Dave Pollard's environmental philosophy, creative works, business papers and essays.

trust your instincts

< £ Salon Bloggers & >

	December 2, 2003

POLLARD'S 'MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS OF 2003' Continuing the dubious tradition of winding up the year with lists of the year's best everything, here's my list of the 'most important' (to me, and potentially to those of like mind) books of 2003. They are 'most important' because they all changed how I thought about the world. They are not necessarily the best written, or the most entertaining. They're in no particular order below. Links are to articles where I've discussed them in these pages. The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell -- what makes things change The Future of Freedom, by Fareed Zakaria -- why we can't change another country's culture from outside it The New Rules of the World, by John Pilger -- an accurate, devastating portrait of the world in 2003 Elizabeth Costello, by JM Coetzee -- why we tolerate a holocaust against our fellow creatures on Earth People Before Profit, by Charles Derber -- how rampant corporatism ravaged the vast majority of people worldwide in the 1800s, and is doing so again The Unconquerable World, by Jon Schell -- why non-violence and consensus-building are the only viable way forward The Support Economy, by Shoshana Zuboff -- a deeply flawed but intellectually stimulating model for a post-capitalist economy Unequal Protection, by Thom Hartmann -- the case for denying 'personhood' to corporations Radical Simplicity, by Jim Merkel -- how to free yourself from possessions and wage slavery without sacrifice (reviewed yesterday) The nine books above supplement the 18 items in the Radical Environmentalist's Essential Reading List, which I put together at the start of this year. Missing from this reading list too are the following four items which I just discovered this year, though they were written earlier: The World We Want, by Mark Kingwell (why we are best served by trusting our instincts rather than what we are persuaded is moral or rational) The Demon in the Freezer, by Richard Preston (how vulnerable we all are to individual acts of terror, chaos and sabotage) At Home in the Universe, by Stuart Kauffman (how self-organizing, self-managing systems work) The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race, essay by Jared Diamond (why the adoption of agriculture was 'a catastrophe from which we have never recovered') I'm still making my way through Charles Handy's and Peter Drucker's recent writings, and hope to add something of theirs to the list. Considering the number of business books written, it's disappointing that I haven't yet found a handbook for operating the new collaborative enterprises needed to build the next economy. I'm also eagerly awaiting Jared Diamond's new book Ecocide, publication of which has now been pushed back a year to next November. 9:28:52 AM  trackback []  comment []

© Copyright 2004 Dave Pollard. Last update: 19/02/2004; 2:58:16 PM.