Frederick Bodmer's "The Loom of Language: An Approach to the Mastery of Many Languages", an oldie but goodie from 1944. Douglas Hofstadter's "Gödel, Escher and

Frederick Bodmer's "The Loom of Language: An Approach to the Mastery of Many Languages", an oldie but goodie from 1944. Douglas Hofstadter's "Gödel, Escher and Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid". Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies".