How We Got to Now

Remember James Burke's TV show Connections? This book is a bit like that, but without Burke's charm and enthusiasm. There are some interesting historical tidbits here, but a science-literate reader will already be familiar with most of it.

My favorite bit is how the invention of the printing press made people realize that they were farsighted, which led to improvements in lenses for reading glasses, which resulted in both telescopes and microscopes.