You could try Mark Kurlansky’s books, Cod, and Salt. Both are fascinating looks at how one simple item shaped so many countries and so much history.
Old1EyedBear on
Raw dog by Jamie Loftus.
Everything you never needed to know about the great American hot dog. It has an incomprehensive history of the hot dog. The phenomenon of hot dog eating contests. A journey across the country to visit the most notable hot dog stands with reviews of the signature dogs. And comentary of what having hot dogs for almost every meal an entire summer does to your bowel movements and your relationship with your significant other.
catsarecuter on
Mary roach has very entertaining niche books. Stiff is about cadavers. Boink is about sex. Gulp is about the alimentary canal.
Frequent_Skill5723 on
Eyelids of Morning: The Mingled Destinies of Crocodiles and Men, by Alistair Graham and Peter Beard.
Mulliganasty on
I know Malcolm Gladwell’s methodology has proven to be a bit sus but he does write about a wide variety of subjects in an entertaining and almost completely factual way. I’d start with Outliers.
Feisty_Reveal5417 on
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake. All about the fascinating world of fungi.
All about how a few dozen dudes undertook the actually insane task of chronicling not just the meaning of *every fucking word*, but also *every* meaning of *every fucking word*. The enormity of this task may not be immediately apparent to you until you stop and think about how difficult this task would be before the internet or any other number of modern luxuries.
There was no dictionary before the mad lads at Oxford did it. Rather, dictionaries were far more niche and specific, such as dictionaries specific to language used by trades such as blacksmithing or medicine.
It took them well over 90 years to produce the full thing, and most of the contribution came from a paranoid schizophrenic murderer.
7 Comments
You could try Mark Kurlansky’s books, Cod, and Salt. Both are fascinating looks at how one simple item shaped so many countries and so much history.
Raw dog by Jamie Loftus.
Everything you never needed to know about the great American hot dog. It has an incomprehensive history of the hot dog. The phenomenon of hot dog eating contests. A journey across the country to visit the most notable hot dog stands with reviews of the signature dogs. And comentary of what having hot dogs for almost every meal an entire summer does to your bowel movements and your relationship with your significant other.
Mary roach has very entertaining niche books. Stiff is about cadavers. Boink is about sex. Gulp is about the alimentary canal.
Eyelids of Morning: The Mingled Destinies of Crocodiles and Men, by Alistair Graham and Peter Beard.
I know Malcolm Gladwell’s methodology has proven to be a bit sus but he does write about a wide variety of subjects in an entertaining and almost completely factual way. I’d start with Outliers.
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake. All about the fascinating world of fungi.
[The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25019.The_Professor_and_the_Madman)
All about how a few dozen dudes undertook the actually insane task of chronicling not just the meaning of *every fucking word*, but also *every* meaning of *every fucking word*. The enormity of this task may not be immediately apparent to you until you stop and think about how difficult this task would be before the internet or any other number of modern luxuries.
There was no dictionary before the mad lads at Oxford did it. Rather, dictionaries were far more niche and specific, such as dictionaries specific to language used by trades such as blacksmithing or medicine.
It took them well over 90 years to produce the full thing, and most of the contribution came from a paranoid schizophrenic murderer.
10/10 great read.