Feed Your Mind: The Ascent of Money

I have become a bad reader.  I used to read voraciously, able to consume a lengthy novel in one or two nights (admittedly staying up ’til the wee hours of the night), but now, I find that my attention span isn’t what it used to be.  Between cellphones that ring at anytime, tab browsing and multimedia distractions, reading more than one or two pages in one sitting starts to test my patience.  I keep wanting to pause the book and look at a different glowing rectangle for a few seconds.  On a recent long plane flight, rather than reading, I found myself watching the latest Terminator movie looping over and over again.  However, from time to time, I still try to squeeze a book in here and there.

My latest interests are in biography and history, and the most recent book on my night stand is Niall Ferguson’s The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World.  A fast-paced book, Ferguson traces the history of money through vivid tales of ancient times and through the colorful history of Europe.  He takes this history to the modern age and outlines the complex options, derivatives, and powerful international capital markets that dominated the bubble and burst of the current financial crisis.  Throughout all of this, Ferguson examines the critical role that money has played in furthering social change (both good and bad) and various human responses (as in creating financial bubbles).  I would have preferred that the book have a broader set of examples, including those from other cultural background, but that probably says more about the title being slightly misleading than any negative commentary on the writing.

If you have friends who are into history and do not have a background in economics or finance, this might make for great holiday reading. The explanations of technical financial topics are straightforward and information is woven together well in a story-telling manner. As a former student of economics, I found that I learned some new things; and as a person with a short attention span, the writing held my interest.

Anyone have recommendations for a good read?