I'm not going to lie; I have a very full reading schedule ahead of me. I am currently reading Rothbard's Economic Thought Before Adam Smith (which I was supposed to finish by the end of the month, but that does not seem an attainable goal for me right now [unless I was to read about one hundred pages per day, in which case I could finish ahead of schedule]), and I want to read Prices and Production afterwards (along with some research on Richard Cantillon, so I can write the Wikipedia article and get it to featured article status). Thinking about Prices and Production, I was thinking of the seminal "Austrian" works (or, at least, partially Austrian) and I came to four books that I am aware of/own: Human Action (Mises), Prices and Production (Hayek), Man, Economy & State (w/ Power & Market) (Rothbard) and Money, Bank Credit and Economic Cycles (Jesús Huerta de Soto). After thinking a bit more, I also thought of Garrison's Time and Money, but I haven't seen it so I don't know. But, upon thinking even more, I believe that Reisman's Capitalism should be included in the list.
Then I thought about how I would never read it (it goes into extreme detail, and even the prefare was remarkable) because I have so little time, but so many books. Then I thought about reading one chapter a month, until I looked up the number of chapters (twenty), so then I thought about two chapters a month.
Is anybody interested in reading two chapters a month? It's not much, but it would allow us to read other things we want to read, and it would also allow us to take very good notes. At the end of each month, we can come here and discuss the two chapters read.
Jonathan,
I'm very interested. 4 small comments.
One: don't go and say 'let's read 2 chapters!' Look at how many pages you want to read and base your decision on that. (Chapter 1 is like 20 pages, while other chapters are like 70 pages!)
Two: I'm skipping chapter 3. So; feel free to read it, but I'm skipping it because I've read it once and, although it has some good points, it isn't really economics.
Three: I'll suggest - if I may - we start by reading chapters 1, 2 and 4. Deadline: february 15th? How about it?
Four: If I may: I'll try and find other people using the Mises Scholar email list. I think this is a project that is worth mentioning.
So; do you think these comments make sense? :)
How about it? :)
The state is not the enemy. The idea of the state is.
AdrianHealey: One: don't go and say 'let's read 2 chapters!' Look at how many pages you want to read and base your decision on that. (Chapter 1 is like 20 pages, while other chapters are like 70 pages!)
I basically agree with you. The reason why I suggested chapters was so that we could have tangible end points to our readings. It doesn't make sense to read, say, fifty pages per month if the fiftieth page of the selected reading cuts in the middle of a point Reisman is making. As a result, perhaps we should decide how much to read at the beginning of each (or the near the end of the previous) month, based on the sections ahead of us. If we don't end at a chapter, we can end at a specific section.
Two: I'm skipping chapter 3. So; feel free to read it, but I'm skipping it because I've read it once and, although it has some good points, it isn't really economics. Three: I'll suggest - if I may - we start by reading chapters 1, 2 and 4. Deadline: february 15th? How about it?
Of course, if you don't feel the need to read part of the book that is fine, but all selected readings (I think) should be based upon the maximum amount of pages one of the readers want to read. In other words, if you want to skip chapter three, but someone else does not, we should not base our selected reading size on your decision to skip chapter three, but including chapter three as if it will be read by some members anyways. That way, we don't give some people too much reading: I think that "too little" is better than "too much".
That said, I think that chapter 1–4 is a good place to start at and doable (about 120 pages within ~46 days) and February 15th seems like a good deadline.
Spreading the word about this is welcomed on my part. I think that the more, the merrier. I don't get much readership, but I nevertheless posted the fact that this reading group now exists on my blog: Reading Capitalism.
I am in for the reading. I will go along with whatever pace is decided. I have had the book for a number of years, but have never read it. I am familiar with the Austrian literature -- over a 40+ year period.
"As a result, perhaps we should decide how much to read at the beginning of each (or the near the end of the previous) month, based on the sections ahead of us. If we don't end at a chapter, we can end at a specific section."
<= That was my point (although it wasn't formulated that well.)
So; I'll see you august 15th. ;)
So, just to clarify for all of those looking at the thread but not interested in reading the discussion: