Best books… Tim Harford

The economist and broadcaster chooses his favourite books. His Cautionary Tales podcast starts a new season on 26 February; his latest book, How to Make the World Add Up, is published by The Bridge Street Press (£20)

Getting Things Done by Edwin C. Bliss, 1976 (Scribner, out of print). I stumbled upon this as a boy and it opened my mind to the then-radical idea that you could use time badly, or wisely. Bliss’s book is written for a world of filing cabinets and secretaries, so today I’d recommend instead David Allen’s book with the same title.

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin, 1968 (Puffin £7.99). I’m always willing to be whisked away to a fantasy world, and Le Guin’s is among the wisest, most original, and most beautifully portrayed. It is hard to think of a grand theme that isn’t explored somewhere in the

Earthsea trilogy, but always with subtlety and humanity.

Dragon Warriors by Dave Morris and Oliver Johnson, 1985 (Corgi, out of print). This is not a story – it’s a set of rules for playing a wonderful game of the imagination. I read this book at the age of 12 and was transported.

Thinking Strategically

by Avinash K. Dixit and Barry J. Nalebuff, 1991 (W.W. Norton & Co. £13.99). An introduction to game theory – the use of mathematics to understand cooperative and competitive interactions, from tennis to business to the Cold War. This was the book that turned me into an economist.

Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez, 2019 (Vintage £9.99). Used wisely, statistics can show us truths about the world that we can’t see in any other way. But the statistics have to be collected and analysed with everyone in mind, not just a default white male. A powerful, insightful book.

Humble Pi by Matt Parker, 2019 (Penguin £9.99). I love maths, and I love stories about things going wrong. Planes crash, lakes disappear down misplaced mine shafts, and marketing campaigns go terribly awry. Parker’s book is hilarious, in a way that belies the depth and importance of his message.