From the smorgasbord of his nation’s written heritage, British writer and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg picks out an easy-to-digest 12 Books That Changed The World. That is, if ‘book’ is loosely defined to include patent specifications and legal documents.

In a companion book to a TV series that aired in the UK, Bragg presents a largely non-fiction selection which
ranges from the hefty King James Bible to the one-page Magna Carta.

What they all have in common, he claims, is that they began

“with the quiet strokes of a quill or pen and were formed in the seclusion to be sent out into the world… then followed a conceptual chain reaction, sometimes of awesome proportions, which changed the way all of us lead and experience our lives.”

Bragg’s book is certainly a fun read and full of trivia for cocktail parties. But did these books really change the world?

At the very least, his book will help you see the world in a different light.