[saippo]

Question: Does anyone have recommendations for interesting chemistry books (preferably less than 400 pages) that are not too technical?

Ramble:
(plz let me ramble I have no friends)
Like a dutiful chemistry student, I was doing my chem psets the other day when it struck me that I haven't actually read any books the past year.
I remember my perspective of physics changed when during the summer before my first undergrad physics class, my father would spend an hour or so taking the time after work and discussed interesting physics concepts in a really easy to understand way. Obviously these were greatly simplified and I don't know how much they helped in getting me good test scores but I know for a fact that it made me really like physics.
I have seen so many physics books of great variety that I thought it'd be pretty easy to find short, intriguing chem books. I was dead wrong. Or maybe I'm looking at the wrong places. I picked a few by prominent chemists but they often required a lot of googling and decoding and though they were packed with information, it became another assignment rather than a stress relief.
Couple years ago I read Faraday's lectures on candles and thought they were great although they were for children...

[jasongnome]

Theodore Gray's books spring to mind for a fun look at chemistry.

[saippo]

I have seen his books before but they weren't quite what I was looking for. I've skimmed his Elements and Molecules because they were popular in amazon and they were neat but I'm not sure if it's the type of book I'd want to crack open between classes.
I was hoping more along the lines of anecdotes, history, or interesting perspectives/ideas...

[AWK]

Check:
From the Molecular World by Hermann Kopp translated by Alan Rocke
Chemical fantasy from 1882.
There is a comprehensive preview on Springer
http://www.springer.com/us/book/9783642274152