oftwominds-Charles Hugh Smith

Books: Readers' Recommendations

I learn a tremendous amount from you, the readers of this humble site--from your experiences, your insights, your reasoning, and from your recommended reading. To share this wealth of ideas and sources, here is a selection of books which readers have recommended to me recently. I am a slow reader and therefore still working through the list. I have never been disappointed in a reader's suggestion.

As a reminder: I post links to Amazon.com so you can access other readers' reviews of each title. If you buy a book through Amazon, I receive a sliver of a commission at no cost to you--Amazon simply shares a bit of their proceeds with me. You can often borrow these for free at a library, or find a copy used online or in a used bookstore. And I also consistently recommend buying some books at your independent bookstore, if there is one in your area.

First up: frequent contributor U. Doran recently recommended a number of modern finance / economics classics, and one which may well join that select list:

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles MacKay

Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises by Charles Kindleberger

Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk by Peter L. Bernstein

Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation by Edward Chancellor

The Great Crash 1929 by John Kenneth Galbraith

The Crowd by Gustave Le Bon

Mike D. suggested: With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change by Fred Pearce

Frequent contributor Michael Goodfellow recommended: China Shakes the World: A Titan's Rise and Troubled Future -- and the Challenge for America by James Kynge

Longtime contributors Charlie R. and James C. independently recommended: The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century by James Howard Kunstler

Erudite correspondent Riley T. recommended a 20th century classic: The Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblen

New correspondent Christine O. suggested two on the food chain and nutrition: The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats by Sally Fallon

Longtime correspondent Cheryl A. recommended this explanation of derivatives, which I have listed before: Fiasco: The Inside Story of a Wall Street Trader

For anyone wishing to improve their understanding of the stock market and their trading, frequent contributor Harun I. recommended: Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

Anyone seeking to understand how global capital is deployed as a means of political and financial control would benefit from this title recommended to me by my sister: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

And I can't resist suggesting (yet again) the masterful 3-volume account of global capitalism and trading by Fernand Braudel: The Structures of Everyday Life (Volume 1)
The Wheels of Commerce (Volume 2)
The Perspective of the World (Volume 3)

If nothing here piques your interest, check out my entire list of Recommended Books/Films.

Thank you Mark K. ($10) for your generous donation via personal check. I am greatly honored by your support. All contributors are listed below in acknowledgement of my gratitude.