I'm tired of novels and want to educate myself by reading some non-fiction. I just don't know what interests me to be honest; I've been thinking maybe something about artificial intelligence, or some modern history/politics.
In short, what are some good books a young man can read and learn about the world?
>>7724554
pick up "the modern scholar lecture series"
>>7724554
OP, I don't think anyone here should recommend you anything. You should at least discover your interests and create a post probing for books that belong to that field. In lieu of a recommendation, I'd rather just impart on you some advice.
If you're not a naturally inquisitive person then don't read nonfic for the sake of being able to reference something tangential and obscure in a conversation. If you enjoy reading fiction novels now, then by all means, keep reading fiction novels. There's nothing wrong with being well read. If you try to read fiction for the ethereal quest to become more knowledgeable, then you're going to bore yourself to death and not retain any of the information anyway.
Here's what I'd say: Find something your interested in, then explore it. Have you even people watched and wanted to know why people behave a certain way?
This was my essential question. I got so God damn interested in IQ that I've read every academic study and every eminent author in the field of psychometrics twice over. Then I got interested in moral psychology -- I'm a big Haidtist now. Now I'm interested in anarcho primitivism and socioanthropological concepts; I want to find out what the natural state of man truly is. Is the noble savage really dead? Was Kaczynski a mere schizoactive loon?
Start with a question OP, then make a thread asking for recommendations. Then explore that question. If you're anything like me, questions beget passion and passion begets knowledge; that's not true for the reverse.
pic unrelated
>>7724554
Read Wikipedia nig nog.
Not even joking. Do you know how relatively complete and relevant the information is on there?
Any mathematics/science principle, type it in, and you can see a proof and implications, where it came from, etc. Any piece of literature that's acclaimed, you can probably see inspirations and what others said about it as well as it's history.
Donate $30 to wikipedia in exchange for this service, pretend you spent it on a book. It'll go farther there than any book you can buy.
>>7725994
I like this guy.
>>7726010
i-is this bait lol?
>even considering anything modern without starting with the Greeks and then immersing yourself in tens of thousands of pages of primary and secondary source Roman nonfiction
In all seriousness you may enjoy history. Try your hand at some primary source stuff, and then secondary/modern sources to see how they compare, which one is more fun/educational/whatever.
But really what this guy said. >>7725994
>>7724554
A Short History of Decay by Emil Cioran.
>>7724554
I had the same as you and I just took some random non-fiction book: 'forensics by Val McDermid'. Really good non-fiction book about all types of forensics & the history behind it. Uses real cases to discuss the developments in the field.
