Tag Archives: Capital in the Twenty-First Century

by Mike | March 1, 2016 · 11:25 am

A Super Tuesday Reading List

The presidential primary season, when we pick the candidates who will compete for our nation’s highest office, is inevitably among the dumbest times in our history. And while we’re not historians, it’s a safe bet that 2016 is among the dumbest we have seen. Today is Super Tuesday, when multiple states cast their votes in this spectacle of our shame, so to smarten up the place a bit, we decided to recommend a few books to the supporters of the various candidates. We want everyone to have an opportunity to tune out the [unintelligible yelling] and enjoy some good reading.

Hillary Clinton

HRC Book GIF

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The Top Ten Books [I had Time to Read] This Year

Foreground: Baby. Background: Books.

I became a parent in the Spring of 2014. Which is a wonderful thing, but it means that I spent my severely reduced reading time with books like The Happiest Baby on the Block Guide to Great Sleep (useful, but a pretty excruciating read); Be Prepared: A Practical Handbook for New Dads (useful, and an enjoyable read); and The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree (still a classic).

I did manage to pull off one half-assed review about a book I hadn’t finished reading, but for the most part my 2014 was spent dreaming of all the cool looking books I had no time to enjoy. Needless to say, this has left me woefully underqualified to make any kinds of judgments, even subjective ones, about the Best Books of the last 12 months.

And yet, I remain undeterred — what is the end of a year without a list of things? And while I may not have a top 10, I’m sure I can come up with something that fits our habit of doing odd and unorthodox year-end lists.

So here is my list of ~~Top~~ Ten Books [I had Time to Read] This Year. Continue reading →

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Filed under Hooray Fiction!

Tagged as Bleeding Edge, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Christian Wiman, Christianity, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, Elanor Catton, Francis Spufford, Haruki Murakami, J.D. Salinger, J.D. Salinger The Escape Artist, Joanna Rakoff, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Lev Grossman, Lila, Marilynne Robinson, Michael Chabon, My Bright Abyss, My Salinger Year, My Struggle, Philip Pullman, September 11, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Luminaries, The Magician's Land, Thomas Beller, Thomas Piketty, Thomas Pynchon, Unapologetic

by Mike | July 17, 2014 · 12:01 am

TL;DR Must Read

It was something of a surprise when Thomas Piketty’s 700-page, statistics-laden economics tome Capital in the Twenty-First Century became a sensation earlier this year, selling out its early print run and even briefly passing Heaven is for Real for the top spot on the New York Times Bestseller list. Less surprising was the news last week that the 700-page, statistic-laden economics tome now tops a list of books people are buying and then not reading.

According to an admittedly non-scientific study tracking the most frequently highlighted passages in popular e-books, most buyers of Piketty’s book didn’t highlight, and thus probably didn’t read, much of anything beyond page 26. It is “summer’s most unread book” for 2014.

So let me confess at the outset of this review that I am one of the many who have not finished reading this book.

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Filed under "Non-fiction"

Tagged as Balzac, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Damages, global wealth tax, Heaven is for Real, Henry James, inequality, Jane Austen, r > g, Stephen Colbert, Summer's Most Unread Book, The Aristocats, The Colbert Report, The West Wing, Thomas Piketty, Titanic, TLDR, Too Long Didn't Read, trickle down economics

Tag Archives: Capital in the Twenty-First Century

A Super Tuesday Reading List

Hillary Clinton

The Top Ten Books [I had Time to Read] This Year

TL;DR Must Read

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