Haven't read this yet, but it sounds neat:

Just My Type by Simon Garfield
http://www.amazon.com/Just-My-Type-About-Fonts/dp/1592407463


"Simon Garfield’s Just My Type presents an entertaining history of fonts, from font "pirating" dating back nearly as far as Gutenberg to the creation of Comic Sans and Ikea’s font-change controversy. With a variety of recent, news-making examples and font samples throughout, Just My Type explains how and why certain fonts can elicit emotions or gut-instinct reactions. Garfield’s humor and historical anecdotes add to his deep understanding of how something as simple as font choice can speak volumes about our cultural climate--and why it’s so easy to agonize over what font to use on a party invitation. Whether you’re already a font aficionado or can’t tell the difference between Times New Roman and Arial, this entertaining history will give you a greater appreciation of the typefaces that surround you every day. --Malissa Kent"

More info here: http://gadgetopia.com/post/9282

I am currently reading: the name of the wind
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicle/dp/0575081406/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1430825924&sr=8-1&keywords=name+of+the+wind
It is actually pretty amazing if you are any into fantasy. The development of characters is quite nice.

I have read it already, but didn't liked it as much as other do. I still prefer Conan ...

First one is very good, but has only examples from USA ...

Second one ... Well, If I remember correctly, some remarks from him about economics are not necessarily correct ... If I were you, I wouldn't believe every word he says ... Otherwise, good attempt at squeezing a human history into one book.

Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy: Annihilation; Authority; Acceptance - the omnibus edition of Jeff VanderMeer's weird trilogy about the "Southern Reach" a bizarre and somewhat sinister manifestation of reality that lurks behind some sort of dimensional barrier along the southern coast of the United States. With elements of an implied eco-disaster, government cover-ups, conspiracy, psycho-drama, and surrealism, Area X is utterly unclassifiable as to story genre.

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Not so much a book, but worth sharing.

Arthur C. Clark's 31-word scifi story (courtesy of OpenCulture):

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I just started on Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. I'm only a couple pages into Chapter 1 (but I read the introduction) and it seems like it will be an interesting book.

I just started on Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. I'm only a couple pages into Chapter 1 (but I read the introduction) and it seems like it will be an interesting book.
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I'd be interested in what you make of the book after reading it.
The title of the book caught my attention as it echoed what I have often said to myself and others: "Why can't people stop from talking all the time and just allow themselves to take time to think?"

I was able to form some kind of idea of what the book was about from reading the introduction and excerpts at the link (thanks for providing that). Reading the book could potentially be quite self-revealing, I suppose, or it might just be a feel-good sop pandering to the self-absorbed or the insecure/uncertain who may be concerned about whether they are extrovert/introvert - "Oh dear, maybe I'm not OK?" - like (say) one being unsure as to whether one was gay. ("Oh, I so badly want to be an extrovert and be accepted!")

I have to say that, after studying psychology, pragmatically it doesn't seem to matter a toss whether I or anyone else is extrovert/introvert. It can lead to insidious labelling. I always considered myself - and still do - to be a relative introvert (prefer to read a book than see the movie version; prefer to stay at home than go out; tend to avoid attending and wasting my time in potentially unnecessary groups/parties/meetings; tend to be quiet in groups and discussions unless there is a valid and useful point that I feel needs to be made and is being overlooked, etc.) - and yet I come out strongly labelled as an ENTJ on the Myers-Briggs psychometric tests, and so heavily skewed in the "T" that two psychologists (who were testing me for vocational aptitude) separately treated me like a peculiar lab specimen and said that I was in a small group of 4% of the population tested. It seems to be related to a strong locus of internal control and the Asperger syndrome, or something.
So, regardless of what I might know myself to be, I am forever labelled as an Extrovert by the forced dichotomy of the theoretical Myers-Briggs model, where the population distribution of introvert/extrovert is apparently around 50/50.

As a skeptic and as a student of psychology, I remind myself that psychology is arguably mostly BS - psychobabble - in a field where there seems to be little that can be scientifically proven (i.e., using scientific method) - and seems to be just lots of theory, interspersed with dollops of hokum here and there. Fortunately some of that theory has shown itself  to be potentially and remarkably useful as tools for helping us to address our own character deficiencies or personality disorders under professional guidance from a psychiatrist, so that we can better cope with Life's challenges - e.g., as outlined in The Road Less Travelled, by M. Scott Peck.
Anything that can help you to change yourself and grow arguably can't be all bad, but it could be a double-edged sword - like a divorce, which might generate developmental dissonance for one person, or destructive dissonance for another.

So my suggestion would be to disregard the unproven (yet apparently "well-researched"!       ) premise of the book that the world is made up of introverts/extroverts and that this is somehow very important, and avoid reading oneself as a self-deduced introvert/extrovert into the book. Take it with a pinch of salt, and then get an arguably more important and entirely rational perspective by reading I'm OK, You're OK by the late Thomas Harris, who was a Navy psychiatrist and a professor at the University of Arkansas. He practiced psychiatry in Sacramento, California and directed the Transactional Analysis Association.

