[nikofeyn]

i highly recommend looking at the used market for the out of print but plentiful scientific american library series.

https://www.thriftbooks.com/series/scientific-american-libra...

the books are heavily illustrated, don’t shy away from the real stuff, but are still the most readable scientific publishing i have seen. whoever was the editor or manager of the series is a genius of publishing. john wheeler, julian schwinger, steven weinberg, peter atkins, and more can be found as authors. i am personally trying to collect them all.