Can popular non-fiction literature replace textbooks in school?

Have you ever read a Malcolm Gladwell book?   The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers are three that I've read--no, devoured actually.  Talk about enthralling.  I've found books like this on other topics too, even Economics, the so-called "dismal science."  What I wondered even before I was a teacher was if these books could replace textbooks.  After all, they were books that adults chose to read, often about the same topics that we learned about in school or college, yet topics whose textbooks were hard to get through, if we even tried.

I recently read Bill Bryson's book about science, A Short History of Nearly Everything, and couldn't put it down.  Here was another example of a topic that would be fairly dry in a science textbook, but was made exciting by a popular author.  And once again I thought, why can't students read something like this instead of something from a textbook or similar academic source.

Here's an opening paragraph on the atmosphere from chapter 17 in Bill Bryson's book.  I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like this in a textbook.

"Thank goodness for the atmosphere.  It keeps us warm.  Without it, Earth would be a lifeless ball of ice with an average temperature of minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit.  In addition, the atmosphere absorbs or deflects incoming swarms of cosmic rays, charged particles, ultraviolet rays, and the like.  Altogether, the gaseous padding of the atmosphere is equivalent to a fifteen-foot thickness of protective concrete, and without it these invisible visitors from space would slice through us like tiny daggers.  Even rain drops would pound us senseless if it weren't for the atmosphere's slowing drag."

I just finished teaching 6th grade science this year, and realize that most excerpts from the book would have to be modified.  But I've done similar things for EAL students/classes, so that doesn't discourage me.  Starting in August, however, I'll be teaching 8th grade science, and with this age group I'd expect there to be a lot of similar passages from the book that I could use.  I would love to be able to share popular authors' excitement and eloquence with students, as a replacement for generic textbook writing.

Ideally, as I find books like Bill Bryson's fascinating enough to read on my own time, I would end up with a sizable collection of excerpts from popular books that could replace drier textbook readings.  This is the first time in my teaching that I've thought of something like this at just the right time.  Starting in August, I'll have a chance to test it out with students.