I'm the same way, anything related to physics I'm no good with, but I think as amateur cosmologist (which is what I really consider myself) it was very interesting. As is anything by NDT (Neil Degrasse Tyson). So when I was presented with the chance to read a couple of his (Hawking's) books, I took it and devoured A Brief History of Time (both the abridged and "normal" versions). I think I'm going to move on to reading Sagan's books next, since the original Cosmos (miniseries[?]) was so interesting, as is NDT's take on it. I think what I'm going to do next is find some of NDT's work and read it, since he makes cosmology and what not, seem extremely easy to understand or at least comprehensible... (Forgive my rambles, I'm not firing on all cylinders right now).
Are the books as easy to understand as his lectures?