The Anatomy of Addiction reinforced my love of creative non-fiction dealing with the history of science and medicine. Markel skillfully weaves together the stories of Freud and famous American surgeon William Halsted, who were both involved in pioneering research on cocaine, considered in the mid 1800s to be a potential miracle drug and anaesthetic. As was usual for the time, both experimented on themselves, causing what we’d now recognize as severe drug addiction. I took about two days to read this – could not put it down and now I can amaze (or possibly just annoy) friends at parties with my Freud factoids.