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!
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
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