[leephillips]

Have a look at this book:

http://practicaltypography.com/

[ScottWhigham]

But it says in the opening salvo, "The fastest, eas­i­est, and most vis­i­ble im­prove­ment you can make to your ty­pog­ra­phy is to ig­nore the fonts that came free with your com­put­er... and buy a pro­fes­sion­al font". Not quite "in the spirit" of the OP!

[pseut]

Especially http://practicaltypography.com/charter.html and http://practicaltypography.com/georgia-alternatives.html