Although I voted for the "collection of middlebrow science essays," it would be equally fine if
A Thousand Miles Up the Nile were chosen. I'm sure Harry has done an exceptional job proofing it. Although a travelogue may not sound like the most interesting of subjects, I recall first reading
Cape Cod by Henry David Thoreau when I was (approximately) 12 years old. I thoroughly enjoyed Thoreau's many diversions as much as the log of his trek through Cape Cod. His discussion of the psychotropic properties of Jamestown (Jimson) Weed was a trip (in more ways than one).
Since these areas have been irrevocably (or nearly so) changed by the hand of man* and the passage of time, century-old travelogues evoke both nostalgia and melancholy.
* and woman!
