A short list for spring days

Click on the all-seeing eye for a short list of a dozen books to see you through these early spring days. The oldest book was published in 1499, the newest in 2013. Quite a spread. And with letters from Plato and Alexander the Great as well as an annotated poem by Allen Ginsberg, Stephen Hawking's thumb-print signature and a cast of Shakespeare's tomb portrait, there is no lack of variety.