A "Textbook" That Won't Push Your Buttons: Napoleon's Buttons

One of my biggest pet peeves in the U.S. education system is the reliance on textbooks. Weird coming from a girl who loves books and reading, huh? But most textbooks, in my opinion, are not worthy of the title "book." They are torture devices invented, not to help students learn, but to make money and make people hate school. Though the level of premeditation in manufacturing boredom on the part of textbook companies is questionable, what isn't in question is the fact that they suck. The writers take whole chapters to explain things that could have been said in a few pages and they often use huge confusing words (I think on purpose) that aren't relevant at all and merely serve to perpetuate confusion. (Actually, the only exceptions to this rule are Communication Studies Textbooks. Not all of them, but some, are remarkably efficient--they're the textbooks that cued me in to the fact that textbooks don't have to be so bad).

So, if you feel the way I do about textbooks, why on earth would you choose to read one? Well #1 I didn't originally choose to read Napoleon's Buttons: 17 Molecules That Changed History (by Penny LeCouteur & Jay Burreson). I was assigned to read a chapter of it for a Chemistry class in college and I ended up liking it so much that I read many of the other chapters on my own. and #2 I might not call this book a textbook in a traditional sense (though I did learn WAY more than I would have learned from any textbook). It's not one of those heavy, hardcover books that they make in sizes and shapes that hardly ever fit right in your bag and that are probably the cause of premature back pain everywhere. It's regular paperback size (thank goodness) and with fewer useless diagrams, appendices, indexes, and general space-wasting garbage.

If you're interested in Chemistry or History at all, or you're like me and you just have a thirst for random knowledge, this book is going to be your new best friend. After reading it, you'll have a bunch of cool new facts on hand to wow people with in conversation. 'Cause nothing gets the party started like you educating your guests on the part played by Ergot Alkaloids in the Salem Witch Trials. And if you're trying to score points with the ladies, what better way than than to explain why the properties of tin (in addition to all the other reasons no army should ever invade Russia), led to Napoleon's ultimate defeat. In all seriousness though, if you sometimes just have the urge to know more about the way the world works and historical events, this book will help you do that in a way that doesn't bore your pants off.

One of the best things about it is the manageable sections. This isn't a book I would recommend sitting down with and reading all at once--it's one of those one's you'll have to come back to over time. And the authors did a great job recognizing that fact and organizing the book in a way that fits with this type of reading. Instead of chronological order, like most history books, where you're wading through decades of useless info just to get to the part you want, this book is separated by subjects. So you'll learn about one of the seventeen molecules and it's continued influence throughout history all in one chapter.

The other great thing is that the writing is accessible--though I will admit, only up until a certain point. Yes the writers did a great job making sense of difficult subject matter for the reader. But this is still a book primarily dealing with chemicals and chemical processes. It's not something you'd read to your kid as a bedtime story (unless he/she's a genius) and it's not something I'd recommend for younger readers, even young adults, unless they read a lot and have an interest in Chemistry and/or History. It can get a little technical at times when explaining why certain chemicals react in the ways that they do. That being said I do think it's a great teaching tool for colleges, and maybe even high school classes (in smaller doses--for example, reading a few chapters at intervals when they're relevant to the chemicals and processes talked about in class).

Napoleon's Buttons is a perfect book for independent adult learning. Like I said earlier, if you're the type of person who just feels like knowing more about... (for lack of a better word) stuff, this is your book. So if your bookshelf is like mine, where you mix a good deal of educational/nonfiction with books about zombies, faeries, mystery and magic, then this book will fit right in on the shelf.