Texts.

Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe. Great tale about Okonkwo, an ignorant, superstitious man living in an ignorant, superstitious society - except ignorant isn't the right word since he did know a lot about how to survive and thrive, even if that involved beating the crap out of his wives or children. Anyway, the classic of African lit. A+++ for proverbs and folksy creation tales!

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. DO NOT read this book while on a night flight, for you will land expecting to find a blasted postapocalyptic wasteland. Strangely affecting even if sometimes monotonic and monochromatic (how much ash can a reader take?). It's unclear what the disaster was (nuclear war?) but judging from this book the holocaust took many many innocent commas with it. The upcoming film was shot in and around Pittsburgh. Draw your own conclusions.