After entering XL, I rarely read any books other than the course materials. Most of the time I was busy behind the laptop screen doing some assignments or projects. Even if I found some free time, I never felt like reading a book, would watch some new Tamil movie which relaxes me a lot. During my summer internship I found some time to read some books. Recently a couple of weeks during travel I could read.
Predictably irrational by Dan Airely
The basic assumption of Traditional Economics is – “All Humans are Rational, we always make rational choices “. But this book is a fascinating examination of why human beings are wired and conditioned to react irrationally. We human beings are a selfish bunch, so it's all the more surprising to see how easily we can be manipulated to behave in ways that run counter to our own self-interest. What I learned from Predictably Irrational is that everyone is irrational sometimes, and that's OK. We're not perfectly logical creatures, after all. The trick is training yourself to know when you're most likely to make irrational choices, and to resist those impulses. I would say this books increased my interest in Behavioural Economics. I would rate this a 4.5 / 5 in terms of value add, style of writing and research done.
Freakonomics by Steven Levitt
No special mention required about this book, as this is one of the book most reviewed, and also you can refer the Freakonomics blog at NY Times. But this is also of the same genre similar to behavioural economics. “Conventional wisdom is often shoddily formed and devilishly difficult to see through” – You will understand this if you read this book. A must read if you would like to understand many economic problems could be related to something which are not obvious. One of the most famous correlations gave by him is the Link between - US crime rate and Legalising Abortion. I would rate a 4/5 for this book.
I have started again, at present I am reading Gregory Robert’s – Shantaram.
Previous Reviews
1. Quick Review
2. Under Cover Economist