Category Archives: Recommended reading

Reading in 2013

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A quick list of the books that I’ve read and enjoyed in 2013:

Dan Pink – To Sell is Human

Fuminori Nakamura – The Thief
James Milton – The Secrets of Pricewise
Andy McNab – Bravo Two Zero
Lee Child – Killing Floor
Lee Child – Tripwire
Lee Child – Die Trying
Lee Child – Echo Burning
Lee Child – The Visitor
David Ogilvy – The Unpublished David Ogilvy
Raymond Chandler – The Big Sleep
Raymond Chandler – Farewell My Lovely
David Walsh – Seven Deadly Sins
Richard Moore – The Dirtiest Race in History
Anderson & Sally – The Number Game
Ian Fleming – For Your Eyes Only
Tom Wolfe – Back To Blood

The institutional structure of the United States is under stress. We might be in dangerous economic straits if the dollar were not the principal international reserve currency and the eurozone in deep fiscal trouble. We have a huge public debt, dangerously neglected infrastructure, a greatly overextended system of criminal punishment, a seeming inability to come to grips with grave environmental problems such as global warming, a very costly but inadequate educational system, unsound immigration policies, an embarrassing obesity epidemic, an excessively costly health care system, a possible rise in structural unemployment, fiscal crises in state and local governments, a screwed-up tax system, a dysfunctional patent system, and growing economic inequality that may soon create serious social tensions. Our capitalist system needs a lot of work to achieve proper capitalist goals.

Richard Posner

that’s a pretty good list of what we need to fix

Famous judge spikes Apple-Google case, calls patent system “dysfunctional” — Mobile Technology News

40-a-day reading

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It’s all going well so far, and I’ve got into a great habit of getting up at around 6.30am and putting a minimum of 40 pages in the bank. So far I’ve read:

The Junior Officers Reading Club – Patrick Hennessey. Life as an Officer in the British Army, including active service periods in Iraq and Afganistan.

On Writing – Stephen King. An autobiographical look at King’s trade through his own eyes. Fascinating.

One Day – David Nicholls. A beautifully written novel full of similarities to the lives and experiences of many. Focussed on the interactions of two college friends as they grow up.

And The Hippos Were Boiled In Their Tanks – William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac. Summer in wartime New York City, punctuated by booze, freeriding and murder.

And I’ve just started Anonymous Lawyer – Jeremy Blachman. The fictitious blogging exploits of a hiring partner at a top US firm. Hilarious but sadly it appears to be very close to the truth.

40 a day

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No, I’m not back on the cigarettes, but I’m trying to get back into books with 40 pages a day. I read a lot of blogs but want to add variety by mixing what I would normally read (crime thrillers, business titles, sports biographies) with some very new and different stuff for me.

Starts today, and with this one. It’s a very interesting insight so far…