I usually read nonfiction, but it can be tough trying to remember things so that I can use them going forward, anyone who's read history or theory can probably relate.
So I started reading fiction! I had a Michael Crichton novel on my shelf, and now I've read 4 of em. They're fun, easy, compelling, but slop really but I figure just reading is better than not. Well, I'm waiting on a hold at the library (snowcrash, lol) and picked up another book off my shelf, a nonfiction about science, pop stuff that I can easily digest but still learn something.
I have a collection of books unread that I got years ago off of reddit recommendations. You can see the problem. First is Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! and I read a bit but realize it's basically an autobiography, and I really don't care; though it is entertaining, I wanna learn useful stuff, not about how clever this guy is.
Ok, next: A Brief History of Time. Well, now I'm looking at reviews first, for better or worse, and this one kinda goes from dense to talking down, there's better books out there, etc. Ok. A Short History of Nearly Everything? Bios of scientists, less on the science. Hmm. Gödel, Escher, Bach? Math, recursion and AI? Why did I even get this one? Change things up. Hero With a Thousand Faces? Man and His Symbols? Why do all their readers like Jordan Peterson so much?
Well, the Hawking and Bryson books still might be fun but damn, reddit did me wrong, who could have guessed? Also have a book on linguistics by Guy Deutscher, I see Annals of a Former World as good geology reading, but I think you can see what kind of stuff I may want, so: good pop-sci-ish book recommendations? Also taking fiction, though I'm more confident finding those. I'll get back to history and theory eventually
I really enjoyed Atomic Accidents and the follow-up Atomic Adventures by James Mahaffey. They're an interesting peek into all the ways that people fucked up and got themselves killed with radioactive elements, and all the batshit crazy Cold War projects to make nuclear-powered cruise missiles and the like. The latter book was a big source for our episode on Nuclear-Powered Vehicles of the Cold War.
Cool! Nukes have always been so bizarre, terrifying, and interesting to me, those sound good. Have to check out that episode as well
Beware, it's one of the early ones before we learned how to speak into microphones or edit competently.