Top ten books writers should read

DBC Pierre won the Booker Prize in 2003 for his debut novel Vernon God Little. One of ten books he says writers should read, as shared at the Guardian:

In case Brexit didn’t show why pure democracy should be sparingly used:

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay

No matter the strength of hero or the scale of glory we plan to write about, it never hurts to see how bizarre we can be en masse. Written in beautiful 19th-century prose, this book is a forensic jaunt through history’s strangest crazes.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds also appears on John Gapper's top five lisy of books on financial speculation, Frank Partnoy's five best list of books on financial schemes, and Jonah Lehrer's list of the five best books on irrational decision-making.

--Marshal Zeringue