Blue Lion's Lair

Yes!!  We are finally up to the number one book that everyone should read.

It has become completely obvious to the Blue Lion that there is one subject in which the average American in particular and the average human in general, is woefully under educated.  That subject is economics.  In fact, if you asked 10 people to tell you what the study of economics was about, most of them would tell you it was the study of money, or give you some lame answer about the Law of Supply and Demand.  They would be wrong.  The Supply and Demand group would at least be close to an accurate answer.

There are several books I could recommend here for most people.  For those who have absolutely no interest in economics, but know they need to learn something, I would probably recommend Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science by Charles Wheelan.  For those who have a more academic interest I might recommend Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics by Henry Hazlitt.  One book I won’t even link to, but will steer you away from is the hugely popular, but woefully inadequate, and just downright silly Freakonomics.  This is a book written by fools to be read by fools.  Yes, I did read it, but I’m sorry I did.  Mainly, I’m sorry I paid for it and gave my money to the authors.

That leaves me with the single best economics book I’ve ever read.  That is Thomas Sowell’s excellent Basic Economics 3rd Ed: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy.  Dr. Sowell starts out with providing the actual answer to “What is economics?”  Basically, economics the study of the distibution of resources.  He then goes into explaining that all resources are scarce at the given price.  From there he gets into the guts of supply and demand.  The reader will finally have a working understanding of how these concepts apply to commerce and industry after reading this book.  Other subjects, such as the role of risk, the value of work, how the rules of economics play out in both the national and international realms, and how many people make important decisions without any ability to predict what the final outcome will be are thoroughly explored.  A thorough understanding of all of these priciples is a prerequisite of being able to talk intelligently about the current issues of the day.  Health care reform, government spending, tax increases, inflation, and enegy generation and use are all important issues that require an understanding of the material in this book in order to make informed, rational decisions about.  Relying on the “mainstream media” to stay informed on these issues will lead you to make emotional judgements instead of the rational ones that need to be made to lead all of us in the optimal direction.

For all of the above reasons, I believe that not only every American, but every human should read this book.  Many of the worlds problems could be solved by people armed with the knowledge Dr. Sowell has passed on in this book.  We are doing our children a disservice if we don’t understand this information and find ways to make them understand it as well.  I personally, would love to see high schools and junior colleges teaching economics to every student using this book as the textbook.  I’m sure there are some places that do so, but I haven’t heard of them. In a country where there are schools that teach Psychology courses based upon the Simpsons, this is a crime.  Therefore it is up to everyone to take responsibility for their own education and buy and then read this book.  Do it.  You know you want to.

Good day all! We’re getting to the end of the book reviews. We are now up to my Top 4 Books That Everyone Should Read.  And off to the countdown.

In 4th place we have a book that will change your concept of money, how to earn it, and how to invest it.  However, in researching this book for this list I saw a critique that gives me reservations about recommending this book.  After much soul searching (which delayed this post), I’ve decided to still recommend this book, but with a caveat.  The book I still believe you should read is Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.  Why the caveat?  Well, after you read the book you need to read the critique of the book by John T. Reed at this link.  However, I’m going to still recommend the book for two reasons.  Kiyosaki’s treatment of Investments and Expenses is exceptional and most people will benefit by understanding it.  Also, his “Cash Flow Quadrant” is something everyone needs to understand as well.  Kiyosaki explains why it is much better to be earning your living via “passive” income instead of  “active” income, both from a lifestyle and a tax consequences standpoint.  The book is engaging and entertaining.  You’ll feel you learned something after reading it.  However, balance what you read by looking at the Reed critique and make your own decisions on how much to believe.

