Recs if you like The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary...
Teach me something new and oddly specific π¬
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.
microhistories: βhow do you even know that??β
microhistory: the intensive historical investigation of a well defined smaller unit of research (such as an event, community, individual or a settlement); it aspires to "ask large questions in small places"
Books about books (...call it book-ception π€)
Nonfiction about the history, development, and impact of books, literature, storytelling, knowledge, reading, archives, information, and related subjects. Always open to suggestions!
Ologies Podcast Suggestions
Ologies is a weekly science podcast hosted by Alie Ward. Each episode, Ward interviews an expert from a distinct scientific field.
This unofficial list contains book suggestions made by the host or by her guests. I avoided extremely technical books or papers. Currently from episode 1 to 525 More details on these books and their associated episodes in my ever evolving spreadsheet.
In the spreadsheet there are also books not found on Goodreads and general book recommendations (like the entire bibliography of a specific author or group of people)
They didn't teach us that
history you probably didn't learn in school
pangbobooks' micro history recs for 2026π§π
The Best Microhistory Books to Read in 2026 | https://pangobooks.com/blog/microhistory-book | just a fun little list for nonfiction fans to enjoy! not made by me so no recs please
Truly Historical True Crime
When you hate joking but absolutely desire detail. Where every witness/ victimβs living family is long gone/ approved of the story attention themselves. When youβve run out of cases in the 1900s. Humans donβt change the world does.
Dark Academia
yeah itβs cliche but i do like a lot of these books. both books that fit the dark academia genre and books dark academics would read.
Reads to keep my mind running
books about books (and reading)
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