Picked some more or less random old ones off my shelves to browse in today:

Edward Gibbon, _The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_ (1776-1781). One can pick a chapter at random & escape from present to ancient wickedness & foolishness.

Elizabeth Hawes, _Men Can Take It_ (1939). An extended complaint, by a well-known fashion designer, that the clothing of respectable men in the U.S. is unnecessarily uncomfortable. Amusing, temperate, and amazing when one considers how many other things people had to worry about in 1939.