At Home by Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson takes on ordinary household items that we take for granted and writes a book about them. Bill says “Looking around my house, I was startled and somewhat appalled to realize how little I knew about the domestic world around me. Sitting at the kitchen table one afternoon, playing idly with the salt and pepper shakers, it occurred to me that I had absolutely no idea why, out of all the spices in the world, we have such an abiding attachment to those two. Why not pepper and cardamom, say, or salt and cinnamon?”

Bill Bryson takes rooms in his house and gives a history of items found in those rooms from furniture to food and beyond. See Bill’s website: http://www.booksattransworld.co.uk/billbryson/