Economics in Action

I am following Thomas Schelling's recommendations -- increasing the stakes of my New Year's Resolution to forestall failure. In short, I'm enlisting y'all in keeping me honest in my 52 books in 52 weeks resolution (which I stole from Roxanne). Basically, excepting the very first Monday (which is the second), expect a capsule review on this very blog every Monday of the book I am supposed to have read the week before. I give you my permission to deride me freely in the comments if I don't follow through.

My first book of 2006 will be Robert D. Putnam's Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. I had gone looking in the used book store for Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point", but that book is apparently still to hot for them to have any copies in stock. The clerk told me first to look in the Business section, then the Sociology section, then the layman's science section, all to no avail (it seems to me that popular non-fiction books are getting harder and harder to file thesedays...) But they still got my money since I picked up "Bowling Alone" while I looked for "The Tipping Point" on the sociology shelves. This is why I don't mind disorganized used bookstores -- they encourage serendipitous book purchases.