I've always been the most interested in ancient history, and the earliest cities and civilizations. I find all ancient civ interesting, but Mesopotamia is the most well-known to me so I thought I'd include it as a guideline for era. Searches on Amazon or the library aren't of much help--most of the material I can find is geared toward teaching school children.
A few preferences of mine:
I'm more interested in peoples/cultures than descriptions of, or pictures of, artifacts (although I know the various tools of life are part of culture)
After far too many years of school, I prefer not to read text books. I still will if they're all that's available, though.
Quality of writing is much more important to me than quality of images.
Sorry, mods, if this question is too general or not in the right forum. I tried to find the subreddit that fit it best and looked at the FAQ :)
Thank you in advance for your help!!
If you don't get an answer here you may want to try asking in tomorrow's reading and research thread, which occurs every Saturday.
You can also try checking out the AskHistorians Book List. From that list I can say that I read and enjoyed King Hammurabi of Babylon: A Biography by Marc van de Mieroop.
Paul Kriwaczek's Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization is a pretty good book for laymen. If you want an in-depth work, Marc Van de Mieroop's A History of the Ancient Near East.