While fiction is my favorite reading material, I also enjoy reading nonfiction occasionally. I guess that is related to the fact that I enjoy learning new things, probably moreso now than when I was a student decades ago. I am half-finished reading Scientific American Mind, and it is a fascinating magazine, reminding me of Psychology Today which I subscribed to about two decades ago. I have always been more interested in the mind than most other sciences, but not nearly as much as I love history and culture. I have sought out magazines in those areas, but I have not found many of them available. History magazines tend to be too narrow-focussed, and usually war-related. I found one general history magazine, but it consisted of such short articles that it was not really in-depth enough for my taste. There are several Italian culture magazines available, such as Bell’ Italia and Italy Italy, not to mention all the Italian
cooking magazines, but they also tend to be too much surface and little depth.

Of course, there are thousands of books about history and culture, several dozen of which are on my recommended reading list, and another dozen or so on my bookshelves unread. I have decided to list here some of the nonfiction books waiting anxiously for me to read them, at least a few of which I hope to read this upcoming summer:

Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling
The Conclave (a history of Roman Catholic papal conclaves)
Mountain of Fame (essays on famous Chinese people)
In Search of Robinson Crusoe (Tim Severin explores less-populated regions of the world, usually following some famous historic trek)
The Seekers (essays by Daniel Boorstin on the history of artists/writers/etc)
The Empire of Genghis Khan (another modern explorer seeks traces of the historic empire)
The Italian 100 (100 brief essays on famous Italians post-Roman Empire)
A Traveler in Rome (history and culture, written in the mid-20th century)
Myths and Legends of China
Full Circle (Michael Palin travels around the Pacific Rim)
Seventy Wonders of the Ancient World
The Great Movies (Roger Ebert selects 100 of his favorite movies)
Treasury of Physics/Math (brief essays on numerous topics)
God's Chinese Son (Jonathan Spence's book about the Taiping Rebellion of 1864)
Search For Modern China (Spence's history of China)
History of God (a history of world religions)