Recently Mentioned Books

4. Venus in Furs , by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch.  If you are drawing inferences, keep in mind this means I had not read this book to date.  It is a source for Roissy and also has some early anticipations of behavioral economics.  Sporadically interesting, I would say.

3. Lanark , by Alasdair Gray,  This book is as good as I remember it; I was surprised to see it has only four reviews on U.S. Amazon .  Many critics consider it the best and most creative Scottish novel of the twentieth century and of course it has tinges of science fiction and fantasy.

3. Lanark , by Alasdair Gray,  This book is as good as I remember it; I was surprised to see it has only four reviews on U.S. Amazon .  Many critics consider it the best and most creative Scottish novel of the twentieth century and of course it has tinges of science fiction and fantasy.

2. The Yacoubian Building , by Alaa Al Aswany.  Fun, philosophical, erotic, and a bestseller in the Arab world.  Many Americans don't know this book but it is worth picking up.

1. From London to Elista: The Inside Story of the Three Matches that Vladimir Kramnik Played for the World Chess Title , by Eugeny Bareev and Ilya Levitov.  Via John Nye, the quality and drama of this book stunned me.  Chess aside, the use of the dialogic form works remarkably well.

8. Medieval theologian and memory expert : Ramon Llull .  I am a big fan of Llull, a cosmopolitan polymath and early advocate of animal welfare.  I wrote a part of my next book about him, although I ended up cutting it out of the final draft because it didn't quite fit.

3. Novelist : Albert Sanchez Piñol's Cold Skin is a favorite of min e.  Quim Monzó is a fun writer , as is Carlos Ruis Zafón.

1. The new Bruce Bartlett book .

I was very taken by this movie , which is much more insightful than the recent The End of Poverty? .  The film is an attempt to pay homage to Evo Morales and his supporters but it actually shows a far bleaker and more Caplanian picture of life on the ground.  It's one of the best movies on poverty, albeit unintentionally in whole or in part.  The two most unforgettable scenes are when the Morales supporters cannot get the calculator to give them an arithmetical answer ("we need a better calculat...

Check out the accompanying sketch, from a short essay by Robert C. Allen , drawn from his new book The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective .  The bottom line seems to be this:

That is from David Kessler's The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite .  This is a good book even if you've already read seven prior books on exactly the same topic.  It's the best applied study in behavioral economics to date.  I do object, however, to how the author aggregates fat, salt, and sugar, as if they were equally bad for you.

5. Twenty Thousand Roads: The Ballad of Gram Parsons and His Cosmic American Music , by David N. Meyer.  A serious and excellent book, noting that every now and then the reader is hit by a strange sentence like: "Of course the temptation to get all bourgeois on Gram's a** is irresistible."  Meyer underrates the album Burrito Deluxe , however.

5. Twenty Thousand Roads: The Ballad of Gram Parsons and His Cosmic American Music , by David N. Meyer.  A serious and excellent book, noting that every now and then the reader is hit by a strange sentence like: "Of course the temptation to get all bourgeois on Gram's a** is irresistible."  Meyer underrates the album Burrito Deluxe , however.

4. Portfolios of the Poor: How the World's Poor Live on $2 a Day , by Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford, and Orlanda Ruthven.  A good overview of how the world's poor intersect with financial institutions at the micro level.

3. John Reader, The Potato: A History of the Propitious Esculent .  Not as good as his excellent book on  Africa , but I liked the sections on potatoes in the Incan empire.  This book could have been great, it isn't, but it is still above average.

3. John Reader, The Potato: A History of the Propitious Esculent .  Not as good as his excellent book on  Africa , but I liked the sections on potatoes in the Incan empire.  This book could have been great, it isn't, but it is still above average.

2. Richard Goldthwaite, The Economy of Renaissance Florence .  Dull for some, definitive for others.  If the thesis about commerce sounds a little late to the party, it is only because of Goldthwaite's own previous work.

1. Brian Boyd, On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction .  If you've read Geoffrey Miller, Karen Dissanayake , Denis Dutton, and Comeuppance , this is the next book in line.  It's well-written and intelligent, but also a little underwhelming.  The main point is that the arts are an extension of the play instinct.  Blog audiences, who expect rapid delivery of the main points, may be especially frustrated.

1. Brian Boyd, On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction .  If you've read Geoffrey Miller, Karen Dissanayake , Denis Dutton, and Comeuppance , this is the next book in line.  It's well-written and intelligent, but also a little underwhelming.  The main point is that the arts are an extension of the play instinct.  Blog audiences, who expect rapid delivery of the main points, may be especially frustrated.

1. Brian Boyd, On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction .  If you've read Geoffrey Miller, Karen Dissanayake , Denis Dutton, and Comeuppance , this is the next book in line.  It's well-written and intelligent, but also a little underwhelming.  The main point is that the arts are an extension of the play instinct.  Blog audiences, who expect rapid delivery of the main points, may be especially frustrated.

That's the new book by Cass Sunstein and the subtitle is How Like Minds Unite and Divide .  I am a fan of Cass Sunstein and I hope they confirm him for OIRA, but I am not persuaded by the main thesis of this book.

I am told that is from p.23 of Triumph of the Optimists .

That is the title of Robert H. Frank's latest book , published by Basic Books and due out later this month.  The subtitle is Common Sense Principles for Troubled Times .  I received my copy today and of course it goes to a prominent spot in my "to read" pile.

That's the new book by Geoffrey Miller , of The Mating Mind fame.  The exposition is a bit of a sprawling mess but the best pages of content are fascinating.  I recommend it and I am glad that I started reading it the moment I got my hands on it.

That's the new book by Geoffrey Miller , of The Mating Mind fame.  The exposition is a bit of a sprawling mess but the best pages of content are fascinating.  I recommend it and I am glad that I started reading it the moment I got my hands on it.