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What I've been reading
1. The Future of the Internet -- and How to Stop It, by Jonathan Zittrain. The main claim is that everything will be sterile, tethered appliances. The opening up of the iPhone would seem to bely this message plus competition usually works in giving consumers what they want. A smart book (that is rare for internet books, oddly) but I suspect it will prove to be wrong.
2. Paul Auster, Man in the Dark. Reviews for this work have a bimodal distribution. I like most of Auster's books but I vote no.
3. The Gargoyle, by Andrew Davidson. So far this is excellent junk reading.
4. Epilogue, by Anne Roiphe. Ideally this book deserves its own post but it is difficult to excerpt. It's about why the author, now a widow, finds it hard to fall in love again. Definitely recommended.
5. The Boy with Two Belly Buttons, by Stephen Dubner. It's a children's book. I haven't read so many of these since Mr. Pines Paints a Purple House -- my favorite as a tot -- but to me it seemed very good. Ages 4-8.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on September 7, 2008 at 07:41 AM in Books | Permalink
Comments
How open is the iPhone? (I'd think the success or failure of Google's Android will be a real test.)
Posted by: odograph at Sep 7, 2008 8:28:04 AM
Paul Auster's cousin is quite interesting, though not in the same way.
Posted by: DM at Sep 7, 2008 9:37:37 AM
Re: Gargoyle, but the author's obnoxious bio is off-putting.
Posted by: Jack at Sep 7, 2008 9:40:30 AM
I want to thank you for recommending a children's book (so, Thank You)! Our first grader thinks that Mr. Pine's Purple House is the best book EVER. Thank goodness he's graduated to reading it himself, or I'd be insane.
Posted by: WaltzInExile at Sep 7, 2008 10:11:19 AM
Epilogue sounds like a definite get. How does it compare to The Year of Magical Thinking?
Posted by: Zephyrus at Sep 7, 2008 10:34:17 AM
The iPhone is not an open platform. All applications are screened by Apple, and they have plenty of non-technical restrictions. There's no way for a normal customer to put an application on their iPhone, except through Apple.
Posted by: Tim M at Sep 7, 2008 10:36:30 AM
plus competition usually works in giving consumers what they want
Usually, but the internet is already saddled with anti-competitive regulation.
(Relatedly, what everyone else said about the iPhone not being open.)
Posted by: candid at Sep 7, 2008 11:50:43 AM
I have only read City of Glass, which was turned me off Auster from now until the end of time.
Posted by: Robert Olson at Sep 7, 2008 3:50:16 PM
"The opening up of the iPhone would seem to bely this message plus competition usually works in giving consumers what they want."
The iPhone is not particularly open. Apple has 100% veto power over everything and takes a cut of the revenues from applications.
Competition is great, but Adam Smith was quite clear in his belief that businessmen rarely talk to each other without turning to ways to collude against the consume. The Internet is not immune.
The open internet and WWW did not just happen, but were the result of a great deal of hard work by people like David Clark and Tim Berners-Lee who actively and mostly successfully fought back efforts by commercial entities to create walled gardens of incompatible technologies and/or monopoly-controlled standards. Certainly that has happened in the past with other platforms and it's not a stretch that it could happen in the future. Nor is such an outcome likely to be beneficial to welfare or consumers, even if some individuals and businesses would benefit enormously.
The risks are especially great if we grow complacent and assume the invisible hand will automatically prevent Zittrain's future. Pay heed to Adam Smith, history and people like Zittrain and Berners-Lee who are on the front lines of the ongoing battles to preserve openness..
Posted by: a student of economics at Sep 7, 2008 7:05:44 PM
I loved Mr. Pine's Purple House. What a great book! I just bought it for my 4 year old last Christmas. It is the perfect tale of one man's search for individuality.
Posted by: Steve at Sep 8, 2008 7:26:52 PM
Careful, one of your loyal readers is in the acknowledgments for #1! ;)
Posted by: Eva Holtz at Sep 8, 2008 7:58:11 PM
