1997 Christmas List (URL: www.rasmusen.org/_amazon/xmas97.htm)
-
In the Company of Mushrooms : A Biologist's Tale, by Elio
and Moselio Schaechter. 1997. 320pp. This has the best discussion of the
biology of mushrooms that I've seen. $17.
-
The Boys from Brazil by Ira Levin, 213 pp. 1976. A good novel,
with a great premise and lots of suspense. Was Nazism the result of Hitler's genes,
his environment, or the Germans?
- Arirang restaurant, Wright St. Urbana. This is a good, cheap, and
filling Korean restaurant.
- Amazon.Com .
Amazon has a huge list of books to sell, of course, but their Internet website is
also easy to get around in and their prices are low. They will even search for out-of-
print books.
- The Vanguard Tax-Managed Fund.
Vanguard has always been good on keeping costs low. The three funds in this group
are based on the excellent idea of using something similar to indexing while avoiding
turnover, dividends, and capital gains.
- The Roth IRA. This new kind of retirement account allows you
to pile up capital gains without paying tax on them as regular income when you withdraw
the money after retirement. Vanguard has a good pamphlet on it.
- The Electric Tape Fence.We couldn't keep deer from eating our
flowers till we put up this three-foot-high strand of plastic tape with wires in it.
Installation is very easy, and it works.
- Rutland Independence Strong Ale. This 6.5 percent ale
was brewed to celebrate the campaign to return county status to Rutland. Its motto:
``Independence through perseverance.'' We came across it on our trip to Britain this
summer.
- Time Out. This is Cadbury's new candy bar, available in
Canada. It's like a Flake Bar in the middle, with wafer around that, and a
chocolate coating outside.
-
The Encyclopedia of American Religions , Vol. 1 and 2, by J.
Gordon Melton. 5th Edition, 1996, $195 for all volumes .
Paperback edition, 1991, $15 each. This lists lots of denominations, but where it
is special is in its histories and its explanations of doctrinal differences.
- Little Caesar, 1930. Edward G. Robinson is the gangster
Rico, a little guy who wants to be tough and powerful. The plot is
simple, but the movie is riveting anyway.
$18.
-
The Gun, by C.S. Forester, 1933, 152 pages. A good adventure novel
of the Peninsular War, about guerrillas who find a siege cannon and use it to fight the
French. $26.
1997 Also-Rans
-
Michael Bane, Over the Edge , 246 pp., 1996. $15
-
A WORLD OUT OF TIME, Larry Niven, 1976, 212 pp. Excellent science
fiction novel premised on slower-than-light travel, technical innovations, evolution,
and immortality.
$5.
-
SPHERE, Michael CRICHTON, 1987. A first-rate science fiction book
about scientists and sailors studying an alien artifact on the bottom of the ocean.
Also,
The Lost World , 1996, is excellent. Not quite as good as
Jurassic Park, but nonetheless exciting. Each book, $6.
- Antiquarian book fairs.
- James Perry, Great Military Disasters and the Generals Behind Them
. A very good book covering incompetence. Worth reading and re-reading. $20.
-
RANSOM. Mel Gibson, 1997. Very good. I used it in my PhD. game
theory class.
$20.
-
FIERCE CREATURES. John Cleese, Kevin Klein, 1997. $94.
- Edinburgh, St. Valery, 36 Coates Gdn, Haymarket (west end of city,
beside Haymkt stn). A very good guest house--maybe the best we were in this summer.
- Elderflower low-cal drink
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Rasmusen Recommended Books page.
Last updated: December 17, 2003. All prices subject to change.
Maintained by Eric Rasmusen, [email protected] .