.

Comments: A number of the definitions are incredibly amusing, some aren't, and some probably made more sense a hundred years ago before some of the context was lost to the mists of time. I marked some of my favorites so that in the future I can skim the book looking for the amusing parts as opposed to read it cover to cover as I did over the last couple months. I'm not sure what the hit to miss ratio is for how many of the definitions I actually found amusing, but I think it was worth getting for the good ones.

The Snark Handbook Insult Edition, by Lawrence Dorfman

Summary: A collection of quips/insults from a variety of famous people

Comments: This is rather an amusing book, and quite a fast read. It's also suitable for flipping open to a random page and seeing what you find. I rather enjoyed it.

Weird Washington, by Jeff Davis and Al Eufrasio

Summary: random stuff one might not know about the state--random stories and places. Can I come up with any adjectives other than "random"?

Comments: all kinds of stuff that I didn't know. And some number of small towns I'd never heard of... I rather enjoyed reading about all everything, especially some of the things that I had some hope of imagining (ie references to places I've been).

101 Thinks You Need to Know ...and Some You Don't!, by Richard Horne and Tracey Turner

Summary: a collection of random facts on a wide variety of subjects.

Comments: I think this was aimed at a younger audience than I (hence each page of facts had a page of "consider similar things and/or try something at home"). But it was still an amusing collection of random facts (there were various amusing comments sprinkled throughout).