... to recommend a book to you, Tom.

More than once you've raved about Connections, and I agree (though I personaly rank The Ascent of Man as slightly higher on the scale). In the same genre, Omnibus Histories of Civilization, here's another I think you'll enjoy:

The Discoverers, by Daniel J. Boorstin - who was, among other high spots in his career, the Librarian of Congress. Among the books I was able to rescue during my expulsion is a single-volume BOMC reprint, which I happen to be re-reading at the moment (found it at a yard sale years ago). Mary Anne tells me it was originally published as a series.

She also tells me Boorstin was a finger-pointer during the McCarthy witch-hunts (lamenting about sometimes learning too much about someone whose work one admires). I have the feeling you'll agree that among our most precious civil liberties is the right to make mistakes in one's life without fear of persecution, and not hold Boorstin's against him.

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You own the Mushroom Planet books??? They, and the Borrowers series, were formative works in my own youth.

I still haven't gotten around to Narnia, though I finally am no longer Potter-deprived, having borrowed all four of them from the library over the New Year holiday and read them cover to cover to cover...

One more recommendation, if you have not already gotten to it: Phillip Pullman's trilogy, known collectively as "His Dark Materials": The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass.

E'