This is a great introduction to psycholinguistics. Pinker does a great job explaining how individuals learn language and how our brains are hardwired to do this. It is a fairly easy read of a potentially complex topic and you will definitely feel smarter after completing this. From an academic standpoint, Pinker can sometimes be controversial (and he doesn't always agree with others on such topics as neuroplasticity or linguistic categorization - but these differences tend to lie in the persnickety erudite academic details) but his snarkiness makes him a great writer to read as he can turn a quick phrase and draw you into the text.
I'm a HUGE fan of Bill Bryson. And if you have time and like travel writing, I can't recommend enough, A Walk in The Woods
. In that book Bryson hikes the Applachian Trail and is completely inept doing so. In Made in America, he examines the wonderful language of "American" and how it is beautifully different than "English". This is done mostly through rambling around and giving us different etymologies of objects in America (including some interesting stuff on brand names - and how you can often tell when a product was developed by its name). It also goes into place names, regional dialects and sayings, as well as discussing the origin of many common words and sayings. It's a classic source of useless arcana.
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