[woodsman]

For the thinking person; Bertrand Russell: A History of Western Philosophy is an exceptionally detailed yet very readable account of the developement of scientific thinking and of how and when man first began to ask the fundamental questions. Russell cover philosphy from Greece before the times of christ untill the begining of the 20th century. Putting philosophical ideas and theories across in an easy and understandable fashion.
Christine Marion Frazer has written several books about the fictional island of Rhanna in the hebrides off Scotland. the books vary but are generally charachter studies of people in small isolated communites where she describes the problems caused by outsiders and rifts within the community in a moving yet readable fashion.