"The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Western Thought" by Jerry Z. Muller is one of my favorites for history. "The Growth of Economic Thought" by Henry Spiegel is also good.
"Money Mischief" by Milton Friedman is a good short one monetary policy.
"Fault Lines" is a solid book by Raghuram Rajan.
Those will get your more interested than reading raw economic textbooks, imo.