My in-pile is looking uncomfortably small – I get a bit antsy when there are so few books in it (the left hand side consists of non-economics books).
Part of the reason is that I’ve just sent out a batch of interesting books for review by other people for the next edition of The Business Economist. Of course, I can tackle the non-economics books too, and indeed am part way through Jann Parry’s brilliant biography of Kenneth Macmillan, [amazon_link id=”0571243037″ target=”_blank” ]Different Drummer[/amazon_link]. And there are some obvious treats in this pile, including Robert Franks’ forthcoming [amazon_link id=”B005DI9RH6″ target=”_blank” ]The Darwin Economy[/amazon_link].
[amazon_image id=”B005DI9RH6″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Darwin Economy: Liberty, Competition, and the Common Good[/amazon_image]
But with two long flights coming up, I need to add to the ‘work’ pile urgently.So – recommendations please!
The Economics of Good and Evil by Tomas Sedlazic (not sure of name spelling). Brilliant – looks back on the history of economics eg as told in the bible – (eg. Economic Cycles – Joseph’s dream of 7 good years and 7 bad years = the first recorded economic cycle).
Good guess that I’d like it – but I already read it on holiday: http://www.enlightenmenteconomics.com/blog/index.php/2011/08/economics-good-or-evil/
On Twitter, @adelaigue suggests: “Sylvia nasar’s next book if you can get it; “devil’s derivatives” by nicholas dunbar”
Dear Mrs Coyle, I am your follower for a long time and I can’t thank you enough for enhancing the scope of books I read.
I do recommend one popular science book which I finished yesterday – which takes a pragmatic look politics and economics of solving enviromental issues: The God Species by Mark Lynas (written on more sophisticated level than The Ecotechnic Future by John Michael Greer)
In my library, next to your Economics of enough sits Parag Khanna: How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance. In my view complementary geopolitic book to your book.
Out of economics/politics I have very enjoyed Bill Bryson: History of Nearly Everything – which describes success’ and failures of the researches and scientists in the history of manking and guides a reader through a “history of nearly everything” Bill Bryson is in this book a Tim Harford of science (:
And the last two recommendations: Albert Einstein: Ideas and opinions (Mr Einsteins short notes mainly on peace, pacifism, war) & than Geogre Orwell – Collection of Essays: this is really the heavy beast (big volume) – but the best essays clearly show that the society 60 years ago was thinking about the same things as we do think right now.
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BTW I would be very interested in how you approach reading. Are you a ultra-speed reader? Do you read all chapters/pages? Do you make notes/underline?
The more I read the more I struggle to link all types of conclusions and open questions – do you use some mindmaps?
Kind regards
Vladimir
Vladimir, thank you for the suggestions and the kind remarks too. The Orwell essays tempt me – I’ve read a few of his essays but never the collected ones.
On your questions, I read quickly and always have, so I’ve never had any specific techniques. I only rarely skip sections, and I do mark comments in the margins. I’m struggling with keeping track of all I read. In the past I made notes on index cards. Now I store things in Evernote. Writer Steven Johnson has recommended Devonthink but I’ve never taken the plunge with it. Do you have a technique or software you use?
I do not have special technique
– Before starting reading, i just flip through book – spending 1-2 seconds on each doublepage to get the bigpicture.
– I do underline or make vertical lines and several days after quitting the book i do go through underlined text to make the memories more deeper.
– I started to use evernote also, but it is too complicated with paperbooks
– For kindle I use clippings – that is very useful
but i believe that currently there does not exist really complex (and simple:) tool for gathering of information from hardcopy, electronic sources (extended by my own opinions) useful for decision making.
Cause still it is about decision making, not about reading or gathering.
I do not know if you know Debatepedia (http://debatepedia.idebate.org/en/index.php/Welcome_to_Debatepedia%21) but I believe that sometime there should be some tool for a person as well enabling gathering of data based on topics (pros and cons) supporting the decision making with built-in to do list.
Vladimir
The Mind’s Eye is up to Oliver Sacks’s usual standards. Rupert Thomson’s memoir
This Party’s Got To Stop is also excellent. I can’t say how it compares to his novels because I’ve not read any.
http://www.granta.com/thisparty
For something more like a business/economics book, try Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next, especially for in-flight reading. I haven’t got past the Kindle sample chapter, but I’d say it’s worth a whirl if you’re less of a skinflint than I am.
I did read Aerotropolis and found it interesting, although some reviewers hated it for saying air travel would continue to grow. http://www.enlightenmenteconomics.com/blog/index.php/2011/04/aerotropolis/
The reviews of the Rupert Thomson book were good, so thanks for that suggestion. I read one novel, which was terrific.