Ah... I suspicioned you thought a lot of yourself, ROFL!!!
Personally, I didn't find A Brief History of Time dull. Simple, yes, because it was written for the general public, but not dull.
Go read a Philip Pullman book if you want good story-telling skills. Or a Terry Pratchett if want a laugh. He's not a bad writer, either. But you won't, I'm sure, if you have ADHD!!
It ain't that the writers are bad, dear, it's you who can't give sufficient attention to see how good they are. Not your fault, your misfortune. You may grow out of it, though. I believe many ADHD people do, though I have only had personal experience with one grandchild, who HAS almost grown out of it at age 14.
As for telling where good items are... yes there ARE some you will only find in specific places, or with specific merchants/people, but there are not that many of them, and you are unlikely to miss them if you complete each map and location.
There are 3 nice bows and one hammer that I know of. There may be other stuff I don't remember off-hand.
One bow you can get on the Douro Plains map, from the trader.
One is on the Montaillou map, below a stone head.
One is in the Final location behind a secret door.
The hammer is Everlasting which you can get from Bounty Hunters in a small map near the bottom of the Goblin map when you do the Dryad's quest.