I can direct you to eor's review of The Book Of Tea (http://eor.livejournal.com/156022.html), but mainly for the link he provides to Gutenberg so you can read it yourself if you want. It's not a tremendously long book, but he said it drew in all kinds of ideas of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. And, apparently, was fun to read. That's my next up, I think. :)