Leaving the right books in the right place
The Mayor of Hobart (the capital city of Tasmania, Australia) Anna Reynolds has been kind enough to allow me to leave one or two sneaky books in the Town Hall reading room. I've been trying trying to put a bit of thought as to which ones to leave.I've been selecting them based on:
*Their usefulness (I left a book about fixing the housing crisis for example)
*Their uniqueness (I want them to be saying something new without being too confrontational)
*Not too scary or out there
*Their legitimacy (I try to leave books by academics of one sort or another, the more well-known the better)
*Their entertainment value
So far I've chosen:
-Joseph Stiglitz (well known economist) 'Creating a Learning Society'
-Keith Payne (pychologist) 'The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Changes the Way We Think Live and Die'
-Cameron Murray & Paul Frijters 'Game of Mates: How Favours Bleed the Nation' (I left this one with one of the planning staff with a bookmark on the chapter 'The Great Development Game')
-Brooke Harrington 'Capital Without Borders: Wealth Managers of the One Percent' (just as a gentle reminder that there's plenty of dead money out there held in offshore tax havens in case anyone ever feels like crying poor about, you know, anything)
-William Davies 'The Happiness Industry: How Government and Big Business Sold Us Well-being' (just 'cause it's a fun book)
*Peter Mares 'No Place Like Home: Repairing Australia's Housing Crisis'
What I'd really like to do is leave a few of my more subversive books in there, but some of the ideas are a bit too far out unless you take the time to understand them. A lot of people would take one look at them and disregard them off-hand.
Those are mainly books that are kind of attached to the occupy movement, including all that stuff I post about the precariat. Also some of my philosophy books have challenging titles like 'The Science Delusion' and 'The Spirit of Disobedience'.
I mean I'd really love to leave one of my my book's of political artwork like 'World War 3 Illustrated' or Seth Tobocman's 'You Don't Have To F*ck People Over To Survive'...but you know, I don't want to hurt anyone's brain.
-Joseph Stiglitz (well known economist) 'Creating a Learning Society'
-Keith Payne (pychologist) 'The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Changes the Way We Think Live and Die'
-Cameron Murray & Paul Frijters 'Game of Mates: How Favours Bleed the Nation' (I left this one with one of the planning staff with a bookmark on the chapter 'The Great Development Game')
-Brooke Harrington 'Capital Without Borders: Wealth Managers of the One Percent' (just as a gentle reminder that there's plenty of dead money out there held in offshore tax havens in case anyone ever feels like crying poor about, you know, anything)
-William Davies 'The Happiness Industry: How Government and Big Business Sold Us Well-being' (just 'cause it's a fun book)
*Peter Mares 'No Place Like Home: Repairing Australia's Housing Crisis'
What I'd really like to do is leave a few of my more subversive books in there, but some of the ideas are a bit too far out unless you take the time to understand them. A lot of people would take one look at them and disregard them off-hand.
Those are mainly books that are kind of attached to the occupy movement, including all that stuff I post about the precariat. Also some of my philosophy books have challenging titles like 'The Science Delusion' and 'The Spirit of Disobedience'.
I mean I'd really love to leave one of my my book's of political artwork like 'World War 3 Illustrated' or Seth Tobocman's 'You Don't Have To F*ck People Over To Survive'...but you know, I don't want to hurt anyone's brain.
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