These are really cool - I wonder how the artists actually managed to do these - did they get official maps? I wonder if there are any exposing the many layers of stations inaccessible to the public, as described here:
Only interesting book I could see was about Mesopotamia. The author's fear of technical books is worrying - if you don't start reading hard at one point, you never will. The list he has compiled will merely skim the surface of many unrelated topics and make the author form uneducated biased opinions, since he won't be getting into the gritty realitiesof the matters.
Start with reading fiction. That should be easy. Move on to history - it should be harder language, but still attention grabbing. Once you are comfortable with that, start moving towards reading textbooks. One thing I do is always read a fiction in between two textbooks - it keeps your motivation up.