This site is neat! There is thoughtful commentary on each book in each list, on why it was picked. Very cool. This can be a starting point for anyone to learn about pretty much any subject.

Might try https://shepherd.com too :), self plug but trying to do something bigger in scope and just launched 2 months ago. I am working to add topic pages, search, and a much improved homepage now.

Subscribing to their twitter feed is dangerous - a constant supply of interesting book recommendations that causes your "books I want to read" list to grow faster than you can read them:)

On this topic, what's a good "history of the entire world" type of book, going from the first hominids to the 21st century? Does that even exist?

I had The Penguin History of the World recommended to me for exactly this purpose a couple of years ago. It’s quite a tome and I haven’t had a chance to finish it, but so think anything aiming to capture so much in one book will be incredibly dense.

It gets better reviews than you might suspect given the title.

I absolutely love Sapiens. But I don't think it's what OP is looking for.