New York Times – Hardcover Business Best Sellers – March 2009

 

The March 2009 New York Times Hardcover Business Best Sellers list looks a lot like what we saw in February. Just as last month began to (finally) reveal America’s concern over the economy, March continued this trend. While the March list contains no credible financial survival guides (sorry, Dave Ramsey, we’re not a fan), the The Great Depression Ahead, by Harry Dent vaulted to Number 2, while fellow gloom-and-doomer Paul Krugman, a former Nobel winner, saw his tome fall to Number 7.

 

It didn’t seem to matter that we warned you not to buy Dent’s book last month – we even pointed out that his previous book (The Next Great Bubble Boom: How to Profit from the Greatest Boom in History: 2006-2010) predicted the Dow would hit 40,000 in 2009 – you attacked Amazon and bricks-and-mortar retailers to push his latest prognostication-filled tome higher than it deserved. (Truthfully, his stuff doesn’t deserve to be anywhere on this list.)


 

Contrast Dent’s collection of more wild guesses with Number 1 on the NY Times’ list for the fourth consecutive month, Outliers. This is one great read and deserves a look by anyone interested in the psychology of success. (Outliers could very well be the best book released in 2008.) In Outliers, author Malcolm Gladwell poses the question: why do some people succeed, while those with more talent, brains and/or brawn never reach their full potential? We don’t want to give away the answer here, so like we do with the rest of Gladwell’s work, the editors of AskTheManager highly recommend you read it for yourself.

 

After Outliers, the next best read on this month’s list is probably Number 15’s The Snowball by Alice Schroeder. Schroeder delivers the most recent in a long line of Warren Buffett biographies; and although the list is long, her book easily made our list of the Ten Best Warren Buffett Books of all time.

 

The Top Five – NY Times Business Hardcover Best Sellers March 2009 (to view the entire list, follow this link):

 

This
Month

 

Last
Month

1

OUTLIERS, by Malcolm Gladwell. (Little, Brown, $27.99.) Why some people succeed — it has to do with luck and opportunities as well as talent — from the author of “Blink” and “The Tipping Point.”

1

2

THE GREAT DEPRESSION AHEAD, by Harry S. Dent Jr. (Free Press, $27.) A financial prognosticator anticipates further market crashes and an extended downturn, but sees a way for savvy investors to prosper.

6

3

THE BIG RICH, by Bryan Burrough. (Penguin Press, $29.95.) The four wealthiest Texas oil families across several generations.

 

4

THE TOTAL MONEY MAKEOVER, by Dave Ramsey (Thomas Nelson, $24.99.) Debt reduction and fiscal fitness for families, by the radio talk-show host. (†)

3

5

HOT, FLAT, AND CROWDED, by Thomas L. Friedman. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27.95.) How a green revolution can renew America, by the New York Times columnist.

2

 

Tags: , ,