For me for example its “Eat me - a natural and unnatural history of cannibalism” by Bill Schutt. Its an amazing book that covers cannibalism in animals and then the history of it in humans (cultural, survival & medicinal cannibalism).
I got a lot of “oh why would someone read something like that?” And “that not something fun to read about!” From relatives but my friends enjoyed the stuff that I could tell them about cannibalism!
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At Home by Bill Bryson. He goes through each room in his house and delves into the history of each. The kitchen, the hall, the bedroom, etc. and everything in them. Some people would probably assume it’s dull, but I love those little tidbits of history, and Bill Bryson is a master of educating while not getting dry.
Oh wow that sounds amazing! I always love to learn such things because everything is always developing and to see the history behind everyday things is just so amazing!!
any insights on the shitter?
One Summer: America 1927 by Bill Bryson is the same for me. I never would have picked up a book about one summer in United States history no matter how interesting it was supposed to be if I didn’t already love Bill Brysons writing. I’m so glad I did though it was amazing
Never thought someone could write a whole book on it. Have to read it because its little odd…
The Cannibalism book sounds interesting to me! I just put myself on the wait list for a kindle version from my library. There are dozens of us!
Why would there be a wait list for a Kindle version? Wouldn’t it just download?
Genuinely curious.
Libraries only have a certain number of “copies” of digital books that they are authorized lend out at any one time. Yes, it’s a little ridiculous, but if it was unlimited, the idea is no one would ever buy an e-book.
u sound way too excited for cannibalism. 😃
“Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time”.
It’s about finding a way to determining Longitude when sailing far distances. It was a huge problem for mariners back in the day.
In a similar vein, I love hyper specific historical books. I have one that just tells the history of salt and the salt trade and it’s impact on society and history. I also have ones for coal and paper haha
history of salt and the salt trade and it’s impact on society and history
unironically sounds great. do you have it to hand, i’d like to add it to the list.
I also enjoyed “Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World”. It is another one that seems like it should be pretty dry, but is a very engaging read.
I believe it’s just called Salt: A World History haha
Deaths of Despair by Anne Case and Angus Deaton. It’s about the high rates of deaths in the U.S. from alcoholism, opiate overdoses, and suicide. I like economics, demography, and politics. This covered a lot of my interests.
Ooh, sounds interesting, just put it on my library request list.
I surprised myself by LOVING “Emperor of All Maladies” by Siddhartha Mukhergee. I’m not really interested in cancer, at all, but this book was amazing and so well written; it’s long and I was interested the whole time.
Actually I guess I read a lot of books on the medical industry and the practice of medicine, which might be a kind of more unusual subject to read about for leisure. Atul Gawande’s books are really great, if you’re into that sort of thing.
I loved his book Complications, and his more recent book Being Mortal (that REALLY affected me), but, weirdly, the book of his that I have thought about a lot over the years is The Checklist Manifesto. It might be a bit dated now, only because I think they have now implemented a lot of what he was suggesting in that book. It’s super interesting.
A colleague recommended me Emperor of all maladies last year and I even bought it in may I still havent read it yet, ive only heard/read good things about it and i plan on finally reading it next year!
I finished reading it not too long ago. It is a good read-- very well-researched and written. My one (subjective, personal) gripe with it is that it kinds of drags in the middle as it is quite a long book. I think the book would have been just as informative and a ton more engaging if it was a little more concise. I would still recommend it though for anyone interested in the medical history of cancer.
I love Emperor of All Maladies and Atul Gawande’s books, too.
The American Way of Death by (If I recall correctly,) Jessica Mitford. I’m a sucker for industry memoirs. (doesn’t really matter which industry).
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families by Philip Gourevitch - about the Rwanda genocide. I always hesitate to recommend books I read about genocide in general just because it’s a dark topic.
I really enjoyed The Zanzibar Chest, maybe you have read it. It’s a memoir of the Kenyan war correspondent of English decent who worked in Africa. The book covers his time in Rwanda, Somalia, and maybe a few other places.
Dead Men Tell Tales by Jürgen Thorwald. Fascinating cases that led to developments in forensic medicine.
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty - it’s a really interesting and very funny book about the funeral business. It’s very frank, she’s very forthcoming, it’s very well worth reading.
Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake. It’s about mushrooms. Maybe niche to some people but fascinating to me
Ive had that one on my to read list for years!
Ooh I just picked this up at a book sale recently. Looking forward to getting it into this one!
Really good book.
Carville’s Cure, by Pam Fessler, about the Carville, Louisiana leper colony
Love me a good history of torture book. I’ve got a book called something like “How They Died and Where They’re Buried” which is just entirely about how celebrities died and, yeah, where they’re buried. It’s super interesting. They give really short biographies for each celebrity so I’ve ended up learning a lot about people I wouldn’t otherwise normally look up.
‘Man Eaters of Kumaon’ by Jim Corbett. It recounts his experience tracking and killing man eating tigers in India in the first half of the twentieth century.
The first thing that came to mind was one of my favourite reads of the year - Dark Archives: a Librarian’s Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin by Megan Rosenbloom. I love anything esoteric and I love books, so this was the perfect crossover for me.
The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) by Katie Mack. It’s a book exploring how the universe might end, which sounds unbelievably bleak, but it’s written with such a playful sense of humour and an obvious love of cosmology, using the lens of endings to dig into questions of how our universe ticks.