Monday 31 March 2008

Recuperative reading and top tunes

I'm at home today feeling really rough. Had a really unpleasant night and wasn't able to get to sleep until past 4.00am so I'm feeling wiped out. The one plus point is that a few books I had ordered have turned up in the post this morning. They are:

The Logic of Life: Uncovering the New Economics of Everything by Tim Harford

Bought this because I quite liked his first one (The Undercover Economist) and it also has a section on why bosses after overpaid which I thought might be quite useful for work. However I have now read that chapter, and whilst it is quite good I think it could have done with a bit more about the role of shareholders. For example arguably it's rational for institutional shreholders to not kick off about high executive pay because it's not their own money they are investing.


The New Financial Order: Risk in the 21st Century - Robert Shiller

Been meaning to get this for quite a while. Again I really enjoyed Irrational Exhuberance, plus I have flicked through this a few times in Borders and thought it looked very interesting. He also talks about unions being one possible provider/advocate of risk insurance.


Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics and Marriage - Paul Ekman

This one is a bit of a punt. I'm quite interested in learning more about dishonesty (actually there is a decent section in Predictably Irrational about this) and I thought it might be quite useful in my day job.


Meanwhile I've decided to set aside (for now) one of the books I got last year and just don't seem to be able to get properly into - Capital Flows and Crises by Barry Eichengreen. Although it's obviously very relevant currently I just can't make headway with it. So I think it's going to be one for reading on the beach in the summer.


Finally, inspired by the way that blogs like A Very public Sociologist and Someday I Will Treat You Good include current top tunes and downloads, I thought I would bung up a list of my own. In no particular order -

Rossz Csillag Allat Szuletett by Venetian Snares
Excepts from Your Mum's Favourite DJ by Kid Koala
Music Has No meaning by Consolidated

3 comments:

John Gray said...

Hi Tom

Beards - I told you they are unhealthy!

After all - would Colin be seen wearing a Beard?

What more proof do you want?

BTW - good seminar today on Class actions. Will post.

Andrew Brown said...

Thanks for the link, Tom. I did a bit of MySpacing on the people you've been listening to.

Those Venetian Snares take a bit of getting used to don't they?

Tom Powdrill said...

Yes a lot of it isn't very easy listening. His earlier stuff is purely electronic, and pretty fierce (and unlistenable) breakcore. However the one I plugged mixes in Hungarian classical music. The track 'Hajnal' is a particular fave!