Simon Sharpe, economist, senior fellow at the World Resource Institute and author of Five Times Faster: Rethinking the Science, Economics and Diplomacy of Climate Change, selects from his library some of his favourite and formative reads
• Storms of my Grandchildren
by James Hansen (2009)
A perfectly balanced mixture of climate science, explained with elegant clarity, and first-hand accounts of US climate politics, with all its murky dirtiness.
• The Origin of Wealth
by Eric Beinhocker (2007)
Tells the story of how economics led itself astray, and how nuclear physicists, supercomputers and heterodox thinkers are now coming together to put it back on track.
• Life at the Limit
by Sid Watkins (2013)
Autobiography of the on-track doctor of Formula 1, a man who saved lives in the world’s most dangerous sport, told with humour and humanity.
• The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
by Thomas Kuhn (1962)
The book that gave the world a new understanding of how new understandings can be given to the world.
• The City and the Dogs
by Mario Vargas Llosa (1962)
A story of oppression and rebellion in a military academy in Peru. Poetic, brutal and unbeatable for learning lots of rude words in Spanish.
• Chaos
by James Gleick (1987)
An account of the discovery of a new way of seeing the universe, where art comes out of equations, simplicity leads to complexity and unpredictability can follow predictable patterns.
• The Power of the Powerless
by Vaclav Havel (1979)
An essay on living with integrity in the face of authoritarianism. Inspiring in its courage and clarity of thought.
• The Secret of our Success
by Joseph Henrich (2015)
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