The Complete Essays

Michel Montaigne, de Montaigne Michel

In 1572 Montaigne retired to his estates in order to devote himself to leisure, reading and thinking. There he wrote his constantly expanding 'assays', inspired by ideas he found in the books of his library and his own experience. He discussed subjects as diverse as war-horses and cannibals, poetry and ...

Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words (PB)

Randall Munroe

From the No. 1 bestselling author of What If? - the man who created xkcd and explained the laws of science with cartoons - comes a series of brilliantly simple diagrams ('blueprints' if you want to be complicated about it) that show how important things work: from the nuclear bomb to the biro.It's good ...