Just wanted to bump this topic, see if there were any other books people knew about now, especially considering everything thats happened since.

The books I chose are a bit more hard reading, but I follow economics very closely and am I big fan of the Mises Institute (mises.org) I mean here is the basis gist of their material.

An economy based on credit and FIAT currency dangerous for the long term prosperity of a nation citizenry, and a currency that is held accountable by commodities is ideal cause not only does it keep the government in check but also preserves the wealth of citizens from the forces of inflation. The anti tax and anti-trust books are pretty good reads to.

It's like the internet, the more decentralized something is, the more say the small guy has, which is why I'm about a small decentralized government. Switzerland has a decent version of what works.

These books were deliberately chosen for being well written and accessible to people who don't spend every waking hour thinking about these topics.

Are these highly theoretical ones or books that can easily be digested? I know personally some of that stuff goes over my head. I'm not dumb, I just take more time for math type things. haha.

I haven't read it yet, but I like its optimistic thesis since I'm pretty sure my tastes in music, books, etc... don't always line up with the median buyer. Markets don't always cater only to the "lowest common demoninator" and, in a slightly conservative gesture, I'll argue that when they do it is often due to an artificial constraint on entry put in place by regulation. E.g., consider the quality of TV when we only had a few channels on the highly regulated and limited airwaves versus the current situation where there are fewer constraints on the number of channels and you can download TV shows or rent/buy them on DVD. On the other hand, as a socialogical observation, I think we'll all miss the highly quality "common experiences" in popular culture. Here's a revealing progression of exceedingly popular entertainment endevours: 1960s - the Beatles, 1970s - Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack, Star Wars; 1980s - Michael Jackson, Miami Vice, 1990s - Whitney Houston, Seinfeld, 2000s - Survivor, American Idol. Kind of a sad new millenium, really. Indeed, with the exception of Seinfeld, it's been a while since popularity and quality have lined up all that well.

I just started reading The Long Tail. Any thoughts on it?