My 3rd place book was written in the 1930′s by Ayn Rand.  If reading this book doesn’t remind you of the present leaders of our country and scare the fecal matter out of you, go back and read it again.  I’m talking about Atlas Shrugged.  It’s a fictional story about an alternate 1930s scenario.  In this scenario, liberal thinking people have gained control of the Government and are making rules that unfairly treat successful businesses in favor of business owners who are friends with the Government leaders.  As things go south, a man named John Galt is trying to change things, or at least rescue those who think like he does from the ensuing destruction.  There is much to like about Shrugged.  The story is interesting and the characters are, for the most part, well drawn.  I won’t lie to you.  It is a very long book that will take a while to read.  It’s also not the easiest reading at times.  John Galt’s climactic 30 page rant about the evils of liberalism and religion and the benefits of objectivism is fairly unbearable.   There are also some things that are quite out dated, like a positive fixation on smoking and descriptions of smoke stacks spewing pollutants as being “beautiful”.  However, when the book was written, the dangers of these things were not known.

But the concepts of objectivism spelled out in this book should be required reading by everyone over the age of 18 in this country.  While, as I’ve stated before, I have a problem with the objectivists total lack of wondering “why we are here”, I believe the way we need to live our lives is almost exactly the way objectivists do.  I guess you could call me a spiritual objectivist.  I live my life in a rational manner, but I also spend some of my mental energy wondering about the bigger questions of God and our reason for being here.  When I read this book, many of the concepts I had about life and how to live it were crystalized in my mind.  I hope it can do so for you as well.

All Covers From The Sword Of Truth

For our second place book I’m going to cheat again.  This is actually a collection of 11 books.  They are the Sword of Truth series of fantasy novels written by Terry Goodkind.  This series is, bar none, the best work of fantasy I’ve ever read.  Mr. Goodkind has taken a genre that is often written for younger audiences and turned it into a truly adult medium.  I don’t mean in any way that this series is “adult entertainment” (ie. pornographic).  What I mean is that the concepts discussed and the, sometimes brutal, events experienced by the protagonists are only going to be truly understood and appreciated by a mature audience.  The characters are completely realized and incredibly deep.  Characters don’t always end up to be who you think they are.  Redemption is possible, but certainly not easy or frequent.

This series covers much of the same ground as Atlas Shrugged, but in a much more fulfilling manner.  I can’t think of a single weakness these books have as a work of art.  They are emotionally deep, humorous, philosophical, exciting, and inspiring.  While the concepts of objectivism are fully explained here as well, the relationships between the characters are much more realistic and fulfilling.  The hero, Richard Rahl, is someone I wish existed in this world to learn from and support.

One of my favorite parts of this series are the “Wizard’s Rules” that are presented in each book.  The first book is, coincidentally enough entitled Wizard’s First Rule.  The first rule is “People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it’s true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People’s heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool.”  (—Chapter 36, p.397, U.S. hardcover edition) Goodkind follows this up with the second rule “The greatest harm can result from the best intentions”  otherwise known as the Law of Unintended Consequences.  Anyone who can present these two “Rules” to start his series is a genius in my book.  I’ve got a post planned in the near future discussing all 11 Wizards Rules and seeing how they apply in our world.  This series is for anyone who has become bored by fantasy or believes fantasy is childish only for younger people.  For all of the above reasons, it is easily my second highest recommendation.  For pure enjoyment and entertainment, it is my first pick.  In fact I’m currently rereading the entire series.

We’re almost there.  Next post is my number one book that everone should read!!

Welcome back.  I hope everyone is finding the book selections interesting and/or entertaining.  I hope my descriptions on why these books are important aren’t boring anyone.  If they are….well too bad.  It’s my blog and we only have 7 more books to go.

In seventh place is a book that may be the most important one I’ve read over the last year or so.  It’s called Terrestrial Energy and it’s written by William Tucker.  What makes this book so important?  It posits the single best energy plan that I’ve seen to date.  It explains why we need to rethink the types of energy we are using mainly due to the relative energy densities of these technologies.  Mr. Tucker starts out with a detailed discussion of global warming.  He gives what is the most complete and fair discussion of the topic I’ve seen.  He talks about the scientific theory behind the arguments for and against man made global warming.  Although I don’t necessarily agree with his conclusions that man is definitely warming the planet and that this could progress to a runaway situation that would be disastrous, I at least feel that the entire subject was rationally addressed and while his arguments show some reason for concern, he doesn’t give weight to those who treat man made global warming as a new religion.

