Update: I started panicking in the library so I asked a random librarian "how do I decide between good books and bad books" and she looked at me like I had 5 heads. Then I brought up the Ottoman empire bc I'm mildly interested in it and now I'm about to borrow 2 lengthy tomes on early and late Ottoman history respectively. I think I might puke. Learning shouldn't be this hard they should inject knowledge like fuckin vaccines
My approach is to read every relavant lemmy/reddit thread and wiki article to determine the most well regarded books on the topic then spend hours researching the credibility of those books, authors and ideas before never getting around to reading any of the books.
Just like with installing and modding Skyrim once a couple of years, I can find the best OCRed epub version of the book, upload it onto a reader, and then pat myself on the back and turn it off :(

ⓘ This user is suspected of being a cat. Please report any suspicious behavior.
Wait a minute...this looks like something a cat would post. Ofc it cant be since cats arent allowed to post on Hexbear, only owls and bears.
Easy. Pick any book on whatever you want to know. Then decide that is a good book and any book that disagrees is a bad book. You have good taste and only consume good information thus any information consumed is good. For maximum effectiveness do this for every aspect of your life and make being right about these things your entire personality.
That's called a church.
But like what if they had one for chemistry or psychology or histories of medieval periods in Africa and Asia
Kinda sounds like your just shifting the burden of choice from choosing the book to choosing the library.
I think in my mind there's a buncha people named "the asia guys" and then you show up with a nickel and say "eyyy what's a guy gotta do to learn about asia" and then they either tell you something or give you one book (you keep the nickel)
but what if they're also the fricked ups to keep the bullseyes?
Hear. Feel. Think. 
You don't get to learn all of it and you don't need to. Other people can learn what you can't
badposting
badposting is a comm where you post badly
This is not a !the_dunk_tank@hexbear.net alternative. This is not a !memes@hexbear.net alternative. This is a place for you to post your bad posts.
Ever had a really shitty bit idea? Joke you want to take way past the point of where it was funny? Want to feel like a stand-up comedy guy who's been bombing a set for the past 30 minutes straight and at this point is just saying shit to see if people react to it? Really bad pun? A homemade cringe concoction? A cognitohazard that you have birthed into this world and have an urge to spread like chain mail?
Rules:
- Do not post good posts.
- Unauthorized goodposting is to be punished in the manner of commenting the phrase "GOOD post" followed by an emoji that has not yet been used in the thread
- Use an emoticon/kaomoji/rule-three-abiding ASCII art if the rations run out
- This is not a comm where you direct people to other people's bad posts. This is a comm where you post badly.
- This rule intentionally left blank.
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Code of Conduct applies just as much here as it does everywhere else. Technically, CoC violations are bad posts. On the other hand: L + ratio + get ~~better~~ worse material bozo