The Book of Books by Melvyn Bragg

This is a history of the King James Bible and its impact on the world since first publication.
It's a very wide-ranging book, beginning with earlier Bibles and covering such themes as feminism, philosophy, the American Civil War, 19th century philanthropy and socialism, to name but a few. It makes the case well but I feel is a little too wide-ranging at times, straying into territory (for example, taking on Dawkins) which would be better covered in another book, though fascinating nevertheless and of course well-written. It certainly kept my interest throughout the 350 or so pages and altered my perspective on what I had previously considered a rather outdated book.
 I'd recommend this to anyone with an interest in church or American history,  language or social change.