Organizations and Markets

Vacation Reading

14 July 2006 at 5:00 am Nicolai Foss 1 comment

| Nicolai Foss |

The more narcissistic bloggers often inform their readership on the subject of What I am Reading This Summer (substitute Spring, Fall, Winter). Of course, no reason to not adopt this well-established practice.

As of tomorrow, I will be on vacation for two weeks in Antibes in the sourthern part of the perhaps most commie country in the World. This is what I will bring with me:

1. Douglass C North. 2005. Understanding the Process of Economic Change. North’s attempt to seriously integrate the “cognitive component” in his increasinly non-orthodox theorizing. Seems to be a relatively light read, however.

2. Terry Anderson and Peter Hill. 2004. The Not so Wild, Wild West. An interesting recasting of America’s frontier institutions that emphasize cooperative institutions rather than smoking guns.

3. Karen Armstrong. 2006. The Great Transformation. Apparently an intriguing argument that the religions of the Axial Age (appr. 900 to 200 BC) — i.e., Judaism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism — arose as responses to a climate of violence, political disruption and extreme intolerance — with implications for our current, much similar situation. This one I really look forward to.

4. Steven Saylor. 2000 and 2004. Roman Blood and The Judgment of Caesar. Quality pulp. Saylor recreates 1st century BC Rome through the eyes and mind of detective Gordianus the Finder.

5. Raymond Khoury. 2006. The Last Templar. Yes, I know: Pure pulp and another Da Vinci Code knock off. But there should be something for those semi-brain-dead states of mind that arise after too much pastis and too much sun. And it cannot possibly get worse than the Da Vinci Code.

Entry filed under: - Foss -, Ephemera, Recommended Reading.