I pick up way too many books on different topics, but certain themes can't help fill me with wonder, nostalgia. and disbelief all at the same time.

Within the genre of "Popular Books Written by Intellectuals Telling us What-is-What" there is so much to choose from. The sweeping pronouncements and generalizations that authors make about "human destiny" and the like haven't changed much, but graphic sensibility certainly has. Beautiful and often somewhat goofy, the cover gives you a lot to look at, and takes the edge off of what is otherwise a ridiculous proposition, such as "Knowledge, Morality & Destiny" (those Huxley's don't pull any punches!)

I love these books. They sit on my bookshelf doing largely nothing. They are all of the exact same size, almost the same length, and full of hope about how analytical understanding can get you somewhere. If I bothered to read them all and throughly, I wonder if I would come to some appropriately grand conclusion. Save that, I simply like looking at them and guessing.