Reading history

I mentioned on Facebook last week that I have several very thick (500+ page) nonfiction history books that I plan on plowing through this fall and winter.  I have a book about the Balkans, post World War II Europe, English history, and the history of MI5 (plus I have a couple very long fiction books that I should start reading).  But the books I am starting with is And The Band Played On which is about the early days of AIDS research (including the actual identification of HIV).  I'm only about 30 pages into the book which opens around 1985.  And as I was thinking about it, AIDS has been a public health issue for almost my entire life.  So far it is kind of interesting to read about a world without the shadow of  HIV/AIDS.