The Disappearing Spoon

This was a fairly interesting collection of anecdotes about the role different elements have played historically, as well as how the modern periodic table was developed. There was no real grand narrative to that development, though, which made the book as a whole lack some coherence (which is ironic, as a later chapter discusses coherence as a state of matter). Still, a fun read if you're interested in the topic but don't know much about it.