This dropped in March and it has to be the most compelling book of the year. Lewis takes some almost unknown contrarians, the nitty gritty facts about CDOs, and his own Wall Street experience and fashions together a book that, once on my ipod, got me out of bed and on the first two 5:00 AM runs of my life. The ending is a bit of a downer. But because of his memoir's effect on 80s students Lewis undoubtedly did that on purpose in order to make it clear that he wants to discourage the best and the brightest from pursuing high finance. I might listen to Zuckerman's book also, but I can't believe it won't suffer horribly when compared to this required reading.
Some how in college I read When Genius Failed and Bonfire of the Vanities, but not this one, which should have been first on the list. It was great, but unfortunately I didn't realize I'd secured an abridged recording until I got to the end.
This week I felt like an inverted Cassandra running around wanting to talk about a book that seemingly every sports fan read years ago. Outside of the Hang Up and Listen podcast I don't ruminate on sportz, and refuse to watch any game when multiple friends aren't present, but I was jonesing for more Michael Lewis and his detailing of Billy Beane, the Oakland A's general manager, and the On Base Percentage revolution had me obsessing over MLB like I hadn't done since the sophomore summer when I had four fantasy teams, or the three months in 1994 when all I thought about were Collector's Choice Silver Signature inserts. It's amazing and will change your life. If there is anybody who can make Moneyball into an awesome movie it's Steven Soderbergh. Yeah I know that first sentence doesn't work at all, "friend that just now saw The Hangover" would have been more legitimate.