The rest of the book is just phenomenal.  He goes through the entire history of human energy use, from wood, to coal, to oil, to nuclear and everything else that is being tried.  He talks about the good and bad points of each type of energy.  He debunks the “green energy” crowd by showing that the impact to our environment would be larger due to them than due to the energy we have today.  He shows clearly where we went wrong by fearing nuclear energy and not working to make the technology safe for many years thanks to Jimmy Carter’s decision to stop reprossessing spent nuclear fuel and the hysteria created by the movie “The China Syndrome” and the Three Mile Island incident and the Chernobyl disaster. While the failure mode posited by the China Syndrome has never been physically possible in an American nuclear plant, it happened at Chernobyl due to poor reactor design.  Carter’s fear that plutonium from reprocessing could be used to create weapons is shown to be nonsensical since Carter, as a nuclear engineer for the Navy, should have known that no one could separate the 4 isotopes of plutonium resulting from reprocessing.  This decision creates a much larger nuclear waste problem than there needs to be.  If France can solve these problems, why can’t we?

In the final analysis, Tucker proposes that we convert our base energy generation to nuclear (including reprocessing) with solar energy to be used for “peaking power” as the only possible way to wean ourselves off of coal (eliminating the biggest contributor of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere) and oil (the reasons for this are obvious).  If you’re not sure this book would be of interest to you the at least read Mr. Tucker’s article entitled “There’s No Such Thing As Nuclear Waste” available in many places on the internet by searching Google, or by clicking the link I’ve so thoughtfully provided.

In sixth place we have an all time classic.  It’s Dale Carnegie’s How To Win Friends And Influence People.  This is the book that started the whole field of Human Relations.  Every single leadership, team building, team work or interpersonal skills training course I’ve taken over the years, and I’ve taken a rather large number of them, has used this book as it’s basis.  Mr. Carnegie was a genius at figuring out how to deal with people.  What’s interesting is that it all makes common sense when you look at it, but the lessons are not always intuitive.  Recently, one of my posters brought up the “Platinum Rule”.  Do unto others as they would want you to.  This pretty much sums up the tome in one sentence.  The main concepts discussed in the book are:

Fundamental Techniques in Handling People
1. Don’t criticize, condemn or complain.
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want.

Six Ways to Make People Like You
1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile.
3. Remember that a man’s Name is to him the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5. Talk in the terms of the other man’s interest.
6. Make the other person feel important and do it sincerely.

Twelve Ways to Win People to Your Way of Thinking
1. Avoid arguments.
2. Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never tell someone they are wrong.
3. If you’re wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
4. Begin in a friendly way.
5. Start with questions the other person will answer yes to.
6. Let the other person do the talking.
7. Let the other person feel the idea is his/hers.
8. Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.
9. Sympathize with the other person.
10. Appeal to noble motives.
11. Dramatize your ideas.
12. Throw down a challenge.

Be a Leader: How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment
1. Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
2. Call attention to other people’s mistakes indirectly.
3. Talk about your own mistakes first.
4. Ask questions instead of directly giving orders.
5. Let the other person save face.
6. Praise every improvement.
7. Give them a fine reputation to live up to.
8. Encourage them by making their faults seem easy to correct.
9. Make the other person happy about doing what you suggest.

I could try to explain how helpful this book can be, but years of success by the many people who have read this book speak louder than I can.  Just suffice it to say that if everyone read this book and implemented even half of the concepts, this would be a much more pleasant and productive world.

In fifth place I have a toss up.  Two books by the same author, either of which I could put in this spot.  The author is Brian Greene, a brilliant theoretical physicist from Columbia University.  The first book, The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory is the easiest read of the two books.  Of course, neither would be considered an easy read by the average person.  However, this book starts out by providing the single best explanation and visualization of the various Laws of Relativity I’ve ever heard of.  Mr. Greene has the ability to take concepts that are as complicated as the most accomplished scientists deal with, and make them somewhat understandable to readers with an interest in science.  I mean really.  While this book didn’t introduce me to a 10 dimensional universe, by the time I finished reading it, I felt that not only did I finally really grasp Einstein’s theories of General and Special Relativity, but I also could follow conversations about String Theory, Brane Theory, Calabi-Yau manifolds, and quantum gravity.  Now at one time in my life, I earned an engineering degree.  However, it has been some time since I did so my mathematical skills have atrophied.  This book provides an understanding of the basic concepts of theoretical physics without requiring a PhD. in mathematics.

