Adam Smith

Advantages: Really great and well written ideas
Disadvantages: No movie, and the sad news of Douglas Adams’s death

...his memory (echo’s of this can actually be seen in other of his writings later on). He performed in school plays and ‘had’ to go university in Cambridge, that’s where footlights and where all the talented comedy writers/performers of the time were. He went to university and was very disappointed with footlights, he and a couple of friends set up a review ‘Adams-Smith-Adams’, and he worked with many, now famous, comedy stars. After university he worked with Graham Chapman, and they managed to get a TV comedy show made, called ‘Out Of The Trees’, it involved a man picking a flower, to which the police complain, then the fire brigade turn up, then the army and so on until the world blows up. He also worked on several other projects, and among other things he submitted sketches for the Burkiss Way, Monty Python and Weekending. ~~The... Read review

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Advantages: In English, in paperback
Disadvantages: You tell me

...and includes a comprehensive index. Copyright 1987. The contents are built around economic concepts and development of theory through time. From pre Greek times through "The Classical Tradition". "The Personality of Money". " Trade and Trusts". "The Welfare State". And covers the great thinkers who brought them to our attention. Adam Smith, John Maynard Keynes amongst others. IN MORE DETAIL The ancient Greeks & Romans, the city-state as a market did not exist as consumer good economies, rather based on slave labour. The importance of rent for revenue and purchasing power. Also taxes. Most discussion of this era is to be found in the writings of Aristotle (384 - 322 BC). It is rather scarce and crowded out by discussion on ethics. Some work on money. Discussion on communism and motivation as formalised by Plato. Christianity & the development... Read review

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Advantages: A fresh and imaginative story
Disadvantages: You can't put it down.

...I was at Heathrow airport and had only 10 minutes to choose a book, everything was blurry and my jet lag had just set in. The only books I could see were those 20 something “London Girl” books all aka Bridget Jones Diary. I can’t stand this kind of books, they irritate me. I see Zadie Smith’s new book The Autograph Man, I only had two minutes left so just grabbed it, “Newsnight” and “The Sunday Telegraph” had recommended it so it couldn’t be that bad. THE WRITER Zadie Smith was born in 1975 and comes from North West London. The Autograph Man is her second book. Her first book White Teeth won the Whitbread First Novel Award. THE IDEA The Autograph Man is the story of young Chinese-Jewish man Alex-Li Tandem. Alex is an autograph dealer in London. His father died while was a teenager. The story revolves around Alex... Read review

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