A bookstore in San Francisco organizes its books based on the rarely used Wavelength Classification system. Beautifully useless.

A really good book, the first that I've liked in the “Noun” title category.
I read it a few months ago, so of course don't remember much of the details — however, I do remember that it covered an amazing swath of knowledge, from the history of the term “red herring” to the importance of La [...]

Another good book in the Noun category. This one has a chapter per color, recounting various social, historical, artistic and chemical facts about each of the ingredients for the various colors covered (Ocher, Black and Brown, White, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet). You learn about red:

This particular red, carmine, is really [...]