Mythologies (1957) shows Roland Barthes’s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Barthes) interest in the meaning of practically everything around him, not only the books and paintings of high art, but also the slogans, trivia, toys, food, and popular rituals (cruises, striptease, eating, wrestling matches) of contemporary life. For Barthes, words and objects have in common the organized capacity to say something; at […]

By looking at the brilliant minds of mathematician Kurt Godel, graphic artist M. C. Escher, and composer Johann Sebastian Bach, computer-science and cognitive-science professor Douglas Hofstadter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_hofstadter) ties together the aesthetic gift of pattern recognition and manipulation with theories on artificial intelligence, human intelligence, and the essence of self-awareness. Godel, Escher, Bach (1979) is not a

In this highly impressive volume, first published in 1932, T.S. Eliot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._S._Eliot and http://www.eliotsociety.org.uk/) gathered his choice of the miscellaneous reviews and literary essays he had written since 1917 when he became assistant editor of The Egoist. In his preface to the third edition in 1951 he wrote: ‘For myself this book is a kind of historical record of

Since its original publication in 1975, this groundbreaking work has awakened millions of concerned men and women to the shocking abuse of animals everywhere – inspiring a worldwide movement to eliminate much of the cruel and unnecessary laboratory animal experimentation of years past. In a newly revised and expanded edition of 1995, author Peter Singer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Singer) exposes

Homage to Catalonia (1938) is George Orwell‘s personal account of his experiences and observations in the Spanish Civil War. An excellent summary is offered at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homage_to_catalonia. This is a ‘must read’ of our cultural heritage. Available in paperback at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Homage-Catalonia-Penguin-Modern-Classics/dp/0141183055/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389871149&sr=8-1&keywords=homage+to+catalonia There are two excellent episodes of the BBC Radio 4 programmes to go with this. First

While many readers are familiar with John McPhee’s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_mcphee) masterful pieces on a large scale (the geological history of North America, or the nature of Alaska), McPhee is equally remarkable when he considers the seemingly inconsequential. Oranges (1967) was conceived as a short magazine piece, but thanks to his unparalleled investigative skills, became a slim, fact-filled book.

Life is more unpredictable than we are prepared to accept. In this brilliant book Nassim Nicholas Taleb (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassim_taleb and http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/) distils his idiosyncratic wisdom to demolish our illusions, contrasting the classical values of courage, elegance and erudition against modern philistinism and phoniness. Only by accepting what we don’t know, he shows, can we really see the world as