Scribd.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/12/technology/internet/12books.html?ref=media

Scribd also gives publishers 80 percent of revenue. Amazon reportedly gives publishers about half of the list price of books sold for the Kindle, but also discounts many titles and in some cases chooses to make no revenue itself from those sales.

Interesting blog entry from Charles Nesson, Harvard Law School professor: http://www.scribd.com/doc/13831120/Nessonblog33009

Henry Fairlie

BITE THE HAND THAT FEEDS YOU: Essays and Provocations (New Republic/Yale University, $30)


Here's what Christopher Hitchens wrote about Fairlie:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/books/review/Hitchens-t.html

Quote from Fairlie:

The foundation of humility is truth. The humble man sees himself as he is. If his depreciation of himself were untrue,... it would not be praiseworthy, and would be a form of hypocrisy, which is one of the evils of Pride. The man who is falsely humble, we know from our own experience, is one who is falsely proud.
http://www.poemhunter.com/quotations/famous.asp?people=Henry%20Fairlie

Amazon has a Henry Fairlie page:
http://www.amazon.com/Henry-Fairlie/e/B001ITWUQE/ref=ep_sprkl_at_B001ITWUQE?pf_rd_p=479564851&pf_rd_s=auto-sparkle&pf_rd_t=301&pf_rd_i=henry%20fairlie&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0C8JMB4H0QMDGGMH8C9G

http://www.amazon.com/Bite-Hand-That-Feeds-You/dp/0300123833/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245207964&sr=1-1

Hapsburgs and Ottomans

THE ENEMY AT THE GATE:Habsburgs, Ottomans and the Battle for Europe

By Andrew Wheatcroft (Illustrated. 339 pp. Basic Books. $27.50) (http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=58211)

http://www.english.stir.ac.uk/staff/andrew-wheatcroft/index.php

Here's the Times Review:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/books/review/Ormsby-t.html?scp=1&sq=Hapsburgs%20Ottomans%20Enemy&st=cse

The book was reviewed in September 2008 in the UK's The Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/non_fictionreviews/3558692/Review-The-Enemy-at-the-Gate-by-Andrew-Wheatcroft.html

http://www.amazon.com/Enemy-Gate-Habsburgs-Ottomans-Battle/dp/0465013740/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245206930&sr=1-1

Here's a review of his book Infidels.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2004/may/22/featuresreviews.guardianreview23

Four Titans

MASTERS AND COMMANDERS

How Four Titans Won the War in the West, 1941-1945

By Andrew Roberts (Illustrated. 674 pp. Harper/­HarperCollins Publishers. $35)

Here's the author's web site: http://www.andrew-roberts.net/

Here's the Times' review:
http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Commanders-Four-Titans-1941-1945/dp/0061228575

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Masters-and-Commanders/Andrew-Roberts/e/9780061228575

Rebirth of Nation

Jackson Lears wrote Rebirth of a Nation to show why our guns culture leads to debacles and failures like Iraq. Here's the review from the Times last Sunday. (http://history.rutgers.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=187&Itemid=140)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/books/review/Gage-t.html?scp=1&sq=Jackson%20Lears&st=cse

Bear Stearns' fall - House of Cards

HOUSE OF CARDS

A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street

By William D. Cohan (468 pp. Doubleday. $27.95) (http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=73897)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/books/review/Lieber-t.html?ref=review

Cohan is a graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and Graduate School of Business. He spoke at a recent Columbia alumni event. He had recently published this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/opinion/07cohanWEB.html

James Stewart was the interviewer at the event (http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/cs/ContentServer/jrn/1165270051276/JRN_Profile_C/1165270081398/JRNFacultyDetail.htm).

These fellows who get along in the business generally accept things, even when they don't agree with them. Charm is important. Cohan was more dyspeptic than the others on the stage. I liked him.

I'm reminded of three lessons we learned in the S&L debacle of the early 199o's.
First, when Congress changes the rules, the outcome is hard to predict and likely to be hurtful to many.
Second, the fellows running major financial institutions don't really know what they are doing.
Third, don't borrow short and lend long. That is, in essence, what Bear Stearns was doing by borrowing overnight and owning securities. People criticize the high amount of leverage at places like Bear Stearns, but you don't hear much criticism of the practice of lending long while borrowing short.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_D._Cohan

Kate Kelly also has a book on the fall of Bear Stearns, called Street Fighters.

Here's a comment inspired by her book: http://www.theconglomerate.org/2009/06/larry-ribstein-on-street-fighters.html AND http://www.theconglomerate.org/2009/06/street-fighters.html

Fools's Gold

FOOL’S GOLD

How the Bold Dream of a Small Tribe at J. P. Morgan Was Corrupted by Wall Street Greed and Unleashed a Catastrophe By Gillian Tett (293 pages. Free Press. $26.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/books/16kaku.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/books/review/Barrett-t.html?ref=review

Reviewer Paul M. BARRET wrote, "The Morganites sold the notion that financial gravity had been overcome---that risk had been vanquished and that lending could proliferate endlessly."

Gillian Tett is an assistant editor of the Financial Times and oversees the global coverage of the financial markets. In March 2009 she was named Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards. In 2007 she was awarded the Wincott prize, the premier British award for financial journalism, for her capital markets coverage. She was named British Business Journalist of the Year in 2008. http://www.ft.com/comment/columnists/gilliantett