A few recent reads:

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks - remember that part in Awakenings where they figure out that certain catatonic patients respond to music and there's the one guy who prefers Jimi Hendrix? Well, this book (by the author of Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat) is a deeper exploration of musical/neurological phenomena, like the man who was struck by lightning and therafter could not get enough Chopin in his life. (He also started hearing beautiful music but initially lacked the ability to write it down or perform it.) I haven't finished the book yet, but I'm hoping he eventually explains why I smell fish when I listen to Depeche Mode's Black Celebration.

Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill by Gretchen Rubin - this one is interesting because Winston Churchill is interesting. But even if you don't care much for him, the book is enlightening in its illustration of how much power a biographer wields in documenting a human life. The first two chapters are "Churchill as Liberty's Champion" and "Churchill as Failed Statesman". With headings like "Winston Churchill was an alcoholic" followed by "Winston Churchill was not an alcoholic", the author shows how the inclusion or exclusion of the right details can turn someone into the person the biographer wants him to be. She also wrote Forty Ways to Look at JFK, which I haven't read yet.

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson - I listened to the audiobook before going to the movie and was thoroughly creeped out by both. I highly recommend the audiobook -- I can still hear the narrator's "Come out, Neville!" in my head. The book was written back in the 50s by the author of What Dreams May Come and a favorite Twilight Zone story: Nightmare at 20,000 Feet (the one where a passenger sees a gremlin on the wing of the plane tearing things up but no one believes him).

Supercrunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers is the New Way to be Smart by Ian Ayres - a pretty interesting read akin to Freakonomics. Discusses how the ability to process huge datasets is changing several industries, including airfare pricing, medical diagnostics, online dating services, and movie script writing.

From Dawn to Decadence by Jacques Barzun - reminds me of an old (and excellent) Humanities 101 class that introduced me to a lot of interesting people in history. My favorite part is near the end when the author describes our current civilization from the perspective of some future historian.

The Medical Detectives by Berton Roueche - inspiration for the tv series House. Intriguing accounts of odd medical cases (poisonous oatmeal, for one) and the doctors who figured them out. Written back in the 40s and 50s, so some of the science is dated, but the stories are fascinating.