The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham has gotten better, now that we're into his rather complex personal life, not an expanded bibliography of his output.
The Evolution of Useful Things: How Everyday Artifacts-From Forks and Pins to Paper Clips and Zippers-Came to be as They are, on the other hand, is proving overall kind of dry.
I must be on a real curmudgeon streak these days -
Just as Well I'm Leaving: To the Orient with Hans Christian Andersen is mildly disappointing. The blurb on the front of my copy proclaims Booth is "funnier than Bryson"; I've mostly fallen-out-of-love with Bill B. so that didn't mean much to me - this one's not bad, though the humor seems forced at times. Andersen was quite the eccentric character!