Also for the politically minded--or anyone in an allegedly Democratic system who votes: First Democracy: The Challenge of an Ancient Idea, by Paul Woodruff. A real eye-opener.

For a good read, a couple of random selections:

Scaramouche, by Rafael Sabatini. Set in and around the French Revolution, one heck of an adventure story. The movie with Stewart Granger doesn't come anywhere close to doing it justice.

Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. None of the movies do it justice. The novel (written by an eighteen year old girl!) raises the question of "who is the real monster here, the 'Creature' or Dr. Frankenstein?" Dr. Frankenstein creates, then forsakes his creation, leaving "Adam 2" to fend for himself....

Science fiction writer Brian Aldiss credits Frankenstein with being the real first science fiction novel ever written. Mary Shelley was extrapolation from known science at the time ("Galvanism").

The movies don't come close to the story that Mary Shelley really wrote.

Don Firth