I don't read many chess books these days - they can be a bit deep and dull at times but I read an absolutely brilliant one recently called 'The Immortal Game'.
You can find it in Rugby Library by David Shenk and is a very lively portrait of chess and its changes from its Middle East origins to the effects of computers on the game today. It has quite a lot on the effects of chess on people like Napoleon, Fischer, Benjamin Franklin and others but also has some great stuff on how - used wisely - it can help the education and learning of young people using some pioneering approaches in New York.
It has one or two of the great games of chess history so I will add below one of my favourites - the game between Rotlevi and Rubinstein in 1907. Its just a masterpiece !
