Cod: Biography of the Fish That Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky

What a fine little book. I have been sitting on this for something like three years, and I finally dusted it off. I am not typically intrigued by matters of economic history, but this was just fascinating. Who knew a fish could be so important to the unfolding of a thousand years of world events? Although having grown up with a fifteen-foot statue of a cod at the entrance to my hometown, I might have guessed that something bigger than lutefisk was at stake. Highly recommended (the book, not the lutefisk, although I do enjoy a small bowl at Christmas).