For example, in my case I got interested in:
- Design when I read “The Design of Everyday Things” and “Design for the Real World”<p>- Cognitive psychology when I read “Thinking Fast and Slow”<p>- Computers & Education when I read “Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas”<p>Would love to know about the books that got you inspired and curious about other fields :)
Probably known to most people, but "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond turned me on to a lot of things. The work covers many topics, including history, geography, evolution, giving a very wide view, which serves as a good starting point to start exploring some of these topics deeper.
Ages ago, "Gödel, Escher, and Bach" turned me from a kid who liked computers into someone very into music, math, philosophy, and literature. It does a great job of showing the reader the joy of playing with abstract concepts across several fields, including writing.
- Yakov Perelman's "Physics for entertainment" was fun, and repeating an experiment at work once almost got me fired<p>- "Made to stick" by Chip and Dan Heath<p>- "The Dissapearing Spoon" got me curious about chemistry<p>-"Uncle Tungsten" by Oliver Sacks got me started on the rest of his books, taking my fascination in chemistry and nudging it towards medicine, neurology and psychology.<p>- "The Social Animal" and "Influence" showed me more about psychology<p>- Borrowing a copy of the classic textbook Gray's Anatomy while recuperating from a serious accident showed me how fascinating the human body is
- Structural engineering -<p>"Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down"<p>J.E. Gordon<p>- Rocket engineering and history -<p>"Ignition!: An informal history of liquid rocket propellants"<p>John Drury Clark
"The Body Electric" & "Cross Currents" by Dr. Robert O. Becker got me into health effects of wireless radiation exposures.<p>"The undercover economist" by Tim Harford got me interested in economics.<p>"Rules for Radicals" by Saul Alinsky on community organizing.
The Wild Trees by Richard Preston about climbing Giant Redwood trees in California. It started my own tree climbing which I learnt entirely from YouTube and some falls. In the book the author describes making love in a hammock high in the trees. Hell, what could be better than that?