Econ Books are weird?

I recently finished Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much and am in the process of finishing Nudge. Both were highly regarded and recommended by my professors.

However, I found them quite boring and repetitive. It feels like each book is based on a single concept that's just expanded with way too many examples and convoluted explanations. For anyone familiar with economics, it seems that the core ideas could have been easily condensed into 50 pages. I was also disappointed that they don't offer many practical tools or solutions.

These aren't pop-econ books like Freakonomics that need to be simplified for a mass audience, so I don't understand why they are written this way. Does anyone have any insight into this?

What's confusing me is that I really liked Good Economics for Hard Times and Poor Economics. Given this, I'm trying to understand my own preferences better.

Since I'm already writing, I'd love to ask for suggestions:

1. What other books would you recommend for me?
2. Just as importantly, based on my dislike for Nudge and Scarcity, what are some "unrecommendations" — books you think I should probably avoid?