Unrelated, but I do like to place my trust in internet strangers - is Ignition! a read you'd recommend?

It 100% is. Even thought there are parts that feel like reading different molecules and formulations out of a chemistry books for pages at times, it is generally very good in giving you a sense of how different (and similar) the engineering job was back in the day. Also, the dark humor is the cherry on top (and a necessity for those working with those chemicals, I imagine)