Books I've read....sorta

When I was a kid, I used to read tons of books (ok, the entire Hardy Boys collection may not have been life altering, but it passed the time on the 90 minute bus ride home from school). Now that I'm older, I find I have a hard time setting aside time to just sit and read--the exception being the copious amounts of web surfing and online news articles. (Oh, and other people's blogs.)

Typically, the only time I actually relax and read a book is when I go on vacation. So what's been on the Wacky Chinaman's reading list these past few months? If anyone out there cares....

-Liar's Poker. I'd been meaning to read this Michael Lewis classic for some time now. Oddly enough, I thought it was a little disappointing. Maybe because his stories of excessive alpha male behavior on Wall Street are no longer as astonishing after 20 years, or maybe because he has become a much better writer since his first book. Still fairly entertaining though and definitely recommended.

Speaking of Lewis, his latest Vanity Fair article on Iceland's financial crisis was a fascinating read. After reading it, I suspected that several details were exaggerated, and at least one other source agrees.

-In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. Despite the off-putting title, I found it to be a pretty reasonable take on nutritionism and the glaring limitations of nutritional science. Not sure I completely agree with the author's logic in all cases, but the "eat more real food, especially plants" mantra makes sense to me.

-Born Standing Up: A comic's life Steve Martin's autobiographical story of the birth and death of his standup comedy career. A little disappointing in that it's not particularly funny, but it does give good insight into how one goes about making a living trying to make people laugh. It might have been better had I not seen this topic covered in Jerry Seinfeld's documentary, "Comedian."

-The Best and the Brightest OK. I didn't actually FINISH this 700-page monster, but when I was touring in Vietnam last December, this was a nice supplement to my travels. I thought author David Halberstam did an unbelievable job detailing the personalities of the powerful men who shaped the events of the Vietnam War, and indeed there are some striking parallels to modern men. Once I got through the Kennedy years, I stopped reading...possibly because Lyndon Johnson was not nearly as interesting to me.

-Manias, Panics, and Crashes So I didn't actually technically finish this one either, since I had to scramble to get it back to the library. But this one certainly has some relevance to today's financial crisis. The book explores the psychology of a financial crisis using many historical examples to illustrate the various stages of financial runups, selloffs, and full blown panics. The two points from this book that stuck with me: 1) Nothing makes people more foolish and uncomfortable than watching their neighbor grow wealthy, and 2) to mitigate the effects of a financial panic, it helps to have a "lender of last resort" but only if there is some uncertainty as to whether there really is one or not. Perhaps this means that letting Lehman fail was a good idea in the long run?

-The Omnivore's Dilemma Is there anyone who is NOT reading this book? I went to a bar in SF last month, and someone was actually reading inside. Who reads at a bar? Currently I'm about halfway through, and I am certainly getting caught up in it. Not that it is significantly changing my diet--though I am generally eating less meat lately....just because--but I love the overview of the agriculture and food industry. The whole "everything we eat comes from corn" thing was also an eye opener.

I welcome any other book recommendations, even though my slow pace will prevent me from getting to it for a while....