I made this topic because I do not feel that the other reading lists fit this goal of simplicity.
I am not a professional economist. I am not a professional philosopher. I do have interests in these subjects, but they are not my main interests in my life.
Given the above, I want to take advantage of the division of labor. I don’t want to read every single book from every major philosopher and economist in the entire history of humanity and study and understand this. Folks, this is a hobby for me, I have other things that I want to do. I also find it more interesting to learn this as efficiently and quickly as possible. I shall leave complete thoroughness to the professional scholar.
Given the above apology, I want a dumbed down reading list. Something like a top ten books that are easily read by a modern audience (Aristotle is a good classical source, but I don’t like reading from him) in the following areas: epistemology, ethics, and economics.
Thoughts? Reading lists?
I like pop economics
Freakonomics, Superfreakonomics, Irrational Exuberance, The logic of life, the undercover economist, the mind and the market and anything by Landsburg or Tyler Cowen are all fun reads
The PIG series also offers somje easy reads
Economics for Real People by Gene Callahan is a must-buy introductory text for anyone interested in the Austrian school.
America’s Great Depression by Murray Rothbard is a pretty easy-to-read book that explains the Great Depression in context of the ABCT.
I second America’s Great Depression by Rothbard.
Also Chaos Theory by Robert Murphy is a nice, short read (Took me a little over an hour to read and can be found here as an audiobook/PDF.
There are plenty of others as well.
My suggestion is Evidence of the Senses by David Kelley.
Man, Economy and State with Power & the Market by itself is a must read. Hoppe’s Economic Science & the Austrian Method is a good brief synopsis of arguments for the Austrian method, and is comprehensible to a layman.
I like “what has govt done to our money” by Rothbard, ashort book packed with info, easy read.
And the classic “economics in one lesson” by Hazlitt. Easy, basic, short, gets to the heart of things right away.
I also like the daily Peter Schiff 10 minute videos on current events: http://www.youtube.com/user/schiffreport?blend=2&ob=4
Not a Zero-Sum Game by Manuel Ayau is brilliant. It’s a quick read geared to the general public, but I can’t believe it hasn’t received more attention.