Thomas Piketty's Capital: Live Blog V

We live tweet events so why don't we live blog our books? They may last longer than a Premier League match or election night special, but we read them continuously and their covers bound a discrete event. During their course our support veers between characters or new facts prompt us to change intellectual direction. They ebb and flow like all tweet worthy events.

Well, starting over again was an excellent idea. Being able to read in hundred-page chunks is the best way to enjoy this book.

It is a work of staggering research and near genius. And a testament to the raw power of history. Individual fortunes and the minor "events" of short outlook history are nothing in the long view. When we talk about the Post-War years as a major period of history, how arrogant we are. Interpreting history on a three century scale produces insights not otherwise possible. This is what Piketty does, examining rates of growth, capital to income ratios, and rates of savings across long stretches of history. What an inconsequential half-century we have just finished. Yes, major events blew apart the lives of those who lived it, but through a macroeconomic lens they make up an aberrant blip.

The only difficulties in reading this book are the joyful self-interruptions needed to pause and think on the consequences of Piketty's revelations.

Thomas Piketty's Capital: Live Blog IIII

Back to the beginning. That was slightly embarrassing. But like the idea behind this says:

We live tweet events so why don't we live blog our books? They may last longer than a Premier League match or election night special, but we read them continuously and their covers bound a discrete event. During their course our support veers between characters or new facts prompt us to change intellectual direction. They ebb and flow like all tweet worthy events.

Turns out this is not a subway book. The physical heft was obviously a challenge. But reading in snippets, nodding off in the early morning, and stopping mid-page at my station wasn't working out. I didn't remember much of the previous foray and so Piketty's patient explanation of ideas never found root in the sand of my mind.

So it's home reading for this. Where I can control my environment (to some degree) and regulate properly the cadence of reading. Because it's too good a book to leave publicly displayed on my shelf as an unread vanity book.

I mean, I have my pride.

Thomas Piketty's Capital: Live Blog III

We live tweet events so why don't we live blog our books? They may last longer than a Premier League match or election night special, but we read them continuously and their covers bound a discrete event. During their course our support veers between characters or new facts prompt us to change intellectual direction. They ebb and flow like all tweet worthy events.

Past the introduction now after the Friday evening commute. And the Annales influence is plain to see. Piketty's strength - and claim - is his data set stretching back into the late eighteenth century. Everything is la longue durée. Change is tectonic: imperceptible to a generation, but profound over time. I've always found this approach fascinating but becomes more striking when coupled with compounding numbers.

Sorry, where were we? Yes. We're beginning to define our terms and explain foundational concepts like α = r x ß. Which is all very interesting. But still not as exciting as encountering the Annales school living, breathing, and in a book about the economy.

Thomas Piketty's Capital: Live Blog II

We live tweet events so why don't we live blog our books? They may last longer than a Premier League match or election night special, but we read them continuously and their covers bound a discrete event. During their course our support veers between characters or new facts prompt us to change intellectual direction. They ebb and flow like all tweet worthy events.

Like most academic introductions, this went on as expected with the setting of limits and a conceptual framework. Which is where I fell for Piketty. It wasn't just his put down of math obsessed economists in favour of those who recognize the discipline's ties to politics and history (à la Keynes who remains notably absent). It was his clarion call for interdisciplinarity. Which is entirely believable - so many academics just nod to it out of politeness - given his admiration for Lucien Febvre and Fernand Braudel. Eminent historians both of the Annales school.

And did I mention the translator? He was translator to the later Annales members.

So, I get where M. Piketty comes from. I've spent time in his world. It's a great place.

Thomas Piketty's Capital: Live Blog I

We live tweet events so why don't we live blog our books? They may last longer than a Premier League match or election night special, but we read them continuously and their covers bound a discrete event. During their course our support veers between characters or new facts prompt us to change intellectual direction. They ebb and flow like all tweet worthy events.

Capital In The Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty is the perfect book for this project. It's long. It requires reflection. And because it's such an unexpected hit, everyone's talking about it but can't get their hands on one to read. So a live blog is like the newspaper reader in an eighteenth-century coffee house telegraphing to his neighbours. Which is where the book begins.

The introduction is properly long, properly academic, and properly structured. "Here's my thesis (wealth, as opposed to capital, generates arbitrary inequalities that undermine democratic society); here's a history and literature review (Malthus-Ricardo-Marx-Kuznets, no Keynes); here why my work is so different and necessary (data integrity and longevity); and here are my sources (tax records)."

And that's only the first half of the introduction. So we're off to a classic start and so far (but I am surrounded by cheering fans at the book office) I'm willing to believe some of the superlatives being thrown at this thing.

As an aside, I recognize the translator Arthur Goldhammer from my days as a medievalist. He's always been excellent, and how many times can you say you're familiar with a particular translator's work? More points then.

airplane reads

Picking books for an flight (both ways) and holiday is always a fraught decision. Especially when travelling to a country where finding an English book is unlikely. What if you don't like what you've brought?

So, when faced with a combined thirty hours of flying go with what you know. Go with some favourites. Go with your gut. And make sure it'll last:

• Lenin's Tomb by David Remnick: Something that's been on my shelf for years. So I've obviously always wanted to read it, but never got around to it.
• Summer House by Herman Koch: Great first novel and the blurb on this suggests more of the same. A safe, reliable choice.
• Capital by Rana Dasgupta: A cultural-urban-studies view of Delhi. Perhaps the riskiest choice, but urban studies is normally a win and a rapidly developing part of the world means interesting goings on.

And now off to Hong Kong.

how to rate a book: fiction

Now that I've figured out how consistently to rate non-fiction books, I admit that, on occasion, I've furtively read a novel. Or two.

Expertise and voice meant a lot in non-fiction. Voice, narrative, or storytelling is here the most important element. Along with character and plot. The classic fiction tools. 

★ "And then he woke up": Obviously the author didn't care enough to tell a story and fill it with characters. A nightmare of a book.

★★ Everyone has one good novel in them, right? Or so the saying goes, and this author just squeezed out a comprehensible plot and some almost believable characters. Just.

★★★ WYSIWYG: Standard, comfortable fare - tasty now, but will you remember it next year? (This is where the franchise authors live: Clancy, Patterson, Sparks, Grisham.)

★★★★ There goes my subway stop: An engrossing narrative moved along by real people. Escapism in the best sense of the word.

★★★★★ My life will never be the same: A story etched into your memory, filled with characters who will become your best friends for life, speaking in utterly memorable language. Tears are acceptable.