Recs if you like A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth...

Niche nonfiction, aka micro-histories!

This list was a winner of the Q2 2026 Community Voting event - if you'd like to participate in the Quest, a link is pinned in the comments.

Nonfiction books exploring the natural world and our “place in the family of things” (Mary Oliver, Wild Geese). 🐦‍⬛🦋🌱🪸🦊🪷🪼🍄

Nonfiction about strange, outlandish, and/or macabre subjects (books that make you more or less go “wtf?!”)

Nonfiction books exploring water and the life it sustains. Oceans, lakes, fish, and more.

Niche nonfiction books that dads are still likely to enjoy that either 1) are not military history at all or 2) a niche area of a war that is not military history

A list of books for the natural science nerds! Selections include topics on ecology, evolution, environmental science, environmental biology, and the folks who make the science happen!

Polymath Training Challenge is a non-fiction reading challenge that has been running on a Hungarian book site for the past 11 years. Each year it has 12 categories that participants have to pick their own nonfiction reads for (incl. memoirs and biographies). I have discovered several amazing nonfiction books through this challenge, so I decided to make a list of the best, and most mind-blowing, of them so far.

Books covering prehistoric marine life, ocean ecosystems, evolution, and the history of life in the oceans. Includes books that are beginner-friendly as well as books that offer a deeper dive (pun intended) and some niche reads.