One of the benefits of commuting between Cambridge, where I live, and London, where I work, is that I get to sit on a train for two hours each day. Now this is not a lifestyle choice with which anyone remotely familiar with British Transport would instinctively associate the term 'benefit', but as far as my reading habits are concerned, it does provide me with a genuinely worthwhile opportunity for personal improvement.

It took me a while to get used to the unnatural rhythm that is created by commuting. I generally leave the house in a state of what could easily pass as 'awake' to the casual bystander, and by the time I've got to the station 15 minutes later, some of my higher brain functions have kicked in as well - talking, recognizing friends, standing on the right platform¹, etc.

However, once seated in the warmth and relative comfort of the train, the murmers of other commuters and the gentle swaying of the carriage would often succeed in drawing me back to my grudgingly vacated state of sleep, and when I got in to King's Cross it would happen all over again: the sudden bustle of activity when disembarking; the avoidance of 'bimblers' on the Underground; the negotiation of the ruptured paving slabs down Kingsway - they would all succeed in waking me up again by the time I'm sat at my desk, where coffee steps in to do its sweet, inimitable work.

After a month or so of this cruelly punctuated snooze rhythm², and the help of some really quite interesting books, I became pretty accomplished at fooling my brain into a premature state of alertness, and sleep hardly ever bothers me now; I get to read for these couple of hours a day, and it makes a pleasant 'buffer zone' of quiet time separating work from play, which I would otherwise probably spend parked in front ot the TV.

All of which lengthy burbling brings us to the point of this entry: essential non-fiction. Note that I have purposely excluded other book genres from this discussion; not because I don't read any, or think them worthless - far from it: I generally read fiction and non-fiction books alternately to keep my head balanced - it's just that I would like to draw particular attention to the under-appreciated subjects, styles and insights that non-fiction offers. I therefore propose to maintain a page or two listing the non-fiction books that I've enjoyed and would recommend to others who might like to exercise their curiosity in those areas. Some of these books I would consider ground-breaking in their substance and style: anyone who would like to understand the current state of play in those areas should consider them essential, in my opinion.

There are several frequently appearing subjects: popular science and linguistics make up the core of my interests, but there are other more disparate topics: cartography, music, history - anything that piques my interest³, in fact. I think I'll list them in the reverse order in which I read them (i.e. latest at the top) - there's nothing more unappealing than a subject-by-subject list: it has that smack of 'required reading list' about it. In fact I'd go so far at to say that some of these books have utterly changed the way I view life, in ways too innumerably interlinked to mention.

Manufacturing Consent - Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky, 1995

With the recent international action being taken by large governments around the world, this book becomes more relevant than ever. It explains what a government has to do to get its way - how we're manipulated and coddled to keep us happy, while those with the power get rich and play with the world. A shocking exposée of marketing, propaganda and politics.

Understanding Media - Marshall McCluhan, 1964

Although this was writen nearly 40 years ago, the point it brings across is, and always will be, a very powerful one: "The Medium Is The Message." It covers all media and civilisation influences, and tells of how their existence changed the world, and, in the case of the more obvious media, the very messages that were being created using them. A seminal work.

Darwin's Dangerous Idea - Daniel C. Dennett, 1995

An exploration of the huge implications behind the Theory of Evolution. Its subtitle is 'Evolution and the Meanings of Life'. Very thorough, with many fascinating points. Quite dry humour in parts as well.

Unweaving The Rainbow - Richard Dawkins, 1998

This latest work from Dawkins incorporates two main arguments: the first that science in no way removes any sense of wonder from beautiful creations - only adds further wonders - the other is Dawkins's response to the increasingly apparent lack of logical sense concerning scientific issues that is being put about in books, TV and other popular media. The book exposes the 'bad poetry' and misconceived reasoning used to give spurious scientific foundation to astrology and similar belief systems, and also goes some way towards explaining why such belief systems are prevalent in our society.

It also discusses a method to calculate the mass and length of an elephant's penis using a Fourier analysis of its urine trail left on a road during its musth period. You can't say that about many books...

The Meme Machine - Susan Blackmore, 1999

Blackmore explores the implications of the idea that humans are no longer just 'selected for' by one relicator - i.e. our genes - there is another one: the meme. Memes are ideas, behaviours - mental viruses, if you like, and humans' natural tendency as imitators to copy those things we like or that affect us means that these memes spread from brain to brain, re-programming us to a certain extent.

This memetic theory is pretty much classical Darwinian evolution for the brain, and Blackmore extends the idea to such apparent memes as kindness, generosity, religion, and, ultimately, the idea of 'self'.

The Language Instinct - Stephen Pinker, 1995

In this famous volume, Pinker argues, extremely persuasively, that we humans have an innate and instinctve ability to pick up language in our early years - that we all subconsciously appreciate the finer points of a 'Universal Grammar'. It also address and de-bunks a large number of commin misconceptions about the nature of language and its use.

I can't stress enough how important this book is if you want to understand language, even - especially - if you think you already do.

The Blind Watchmaker - Richard Dawkins, 1990

This book explains away the apparent paradox that creatures as complex as ourselves (and other other animals) have supposedly evolved through the seemingly random processes proposed by the theory of Darwinian evolution. It explains the process of natural selection with many enlightening analogies and thought experiments.