Please give me more entertaining educational books!
I love Mary Roach and just devoured A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. I added more of his books to my TBR. I’m looking for more authors who make learning things exciting. What have you got?
Extremely entertaining and scientifically accurate.
peteryansexypotato on
The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction by David Quammen is excellent as a primer to evolution. It goes over the history with Darwin, the various studies which cemented and advanced the theory, and discusses the nuts and bolts of the ecological mechanics of evolution. It’s not easy and not hard. It comes with a glossary and index but it’s a good conversational storybook almost plot driven style. It’s very good.
BossRaeg on
Anything by Simon Schama, Ross King, John Keay, and John Julius Norwich. Schama’s books tend to be huge but he has very evocative prose.
*The Story of Art* by E.H. Gombrich
*Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East* by Amanda H. Podany
*SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome* by Mary Beard
*The Story of Egypt: The Civilization That Shaped the World* by Joann Fletcher
*The Dancing Plague: The Strange, True Story of an Extraordinary Illness* by John Waller
4 Comments
Being Wrong Adventures on the Margin of Error,
Because Internet by Gretchen McCulloch
What If? – Randall Munroe
Extremely entertaining and scientifically accurate.
The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction by David Quammen is excellent as a primer to evolution. It goes over the history with Darwin, the various studies which cemented and advanced the theory, and discusses the nuts and bolts of the ecological mechanics of evolution. It’s not easy and not hard. It comes with a glossary and index but it’s a good conversational storybook almost plot driven style. It’s very good.
Anything by Simon Schama, Ross King, John Keay, and John Julius Norwich. Schama’s books tend to be huge but he has very evocative prose.
*The Story of Art* by E.H. Gombrich
*Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East* by Amanda H. Podany
*SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome* by Mary Beard
*The Story of Egypt: The Civilization That Shaped the World* by Joann Fletcher
*The Dancing Plague: The Strange, True Story of an Extraordinary Illness* by John Waller