Alpha Beta: How or Alphabet Changed the Western World by John Man

A chatty and readable history of the alphabet, the set of letters used to put the languages of Western Europe into writing. There are plenty of interesting aside, in particular the story of the Korean alphabet. The progress of alphabet development is discussed in terms of the theory of memes. It was pleasant to learn that languages that uses clicking sounds are only found in Southern Africa.

Appendices to the book contains a family tree of the alphabet and tables of alphabets.

A DNA sequence that produces a protein that goes to make eyes blue is a long way from those blue eyes that you can't get out of your mind since you saw them across a crowded room at a party last Thursday