I'm OK, You're OK by Thomas Anthony Harris is one of the best selling self-help books ever published. It is a practical guide to Transactional Analysis as a method for solving problems in life. From its first publication during 1969, the popularity of I'm OK, You're OK gradually increased until, during 1972, its name made the New York Times Best Seller list and remained there for almost two years. It is estimated by the publisher to have sold over 15 million copies to date and to have been translated into over a dozen languages. -
Wikipedia
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I'm OK, You're OK was required reading for my studies, since when the theory has been extensively developed in greater detail by academics. Not only did it give me a good grounding in the theory of TA (transactional analysis), but also, when I applied it to myself and my interactions with others, it transformed my outlook on life (for the better). I still use it (TA), and I have taught it to my 13½ y/o daughter, who readily grasped the concepts. It's not complicated, and it can be amazingly effective.
I have even explained the TA theory to others who have been having difficulty in coping with their social interrelationships (e.g., in marriage), and watched in awe as comprehension dawns, the lights come on, and they go off and fix up their own problems.
"Thank you so much for telling me about and showing me that book", as one recently-wed boss of mine said, when I explained that a recurring pointless argumentative dialogue she described having with her new husband fitted the definition of a script in TA theory, and was potentially damaging to the relationship and was avoidable.

I read The Variable Man by Philip K. Dick today.  A nice read that may be completed in one sitting.  Also it has the advantage of being a free download, in several formats, from Project Gutenberg.

Just finished The Islanders by Christopher Priest.

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Odd meta-novel. Part gazette, part almanac, part semi-linked short story/essay collection that hangs together particularly well, although in a very peculiar way. Another one of those books I personally like that you'll either love or hate. Hard to classify as to subject or style. For lack of a better word, I'd call it "experimental."

On the surface it's a guidebook to the Dream Archipelago, a vast collection of islands located in the Midway Sea, on an unnamed earth-like world. This archipelago has some unusual features such as being generally impossible to map or catalog. It also displays temporal and spatial contractions and discontinuities in seemingly random fashion.

To the north is an unnamed super-continent which is home to approximately 60 nations, several of which are constantly in a state of war with each other. To the south is another mostly arctic super-continent named Sudmaieure. Sudmaieure is uninhabited. It's only use is to serve as a battleground for various warring northern nations who would prefer to conduct their hostilities with each other outside their geographic borders in order to avoid civilian casualties and damage to their infrastructure and cities. One feature of the Dream Archipelago is the constant coming and goings of warships and troop transports shuttling young military forces and frightening warmaking technologies to the hot wars being conducted in the southern continent. It is generally believed that the troops who are sent there seldom return - although even that, like everything else in this book, is not an established fact.

The Archipelago is officially neutral by covenant, and remains out of the northern conflicts. Although that doesn't stop various northern nations from occupying, annexing, or establishing bases at will wherever they feel the need - something the island nations protest vehemently but basically have no power to prevent - any more than they can the mysterious drone flights (ostensibly for mapping purposes) that are seen everywhere in the archipelago - although nobody really knows what they're up there for.

Inside this framework, anything and everything goes. Some sections read like a tour guide for a particular island. Several are disjointed pieces of larger tales that straddle various islands or characters the reader meets along the way. All in all, a crazy jigsaw puzzle of impressions, narrative, and character development.

I don't know whether this book is an allegory, simply brilliant, or just Christopher Priest using up his collection of snippets and story pieces which he never expanded into full novels. But whatever it is, I found it a really enjoyable albeit different sort of book. And I was actually disappointed when I reached the end. First, because I really enjoyed the journey the book took me on. And second, because I still had so many intriguing questions left unanswered.

If you're the sort who demands closure and a general 'tidying up' by the end of a book you'll really be annoyed by this one.

Publisher's Weekly had this to say:

British novelist Priest (The Prestige) creates a mind-bending, head-scratching book (already much lauded in the U.K.) that pretends to be a gazetteer of the Dream Archipelago, uncountable islands spread around a world whose temporal and spatial anomalies make such a project futile. The dispassionate descriptions of separate islands include odd references out of which it's possible to begin assembling a cast of characters: maniac artists, social reformers, murderers, scientific researchers, and passionate lovers. Some of these categories overlap, and all the actors are maddeningly fragmented, apt to fade away or flash intensely to life. Interpolated bits of directly personal narratives sometimes clarify and sometimes muddy the story (or stories), while uncanny events struggle to escape the gazetteers' avowedly objective control and Priest's elegant, cool prose. The result is wonderfully fascinating, if occasionally frustrating, and entirely unforgettable.[

Not for everyone. But highly recommended. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughterhouse-Five