NWR: What did you read this past summer, that wasn't Jonathan Franzen?

Under the category of mindless entertainment I also burned through Olen Steinhauer's "Tourist" trilogy and "All The Old Knives" - pure beach reading stuff. "The Caliph's House by Tahir Shah - basically A Year in Provence set in Casablanca and finally Graham Greene's, "The Quiet American" - the movie adaptation is worth a watch.
 
originally posted by maureen:
legal blah-blah-blah
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Well, at least you're getting Paid to read!

For the paranoid in all of us, a scary read for Halloween is "Data and Goliath" by Bruce Schneier. There really is NO PLACE to hide!
 
I didn't find Piketty dry at all. I'd like to believe that it was a dead on analysis. His analyses of Balzac and Austen, however, were not always dead on, so I don't know if he was better about things I don't know about. I'd like to believe we could have wide spread income growth without war or depression, though.
 
originally posted by JasonA:
Graham Greene's, "The Quiet American"
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It's always Graham Greene season!

As for the film, haven't seen it (yet?), but reminds me of that old Dennis Miller joke:

"I was watching the video of my wedding the other day and damn it if Michael Caine wasn't in it."
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
I didn't find Piketty dry at all. I'd like to believe that it was a dead on analysis. His analyses of Balzac and Austen, however, were not always dead on, so I don't know if he was better about things I don't know about. I'd like to believe we could have wide spread income growth without war or depression, though.
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I didn't find it dry either, though the big seller does not hold together nearly as well as the works he drew upon and then stuck between two covers. I'm not sure we need him to see the redistributive consequences of war and depression, but he does make the point powerfully.
 
originally posted by BJ:
originally posted by Tristan Welles:
Ian Bostridge's book on Schubert's Winterreise is a very good read. Intentionally discursive, but never less than interesting.
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God that sounds great. I love Fischer-Dieskau.
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you should get the book! Bostridge covers lots of territory, from the German literary tradition of die Lindenbaum, performing the cycle, historical background, the poetry of Müller.
 
originally posted by Cliff:
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
I didn't find Piketty dry at all. I'd like to believe that it was a dead on analysis. His analyses of Balzac and Austen, however, were not always dead on, so I don't know if he was better about things I don't know about. I'd like to believe we could have wide spread income growth without war or depression, though.
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I didn't find it dry either, though the big seller does not hold together nearly as well as the works he drew upon and then stuck between two covers. I'm not sure we need him to see the redistributive consequences of war and depression, but he does make the point powerfully.
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Well war is pretty clear when you think about it, though I have to say I didn't think about it until I read Piketty. The redistributive consequences of depression don't seem to me straightforward given its initial effect, via unemployment and deflation on wages and employment. But I'm not an economist and he is pretty persuasive.
 
originally posted by Cliff:
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
I didn't find Piketty dry at all. I'd like to believe that it was a dead on analysis. His analyses of Balzac and Austen, however, were not always dead on, so I don't know if he was better about things I don't know about. I'd like to believe we could have wide spread income growth without war or depression, though.
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I didn't find it dry either, though the big seller does not hold together nearly as well as the works he drew upon and then stuck between two covers. I'm not sure we need him to see the redistributive consequences of war and depression, but he does make the point powerfully.
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As someone who deals with data a fair amount it is quite clear that he was unable to refrain from squeezing some of the data to fit his hypothesis. And the r>g bit does not really explain much. But his topic is important and even a highly imperfect study attracted much attention.
 
Well, if you're going to take my Sound of Music literally, you have to start with Le drageoir aux épices.

Or you could start at the beginning of your chefs d'accusation....
 
Far Tortuga by Jonathan Franzen. He's writing under his Peter Matthiessen byline, but it's pure Franzen gold. Brilliant, poetic, haunting. Ten out of ten points, would read again.

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www.amazon.com
 
originally posted by Cliff:
originally posted by Cole Kendall:
... the r>g bit does not really explain much...
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This. His definition of capital is incredibly broad.
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The r>g equation seemed very explanatory to me. My problem with it was that in a book that was supposed to rest on a lot of historical research, the strength of the equation was in its universal, logical appeal. Are you guys saying that, given historical differences, it really works only like the supply demand equation does, or that there's some other fallacy?
 
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