[WhompingWindows]

Came here to suggest Bill Bryson's Short History of Everything. It covers a lot of less top-of-mind concepts, like he delves into air-balloons, artificial cloud making, moss collections, geological history, botany, and all manner of fields.

[etrautmann]

I also recommend this - he walks through how we know what we know across many fields of science and it’s highly informative and entertaining throughout