I don't know that I can recommend anything that shaped culture, policy or society that you haven't read, but a while back I did mention Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. I'm still reading it, but the ideas are pretty striking, (for me anyway).
It's at the top of the list. Confession - I've been pretty fucked up by this recently. I've read a bunch of cognitive psych books; How We Decide had some interesting stuff in it that sticks with you. A lot of it was kind of... out there, though. Nonetheless, it incorporated into my cosmology. Shit, some of it made it into the novel. And now there's a flag on the play - shit's made up. How much of it? Who knows. Enough that Penguin pulped the book. So all those little anecdotes that make up my understanding of cognitive psych? ALL under a cloud. I probably should read this one next. I'm just feeling a little burned by pop psych at the moment.
There was a pretty good expose wherein Lehrer commented that he liked the rush of being read, while the author pointed out that for real journalists, the rush of being read without getting it right would be like a quarterback getting a Heisman trophy without playing football.
I know you listen to a lot of audiobooks; did you get this one in audio too? I've never really done the audiobook so I wonder, do you find that it's as easy to retain the information as when you read? I'd imagine that it would take me some time to adjust.
Li'l secret - I retain information so well it's embarrassing. As in, has caused me chagrin at parties. People confuse it with intelligence. It's not. Do I retain it as well as reading? Fair to say I do, but I had to think about it. I've read Rendezvous with Rama maybe three times; I've listened to it once. The experiences are comparable, except that reading I can do other shit at the same time (like set up 24TB worth of NAS). I'm 1/6th through this book and I started yesterday. In the time it took me to ride my bike to AAA to pick up Aquarium tickets and drive into Hollywood and back, I've covered 4 hours of it. if I'd purchased it to read, I would have had to pick at it in the 10 minutes before I go to bed.
I think I experience this kind of retention, though I don't think it's to the same degree. I think I have some idea of what you mean. This is what I'm doing. I've had it for a couple of weeks and I'm only on chapter 29. I downloaded Audible one time to get a copy of Samuel L. Jackson reading Go the F*k to Sleep. I think I'll give a bigger book a try next time around.Li'l secret - I retain information so well it's embarrassing. As in, has caused me chagrin at parties. People confuse it with intelligence. It's not.
if I'd purchased it to read, I would have had to pick at it in the 10 minutes before I go to bed.