EGGHEAD CHOICE – Crack open for a hard boiled think

The Appalachian Trail (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_trail) trail stretches from Georgia to Maine and covers some of the most breathtaking terrain in America: majestic mountains, silent forests, sparking lakes. If you’re going to take a hike other than in Yosemite National Park, it’s probably the place to go. Bill Bryson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Bryson and http://www.billbryson.co.uk/) proves to be the most entertaining guide […]

Is there such a thing as human nature? Sartre denied it with his epithet that ‘existence precedes essence’. We are free to choose what we become, he argued. Indeed, in a memorable phrase ‘we are condemned to be free’. Of the opposite opinion are thinkers like Steven Pinker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Pinker) (Cf. The Blank Slate: The Modern

The Liberal Imagination (1950) by Lionel Trilling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Trilling and http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/archival/collections/ldpd_4079615/index.html) is one of the most admired and influential works of criticism of the last century, a work that is not only a masterpiece of literary criticism but an important statement about politics and society. Published at one of the chillier moments of the Cold War, Trilling’s essays

Henry Louis (‘H.L.’) Mencken (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mencken) was inspired by ‘the argot of the coloured waiters’ in Washington, as well as one of his favourite authors, Mark Twain, and his experiences on the streets of Baltimore. In 1902, he remarked on the ‘queer words which go into the making of ‘United States’. The American Language (1919) was preceded by several columns

What is the difference between choking and panicking? Why are there dozens of varieties of mustard but only one variety of ketchup? What do football players teach us about how to hire teachers? What does hair dye tell us about the history of the 20th century? Malcolm Gladwell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Gladwell) has written three books that have

Simon Winchester (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Winchester) examines the legendary annihilation in 1883 of the volcano-island of Krakatoa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1883_eruption_of_Krakatoa), which was followed by an immense tsunami that killed nearly forty thousand people. The effects of the immense waves were felt as far away as France. Barometers in Bogotá and Washington, D.C., went haywire. Bodies were washed up in Zanzibar.

The Story of Art, by Ernst Gombrich (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Gombrich), is a survey of the history of art from ancient times to the modern era. First published in 1950, the book is widely regarded both as a seminal work of criticism, and as one of the most accessible introductions to the visual arts. It was originally intended

This book (published 2013) about nothing sounds like a plain oxymoron. However, there are fascinating possibilities in the concepts of emptiness and non-existence. Scientists have suspected for centuries that ‘nothing’ may be the key to understanding absolutely everything, from why particles have mass to the expansion of the universe – so without nothing we’d be precisely nowhere. Absolute zero (the coldest

In this book from 1961 Lewis Mumford (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Mumford) argues for a world not in which technology reigns, but rather in which it achieves a balance with nature. His ideal vision is what can be described as an ‘organic city’, where culture is not usurped by technological innovation but rather thrives with it. Mumford contrasts these cities with