1) Longitude by Dava Sobel. Slim book but reads like a thriller. I never imagined that the discovery of longitude was filled with so much intrigue and backstabbing.
2) The professor and the madman on how the Oxford English Dictionary was created. This was the original collaborative project that preceded Wikipedia. It took 70 years to put together and countless volunteers contributed to the OED. It is said that two tons of written materials were shipped back and forth between the editors and contributors! Venky