The other book by Brian Greene that belongs here is The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality.  This book is even more interesting than the first one, but much more mind bending.  Mr. Greene really takes on a challenge here discussing whether or not there is a true reality or not.  This book borders on philosophy, but uses actual physics theories to discuss the topic.  These theories were not available to the philosophers of the past and make for some very interesting comparisons.  The complexity is continually expanded to include the nature and direction of time, trying to apply string theory as a unifying Theory of Everything to finally unite the cosmological and quantum worlds, the origin of the universe and supersymmetry.  I’m aware that much of this will sound like gobbledygook to most people reading this, but this book is the one that really started me thinking about time, the nature of time and the possible purpose of time.  This directly led to my thinking about what being outside of time would have to mean to a Creator of the universe.

While these two books are near the top of my list of books everyone should read, I have to admit, they are not for everybody.  These books should be read by people with a basic understanding of scientific principles and theories.  Having an interest in understanding the ultimate nature of the Universe helps as well.  However, their importance to me in understanding enough of current theoretical thinking on the ultimate nature of the universe can’t be understated.  For this reason, I’m including them both here.

Next up we have some more entertaining entries in spots 4, 3 and 2.

Thank you to all the readers following up to now.  I now bring you, drum roll please, Blue Lion’s Top Ten Books That Everybody Should Read!  For this installment we will be revealing books 10 through 6.  So, without further ado, let’s get to the countdown.

In tenth place we have The World’s Religions by Huston Smith.  The Blue Lion has always been interested….OK, maybe always is too long.  The Blue Lion has, for as long as he can remember, been interested in religions and the beliefs of others.  This book was a natural for me to pick up and read.  Mr. Smith does a superb job providing not just the tenets of the world’s major and even some not so major religions, but traces their histories as well.  In some ways, this book is also a history of humanity.  Reading through the histories, teachings of the various religions’ founders, and their modern beliefs, one thing became clear to me.  Every major religion of man has been “corrupted” from the original teachings of their founders.  I don’t mean that every religion is run by corrupt people, although that can be an issue.  What I mean is that the simple and pure ideas each religion started with have been added to and embellished, many times so much so that the original founders wouldn’t recognize them.

Since I’ve been raised as a Catholic, I’ll give Christianity as the perfect example.  Jesus Christ, and we’ll assume he existed and said and did much of what was attributed to him, had a very simple message.  Basically, he told us we were all brothers and sisters.  He included himself in that mix.  He told us to love one another as we loved ourselves and to love God with your whole heart.  With one stroke he superseded the Ten Commandments with one.  This was the essence of the “Good News”.  If we followed this one commandment, we would be “saved”.  All of us sinners could be saved.  Pretty much everything else Christ did or said was an extension of this.

Well, apparently, people couldn’t leave well enough alone.  Somehow, this simple concept has turned into reams of dogma and rules that people had to follow. If they didn’t, they would be damned to hell for all eternity.  Then people disagreed on the rules and broke the religions up into countless demi-religions.  The Churches were established, whose leaders had great power, both secular and spritual.  At one point, the Catholic Church had three people declaring that they were the one and true Pope.  Crazy.

Any way, this book is one of the many that has informed by spiritual thinking of the years.  It started me down the path of realizing that although most religions had some truth to them, there was not a single organized religion that had the entire story.  Also, no religion was entirely true as well.  This book in many ways spurred my search for answers.  Even if you don’t find the answers I did in it, it is always beneficial to understand one’s fellow man and I cannot recommend a better way in which to start than by reading The World’s Religions.

