Too Many Books, Too Little Value

Photo Credit: amanda tipton || When I was younger, I wanted to read the whole local library. Now that I am older, I doubt the value of most books.

I’m getting older, and so are my readers. A practical impact of getting older is lightening up on possessions so that your heirs won’t have so much to dispose of when you die. My wife and I went through the whole house recently and eliminated 50% of the books that we owned.

We threw away 5% of the books, thinking that no one should read them, they were too damaged, or, they were out of date. We gave 15% to our children, after inviting them to peruse what we were getting rid of. We also gave them four bookcases. We gave 30% of the books away to Goodwill.

That still leaves us with around 1,500 books. But they are the books that we like, and as far as kids books go, the ones we think our grandchildren will like. Oh, yeah, I’m a grandpa now. Two grandsons, a granddaughter on the way, and yet another child coming first quarter of 2022. Wow.

My wife thought she would be more severe at eliminating books, but it turned out to be the opposite. I probably eliminated two-thirds of my economics, finance, and investing books. All of my finance and investing books are now in my office, and fit into one ordinary six foot tall, 27 inches wide bookshelf. The economics books fit on one shelf. Economic history books fit on two shelves. Why did I give away so many?

Longtime readers know I am not a fan of the neoclassical school of economics. I think economics is best understood apart from detailed mathematics. Even in finance and investing, you should never need calculus. We don’t live in a continuous time world.

Though actuaries are tested on calculus, they almost never use it. Early in my career, I tried applying calculus to some of my models, and it didn’t make much of a difference.

I probably jettisoned 75% of my economics, investment and finance books. I did it because I didn’t think they represented reality well. Usually “ad hoc” modeling is superior to trying to apply academic models, if modeling is warranted at all.

I realize that authors have many reasons to write books.

  • They have a passion for the topic.
  • They want to gain name recognition to benefit their business.
  • They are trying to make money off the book (bon chance)

Not that authors or publishers should listen to me, but most books don’t deserve to be published. Why?

  • They don’t break new ground.
  • They aren’t well-written or well-edited.
  • They are wrong in the way they view the world. (They engage in wish-fulfillment.)
  • They don’t deliver on what the cover promises.

The last one deserves amplification. Back when I was reviewing many books, this was my single largest complaint. Many books were advertised to answer a crunchy problem, and the book didn’t address the topic significantly. In talking with some of the authors, they told me that it was the publishers who engaged in chicanery to sell the books, even though the authors wrote the books with a different purpose.

Now, if I live long enough, I may write a book. I don’t expect that you will buy it. Why? I will probably have disclosed enough of the book at this blog. Why pay for what you don’t have to?

My main point here is to be skeptical, but not cynical. I eliminated some of my books, not all of them. There is truth in some books. Be careful and analyze the arguments made in books closely. Keep what you think is valid, and toss the rest, unless it is a classic error like “The Communist Manifesto.” The classic errors are worth keeping so that you can remain aware of the ways that important twisted people think.

6 thoughts on “Too Many Books, Too Little Value

  1. Famous quote about references (“books”)- they are most valuable when very old or very new. (corollary- there aren’t many that survive to be very old that ended up being very “right” or in “error” as you say.- this is actually an important concept in modeling markets and maybe economies, but that’s a different topic.).

    The economics “profession(s)” are very interesting. I have heard that to get even a master’s you might not have to know much about Marx, Smith or even Keynes- at least by name. That is absolutely crazy. When I took my minuscule two econ courses in undergrad school, we did hear about what these people thought (at a very low level of depth, but at least we could discuss it).

  2. Given that the (note dripping sarcasm and air quotes) “greatest economists of the last two decades”, bernanke and yellen, did nothing but run up trillions in debt while promoting themselves…

    I have to say, as an economics major, that you still have another shelf of worthless books to discard.

    Throw in expert deadbeats draghi and lagarde and a case can be made that all perhaps economics books are better used for fuel than for learning.

    I am embarrassed telling younger generations that I majored in economics. Sure, we all had the best of intentions. But the alleged “best and brightest” economists have done nothing with their worthless lives but indebt future generations.

    On behalf of economics majors throughout the G7, I want to apologize to future generations that we gave any credence to the “experts” that have been running things the last couple decades. Shameful.

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