The Stuff of Thought

Steven Pinker's book on language and thought is fabulous. Some of the chapters were kind of boring (such as the one on swearing), but some were fascinating beyond belief. The somewhat obvious (in retrospect) idea that language is not how we think is remarkable, and Pinker's description of how linguists have deconstructed the building blocks of thought is wonderful. Read this book, if you read only one non-fiction book this year.