For my part, I was quite disappointed that no one seems to've compiled a list of Abbé Faria's 150 books (from _The Count of Monte Cristo_).
I thought _An Incomplete Education_ by Judy Jones and William Wilson was interesting enough back when it first came out:
http://www.amazon.com/Incomplete-Edu...lete+education
For free texts:
- The Best of Quora 2010--2012:
http://qsf.cf.quoracdn.net/best_of_quora_2010-2012.pdf
- John Scalzi's _That Was The Millennium That Was_ had some fairly interesting information in it
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/07/3...a-free-e-book/
For my part, I've been trying to get some sens of history by reading biographies --- did almost all the American Presidents w/ my kids, and have been trying to put together a comprehensive list, chronologically ordered of biographies which I'd find interesting and worth reading....