7 Books Guaranteed To Make You Smarter

There are lots of reasons to pick up a book. Maybe you’re in the mood for an escape from your everyday. Maybe you have a hankering to perfect your grilled cheese recipe. Maybe you are confused and thought the book in question was the hollowed-out one where you store your bathtub gin, because you think it’s still prohibition (nice fedora, by the way).
But more often than not, we read to learn something, even if all we learn is what happens when a human falls in love with a vampire. This is a good thing, because the more you know, the longer you live, especially if you know things like how to escape from drunken bears. If you’re looking to be both entertained AND enlightened, here are 7 books guaranteed to make you a little bit smarter:
1. Gulp: Adventures on the Ailmentary Canal, by Mary Roach. Roach can tackle any subject, be it ghosts, cadavers, sex, or outer space with equal amounts of passion, zeal, and and her trademark zany sense of humor. After reading Gulp, you’ll be able to keep dinner party small talk going by discussing dog-food taste-testers, and the fact that your butt hole basically has taste buds!
2. A Walk In The Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail, by Bill Bryson. Bill Bryson is so interesting that he literally once wrote a book about the rooms in a house that changed my life with its exhaustive and awesome amount of content. Bryson takes it out of doors for this one, walking the length of the Appalachian trail, griping hilariously about how unprepared he actually was for the endeavor and sharing aspects of nature most of have ignored, forgotten, or never even conceived of.
3. The American Way of Death, by Jessica Mitford. Not only was this groundbreaking exposé of the commercialization of the funeral industry a proverbial landmine when it was first published, but its author, Jessica “Decca” Mitford, comes from an equally fascinating and at-odds English family, whose members included both the author Nancy Mitford and Hitler supporter Unity Mitford.
4. Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt: The Story of a Daughter and a Mother in the Gilded Age, by Amanda MacKenzie Stuart. Partly a story of one of America’s wealthiest families and partly a tale of suffrage and the role that British and American gentlewomen of the age played in it, this is a riveting read. Be you a fan of social justice, history, or politics, this one’s got something for everyone.
5. The Courage to Write, by Ralph Keyes. Proof that not all how-to manuals are created even remotely equally. Whether you consider yourself a writer, or just a fan of some solid as heck prose, this is definitely worth picking up. Part instruction manual, part inspirational tome, with loads of choice tidbits on writing from the greats, this one will make your brain expand. In a good way.
6. The Annotated Alice, by Lewis Carroll, Notes by Martin Gardner. After all this learning, you might be slightly zonked, and feeling due for a nap. Unfortunately, I cannot allow that. Instead of napping, take a break with this classic children’s tale…and the illuminating, fascinating notes on the text and its author, compiled by Martin Gardner. It’s little kid reading all grown up.
7. Train Your Brain Su Doku, by Wayne Gold. Hey—wake up! I know, I know, I’ve really put you through your paces, brain-training–wise. That’s why I’ve brought you this book of puzzles! Do some Su Doku, and train your brain with this numbers game while digesting everything else you’ve chomped on today—mentally speaking.
What books have made you smarter?