I’m a 3rd year biology major, but I’m very interested in economics. I don’t see a future in me studying to get a degree in it in college. So far, I’ve read Economics in One Lesson, the Conquest of Poverty, The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality, The Road to Serfdom, the Rise and Fall of Society, and Income Tax: The Root of All Evil. Right now I have with me Human Action, The Failure of the New Economics, and Principles of Economics. I’m finding these books hard to read. I have access to the UCLA library which has basically all books ever written, so I want to know what I should read because I’m kind of in a hard place here. I’m past all of the simple introductory stuff but not at a very advanced level either. Where should I go from here?
You could try Rothbard’s Man, Economy and State, the parts I’ve read are more readable than Human Action, even though I am biased towards HA because of the personal impact that book has had on my development. Recently, there’s been Common Sense Economics released by the Mises institute which is shorter than MES, and probably doesn’t cover as much though might be worth a try if you’re not ready to get through a tome.
Also, I recently ordered Economics - An Introduction for the General Reader by Henry Clay (not the politician). The book is quite rare, though the impression I’ve garnered is that it is a very good source on pre-keynesian economics, especially Say’s Law (hence why i bought it). If the UCLA library is truly worth its salt I’d expect it to have it.