Maybe a weird suggestion but I was thinking the other day that I kind of like the idea of finding a few interesting academic books or textbooks on completely random subjects that I know nothing about and just diving in. They can be about anything, obscure subject matter is not necessarily a turn off! Bonus points if you know a way to obtain these books for less money than I might find at a university bookstore. Was hoping to find an online resource for used academic texts at extremely cheap prices but haven’t found exactly what I’m looking for yet!
I know it’s a bit of an odd question but I’ll be interested to see what people have to say! Thanks
by KeyParamedjx
4 Comments
This is not what you are looking for, but A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson is the history of many of the sciences written by a comedian. You will actually learn quite a bit while reading, and it’s an engaging read
I think most of these are available on Libby. They’re books I read for college classes, though not necessarily textbooks.
“How to Think Straight About Psychology” – psychology
“Eating the Dinosaur” – pop culture
“Stiff” and/or “Spook” (by Mary Roach) – science & death
“Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell – psychology
And one that doesn’t really fit, “Emprie of Pain” which is about the history of the opioid epidemic in America, but reads like a novel or story
I quite liked Foundations of Astrophysics by Ryden and Peterson
Books
1. Too Much To Know
2. The Cathedral and the Bazaar
3. Leviathan and the Air Pump
4. The Shock of the Old
5. Seeing Like a State
6. From Counterculture to Cyberculture
7. The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe
8. We Have Never Been Modern
9. The Marketplace of Revolution: How consumer politics shaped American independence
10. Nature’s Metropolis
11. The World Turned Upside Down
12. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
13. Discipline and Punish