Andrew Hill has a nice feature in the weekend FT about the secret of writing a successful business book. It’s a trailer for what must be the upcoming decision on the FT’s Business Book of the Year. The shortlisted titles are:
The Hour Between Dog and Wolf by John Coates
Private Empire by Steve Coll
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
Volcker by William Silber
What Money Can’t Buy by Michael Sandel. (I reviewed it here.)
Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson. (And I reviewed this one here.)
The shortlist makes it plain that the definition of business book is capacious as there are economics books and biographies here. I suspect the ranks of ‘self help’ business books that fill the relevant bookshop sections will rarely if ever make it onto the FT’s shortlist. The correct definition for eligible books is probably ‘thoughtful books about business in its broadest sense – history, philosophy, psychology, society – but not about how to run a business’.
That’s fine – the aim of contests like these is to get people reading serious books, which must be a good thing. The shortlist gives me an appealing reading list. Of the two of the above list I have read already, I think Sandel should not win it, as my review will explain.
Of course, the Enlightened Economist book of the year winner has already been announced – it was Ariel Rubinstein’s Economic Fables.
Diane, I have enjoyed your blog. Since your so active in the number of posts you make it gives me something new to read throughout the week. I normally wouldn’t give random advice but this is something I see a lot on many websites. There are many search engine optimization “SEO” nuances that affect how a page is ranked by a search engine. One small SEO trick is to replace the word “here” used as your hyperlink with more descriptive keywords of where the link will take the reader. I haven’t seen you do this much in your posts but I noticed it four times in this one post alone. Sorry to impose, but I figured since you are so active on your blog this might be worth noting for future posts. Feel free to delete this comment since it doesn’t really pertain to economics.
Thank you very much for this advice – I’m an energetic amateur, so greatly appreciate it.
You’re very humble. I wouldn’t classify someone with your credentials as an amateur. I enjoy the business intellect aspect of your posts. The post today about the e-merger peaked my interest since my wife is an author.