Suddenly, I read a lot

Here's a list of books (complete with subtitles!) I'm reading (noted by *) or have read over the past 6 months or so. I would easily reccommend any of them. Maybe my life of sloth and essay writing (or more accurately, putting off essay writing) had left me with so much free time. Enjoy:

Mind Game: How the Boston Red Sox Got Smart, Won a World Series, and Created a New Blueprint for Winning
I absolutely despise the Red Sox and their fans. This book, however, was edited by a guy that writes a column for the YES Network web page, and was really just using the Red Sox story to sell a book about Sabermetrics and debunk various baseball myths.

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
Depressing, but insightful. Count your blessings that you're not in the shoes of the people in this book.

The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story
This book reeks of late 90s dotcom euphoria. It's about Jim Clark, founder of Silicon Graphics, Netscape, and Healtheon, which afraid of support their rival was getting out of Redmond, bought WebMD. It made me wonder: this guy amassed quite a fortune. What ultimate value to society did his companies provide, and how would you rank the three? In a way, all of them have been both wildly successful, and ultimate commercial failures (OK, the book is still out on Healtheon)

When Genius Failed:The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management

Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle
You see I've applied to business schools, and these books strike me as things one should read before heading off to b-school. They both compare favorably to Liar's Poker, which is definitely a good thing.

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto
I am not lying when I say that this book has conclusions about pop culture that I had already come to, and others that as soon as I read I wholeheartedly accepted. Klosterman hits the nail on the head on almost everything. He's flat wrong about probability, and I really can't care about Reality TV.

Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment
This is a gem. A seemingly perfect followup to A Random Walk Down Wall Street, it really makes you understand how and why you should invest as he prescribes. When I finally finish it, I'm probably gonna reallocate and rebalance my 401(k).

V for Vendetta
Must finish it before the movie comes out. It looks pretty good, and I'm amused by the irony of John Hurt playing an authority figure in a dystopian movie.

The Roaring Nineties: A New History of the World's Most Prosperous Decade*
Krugman-esque (one of the highest compliments I could dole out).

Thinking Strategically: The Competitive Edge in Business, Politics, and Everyday Life*
I was supposed to read this in college when I took Game Theory. At the time, it was too slow and not detailed enough. Now that I've forgotten most of the Game Theory I know, it's interesting again.

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
It's not about economics, it's about thinking. In God We Trust, all others bring data.

Political Numeracy: Mathematical Perspectives on Our Chaotic Constitution
A nerd's book for sure. This is by the guy that wrote Innumeracy, perhaps the ultimate nerd's book.

a few things about this blog:

• I make links that open new windows. That's the way I like it.
• you can do so, too. Just add "target="_blank" after you finish putting in the URL and before you close the tag (the "greater than" sign)
• I'll try to put what music is in the background as I write these. My musical taste is ecclectic.
• np: Brian Eno: Another Green World album
• yes, I still call them albums

I realized today that the most clever thing I've said in a while was when I was discussing things worthy of splurging on. Someone said, "Good speakers." I said "Don't waste your money on a new set of speakers, you'll get more mileage from a cheap pair of sneakers." No one laughed.