I started, but didn't finish, a couple of non-fiction books this month.
An Intimate History of Humanity by Theodore Zeldin (1994) had been on my TBR list for awhile and I'm not sure where I originally heard about it. The author is a well respected historian and thinker. His intent is to tell the history of man as it affected by culture over time, using stories of individuals or a group. It was dated and didn't capture my attention and I returned it to the library after a couple of chapters.
Because Internet - Understanding the Rules of Language by Gretchen McCulloch (2019) was one I had gotten picked for me by the librarian. McCulloch is a linguist who examined the impact of the internet on our communication styles. She suggests that internet communications, i.e., Facebook, messaging, Instagram, etc. for the first time captures our unfiltered speech. Previous to the internet, only live recordings of people speaking revealed idiosyncrasies of language. Once that point was made, the book lagged and I decided to return it too.
