The Drunken Botantist: The Plants That Create the World's Great Drinks by Amy Stewart

This volume contains encyclopedic references to many of the plants that make and flavor our alcoholic beverages. The first section is about the plants that are fermented into alcohols, the second section is about the plants that flavor our drinks, and the third section is about how to grow some of these plants at home. I found this book fascinating--especially the first section. There were lots of explanations about the hows and whys of drinking.

Everyday Drinking: The Distilled Kingsley Amis by Kingsley Amis

This book consists of three parts: "On Drink," "Everyday Drinking," and "How's Your Glass?": the first is an organized treatise on drinking, according to Amis; the second, a collection of newspaper columns reprinted; and the third, a set of quizzes and their answers. The first part is absolutely hilarious, but also rings true (although, I can't imagine drinking as much as Amis suggests). The second part is fairly repetitive of the first part, and also not nearly so well organized, because it seems he's just transposed his weekly columns into the book. The quizzes are wickedly difficult. I can count the number of questions I got right on one hand. I'd recommend reading the first part straight through and dipping into the other parts as you have time. It's taken me the better part of nine months to finish this book: it's just not something you go through in one sitting. As an added bonus there are many intriguing recipes for drinks contained herein.