50 book challenge

The Rebel Angels, Robertson Davies. First book in his Cornish trilogy.

 

The Undercover Economist, Tim Harford. A readable recapitulation of the main principles/arguments for free markets.  Actually probably the most useful tidbit was a quote from old French dude who said something to the effect of, "The well-run profitable business aims to prevent customers who can pay more from paying less." There is a neat exposition of how this principle lives out in, say, price differences at Starbucks - e.g., why is it so much more expensive, relative to the cost (in materials and time), to get a little something (whipped cream, or what have you) added to your drink. This is all part of the firm's attempt to separate out the people who don't care about paying more from those who do. This is especially salient in the instances where a company like IBM designs and builds a printer, then intentionally cripples it with a chip to sell that version at a cheaper price. Maybe a little obvious, but he explained it well.