I’m reading Poor Economics by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, both of MIT, and perhaps the word’s leading academic authorities on poverty issues. They say only poor people will “borrow in order to save.”
Does this remind you of anything? It should. Some have said that using a low benchmark of $75 dollars for the 2013 Budget, creates a budget deficit which forces us to “borrow” while “saving” the excess from our crude oil sales.
Given the stature and pedigree of the authors, Poor Economics is likely to be an interesting book.
I am often asked how I choose the books I read. Well, here’s the secret….and not in any order:
1. Recommendations. Just like most people, I read books that come HIGHLY recommended. But I appreciate if the recommendation comes with a few reasons why I should read it. And of course, who is doing the recommendation. Poor Economics was recommended by Tayo. Same as my last book, Interventions by Kofi Annan (Fareed Zakaria). There are more in this category.
2. Authors. There are some authors that I read ANY book from them. Two of them are Malcolm Gladwell (Outliers, Blink, Tipping Point, What the Dog Saw), Jim Collins (Good to Great, Built to Last, How The Mighty Fall, etc). These are two authors that know how to use stories to grab and hold your attention. If you want to cultivate the habit of reading, then read ANY book by these two. Anytime you use stories to make your point (whether writing or speaking), you get AND hold people’s attention. And these two authors are experts in the use of this technique. John Maxwell belongs here as well.
Let me digress quickly by sharing a story….a true life story. A lady that runs an orphanage recently received a call to come for an 8-year-old child who had been previously adopted as a baby, but was now being returned by the “parent”.
I used the opportunity to relay a story told by my Priest. Two teenage girls went to register at a high school. The teacher was confused that two girls born three months apart (March and June) will say they are twins born of the same parents. They told the teacher that actually, one of them was adopted in the same hospital and around the same period that their mother had one of them. So, the teacher asked who among them was adopted. They didn’t know. They said their parents have never told them, and quite honestly, they don’t care.
Amazing parents, don’t you think? The Priest was giving a homily about being our brother’s keeper, seeing the image and likeness of God in fellow human beings, etc.
But remember what I said about story telling… in writing or speaking. Now back to how I choose the books I read.
3. Books written by famous people at the highest level of leadership in business or governance. Obama, Clinton, Bush, Blair, Mandela, Lee Kuan Yew, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice (great writer), John McCain, Kofi Annan, Steve Jobs, Jack Welch, Alan Greenspan, The Pope (Yes, I’m Catholic….but have also read books by Joel Osteen), Omon N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolo Kpolo, Oba Erediauwa, Oba of Benin. I have read books by all above. You’ll notice that these books tend to be either biographies or memoirs.
4. Titles. I’m sometimes also drawn to titles. I love Known and Unknown by Donald Rumsfeld, Smartest Guys in the Room, (about the collapse of Enron), Street Fighters (about the collapse of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers), Too Big To Fail (about US Government-administered bail out of the financial sector), etc.
However, I will not read ANY book that is printed in black ink and white paper. I’m allergic to them. But have you observed anyway, that all bestsellers are written in black ink and light brownish paper? That’s the standard these days.
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Martin Udogie is Founder & Publisher of BottomLINE Newsletter based in Nigeria.
Readers can contact him directly by email through: udogie@yahoo.com
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