David ended up at Better Read Than Dead as the result of a dead car battery and the need for a last minute birthday present. He's been here since 2002, helping others out with last minute birthday presents but not car batteries. When not working, he can be found bushwalking and hanging out with Daisy, his Irish red and white setter.
The Blue Plateau: A Landscape Memoir
by Mark Tredinnick
2009
PB $26.95
This book is an enchanting and evocative story of the Blue Mountains. It tells of both the geographical and geological history as well as the rich human story of this area. Reading it, you will be transported to the stunning and mysterious landscape of the Mountains which so many of us visit, but rarely learn about or try to understand. Layered in with this knowledge is a rich personal narrative that introduces us to the personalities that call this part of Australia home, and the struggles they have faced living side by side with nature.
Tredinnick is better known for his Little Red Writing Book and The Little Green Grammar Book, but this work shows he is capable of much more than just teaching us how to write properly. Rich, moving and absorbing.
The Return of Depression Economics
by Paul Krugman
2009
PB $26.95
If, like me, you are a little overawed by the global financial crisis/ recession/ bagel (as it would be called in The West Wing), then who better to explain the globe's confusing predicament than the combative but brilliant economist Paul Krugman?
Few things, suggests Krugman, typify an economic malaise as much as plentiful productive capacity with inadequate demand to put that capacity to full and profitable use. This situation is not new, and this book puts today's crisis into the context of those during the 1990s as well as the Great Depression. Sometimes it seems as if everyone gets a bit freaked out, and as a consequence, credit freezes, confidence is lost, panic sets in and perception supplants reality. We learn of bank runs, securitization, collateralized debt obligations, the dangers of untrammelled efforts to make obscene amounts of speculative money, and of the importance of timely government intervention in the economy.
One of my favourite things about this book is its accessible style - Krugman does a mean line in analogy and parable to make complex problems comprehensible, and despite the subject matter, it's actually quite enthralling. But where do we all go now? Drawing on insights gained from crises past, three things need to happen: credit needs to flow again, government can and should stimulate demand (and go into debt if necessary), and financial markets need to be better regulated to prevent a recurrence. Easy! Now we just need politicians and policy makers to heed the advice of people like Paul Krugman.
My favourite book
Smithereens
by Shaun Micallef.
It's now out of print, but if you can get your hands on a copy, go to page 184 and a brief story called Bach Ache. Top shelf!
My favourite author
Mark Rowlands
I really like the work of a philosopher named Mark Rowlands. Don't hold that against him, though. His work is funny and accessible - I wouldn't dig it otherwise.
His 2002 book Animals Like Us was a very original contribution as to why we should treat non-human animals better than we currently do, and his recent memoir, The Philosopher and the Wolf was hilarious, sad, and thought-provoking.
What's beside the bed
At the top of a perilously high pile of books are two by American author and columnist Rebecca Solnit - Wanderlust, A History of Walking, and Savage Dreams, an environmental history comparing the Nevada nuclear test site with Yosemite National Park.