The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman

I've been reading a lot lately. Books that is, not blogs. Our computer is housed in our sun room which is a bit chilly this time of year, especially in the evenings and when I'm at the bookstore, I've actually been working. Imagine that! Both scenarios have left me with very little time to spend leisurely perusing the blogosphere or making many posts of my own.

The book I just finished is The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman and I think it is one of the single most important books I have read in years. If you believe our country needs a Universal Health Care system, read this book! Or if you often wonder why the economy seems to go to the dogs when our friendly conservatives are in office, read this book! Krugman is an economist and so some parts of it are a bit dry. I even flashed back to my Econ 101 college days every now and then whilst reading and remembered how I'd have rather jammed toothpicks underneath my fingernails than read my Econ text.

This book fortunately did not create such urges, I think mainly because Krugman weaves within his text, topics besides economics including politics, unions, race and comparing and contrasting our system with those of Canada, France, Germany and Britain to support his arguments. The parts of the book which focus on the role of unions during the last 100 years of our country and it's economy was particularly interesting to me as my dad was a union steward during his life and I am a supporter of unions. Perhaps I'll go more into that aspect of the book in a later post.

So for those of you who just can't get enough Paul Krugman in your life, which will most decidely be the case after you have read the book, he has a blog through the New York Times! So yes, try and hold back your glee as I have had to... You can connect with this man's thoughts daily. Sigh! Sob! Life would be so terribly dreadful without the internet. Wouldn't it? I can't believe I lived through the first five-sixths of my life without it.