I came across a volume in this series called London, by A. N. Wilson in a used bookstore. The series itself intrigued me. They are a series of 'chronicles' published by Modern Library, usually around 200 pages, give or take, on different things in history, by different authors.
It's occured to me if one were to develop an eccentric hobby of collecting everything of something you wouldn't completely waste your time doing it with this series. I mean if you actually also read each one.
Here's a Wikipedia page with an apparently incomplete list of the series.
Each may not be the 'best' source on its particular subject, but, hey, you are just collecting each one and reading it. With a goal to get every one. Eccentric, yes, but better than collecting figurines of donkeys or something.
And a benefit is the series editorial style of the books, coupled with the fact that each has a different author, is such that each would give you, in a light way, little facts and images and events and so on such that would contribute to the base of your already accumulated knowledge. Just some new things to add to the mental furniture. Nothing that will effect spiritual development or give you deep language or anything, but, you know, just an eccentric goal/hobby to pursue...
1.23.2010
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Even if a volume is obviously politically-correct or something at least you'd get a sense of what other people are reading and believe and so on. Read them all as a sort of field study of what's going on around you if need be. Most of them are probably pretty good though. Some you might know more than the author and you'd have to read them getting things wrong (the religious themed ones for instance, or the one on evolution written from a true believer's point-of-view), but again that would be seeing how others view things and not a worthless effort for that reason.
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