In ninth place we have one of the most purely entertaining series ever written.  I’m talking about J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series.  Ms. Rowling has written one of the best fantasy series of all time, probably one of the best works of fiction as well.  This series starts out with The Sorcerer’s Stone, a wonderful story focused on youths that adults can enjoy as well.  With each progressive book, the main characters in the story grow up and the depth, complexity, and consequences of each story grow right along with them.  By the time of the 4th book, The Goblet of Fire, comes along, the writing and story is as good as almost any adult fiction I’ve read.  The exceptions are further along in this countdown.  The final three books are superb works of fiction.  Ms. Rowling deserves every penny she has earned with this series.  She found the perfect sweet spot in writing.  She wrote something that can be enjoyed by ANYONE above the age of 12.  This is something few authors have accomplished.  Tolkien did it to an extent, but the Potter series is initially more accessible to the younger readers.  I can only imaging what reading this series in step with your current age must have been like.  Since each book came out about once a year, someone who was 11 or 12 when the series started would have been able to read about kids their own age in each book.  I only had the privilege of reading this series as an adult and being able to remember what it was like to be the ages of the protagonists.

As with most stories about great struggles, the people in the Harry Potter series are fighting against tyranny and for their freedom and liberty.  As the series progresses, the consequences of making mistakes against a powerful foe become more and more profound.  Characters we come to care about get killed.  There are set backs for the good guys.  All through this, the heroes learn they cannot give up.  Ironically, they discover that in order to win the future, they need to understand what happened in the past.  With each installment the picture of what needs to be done and why things are the way they are becomes clearer.  The ending is triumphantly bittersweet.  The right people win, but at a heavy price.

This is a series that even people not generally drawn to fantasy should enjoy.  However, even if you can’t bring yourself to read the books, at least the movies are acceptable alternatives here.  All the movies are well done, with some being better than others.  However, even the best of the movies are mere shadows of the books they represent.  Yes, the seven books in this series are long, but they will not waste your time.  I heartily recommend everyone read this saga.

Next up is our eighth place entry; Leadership by Rudy Guiliani.  As everyone in the US probably knows, Rudy Guiliani was the very successful mayor of New York City who turned the city around from a crime infested hell hole to the great place to visit it is today.  I can hear the chorus of “give me a break, he wasn’t THAT good” now.  OK. I guess you have a point.  Maybe getting rid of the windshield washers at the tunnel exits in Manhattan doesn’t exactly turn NYC from a hell hole to paradise.  However, that one act did start the people of NY City to start changing their self defeating attitude that allowed the city to fall into a state of resigned acceptance that things couldn’t be improved to one that allowed the city to bounce back from the September 11th attacks faster than anyone would have imagined.  Mayor Guiliani provided a steady hand on that dark day that helped keep people from panicking, rioting and looting.  Let’s face it, NYC on 9/11 didn’t look anything like LA after the OJ Trial or the Rodney King trial or heck, even the Lakers winning the NBA Championship.

However, this book is not really about Rudy’s success as mayor.  It’s really about his leadership style.  For people who lead other people in any way this is a facinating and instructive book.  The main message I took from it was that you must always treat people with respect.  You don’t always have to agree with them, but you need to be able to discuss controversial or sensitive subjects in a way that makes others feel like they were at least not dismissed out of hand.  It’s the leader’s job to stand in front of the group and point in the direction you want everyone to move.  You need to make sure everyone knows the goals you are trying to accomplish and that the goals are worth while.  While you need to understand what actions are being taken to accomplish those goals, you can’t dictate what everyone is doing.  Everyone needs to be impowered to make decisions and make a difference.  YOu need to care about the people you are leading and be willing to be part teacher, part coach, part councillor and part friend.  While there are concepts that can help you do these things, leadership is an art and not a science.  Rudy Guiliani addresses all of these topics, giving examples of how he applied them, making this book an interesting read.

Now, since these mini reviews are getting longer than I thought they would be, I’m going to change my plans and only do three books each post.  So, next up well have books 7-5.  Until then, good hunting and good reading.