Best Economic Books?

Question

What are the best economic books, in your opinion? Something that is sensible, and can easily be understood. Like, if they explain things, you would be able to comprehend it. I'm not all that familiar with economics so I don't really know all the technicalities. All I know are the basics like inflation, law of supply and demand, etc..

Preferably something that I would be able to apply or relate to?

Thanks!

Answer 1

I used a textbook by Michael Parkin et al. in my first year of uni. It includes both microeconomics and macroeconomics theories and real life examples. It's got academic quality and it's simple. An excellent general economics textbook in my opinion. Economics dictionaries are also useful. See the links below.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dictionary-Econo...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Penguin-Dictiona...

Answer 2

Check out "Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science."  It's a very fun read, but still communicates the basic concepts.

Answer 3

'The Truth About Markets', by John Kay.

'The Undercover Economist', by Tim Harford.

These both give a good grounding into the basics of economics.

Answer 4

Communist Manifesto!  

Answer 5

Look for something by Paul Krugman written for the general population.

Answer 6

Economics is such a broad field, it really depends on what specifically you'd like to know.

Thomas Sowell wrote a very accessible primer called "Basic Economics". It reads like a textbook, but it's very conceptual and clear.

Paul Krugman and Milton Friedman are the most widely read by non-economists, though they represent opposite political and ideological forces.

Friedman's "Free to Choose" is probably the most accessible book on applied economics ever written, although he represents a very conservative, laissez-faire view, arguing for private ownership of most public goods.

Krugman likes to be everything to everyone. Early in his career, he was a major force for rigorous economics, shoving us towards mathematical proofs and away from conceptual econ. After the second Bush presidency began, he became much more political, and hence more conceptual. He's technically a Neo-Keynesian, though he's gotten more radical than most of us Keynesians are. His "Peddling Prosperity" is not a bad summary of economic history (I'd read it alongside Heilbruner's "The Worldly Philosophers", for balance).

His "The Accidental Theorist" is probably the most on-target you'll get - after this pub, he's more and more political.

If you favor Friedman's writings (and you can probably find some of his older columns in Newsweek, from the 1970s), you'd probably get something about of Hayek and Amartya Sen (notably "Capitalism and Freedom").

If you favor Krugman, I'd suggest Joseph Stiglitz's "Globalization and its Discontents", although this is a tough read if you don't have a basic knowledge of macroeconomics (again, Sowell).