With the release of “The Big Short,” finance author Michael Lewis has another work on the big screen, so many of our members are curious about his books. His career is diverse and varied, so this article will introduce one of the leading voices in new journalism writing today.
Read this first:
If you want to sample the financial side of Michael Lewis’ work, the best place to start is “Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World,” which addresses the cities and countries most affected by the financial crisis of the last decade. Part travelogue, part investigation, Lewis’ conversational tone and ability to make complicated topics simple really shine as he travels through Iceland, Ireland, and Northern California.
On the other hand, if you’d like to start with one of his sports books, “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game” is one of the most insightful and unique sports books in recent memory. However, the lessons involved have been so well accepted and digested that much of it might seem passé to hardcore sports fans. Despite that, it’s always interesting to see a new idea so obviously correct and well argued progress from impossibly radical to conventional wisdom overnight.
Read this next:
We’ve probably not seen a more insightful and readable accounting of the financial crisis than “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine.” What was once an incredibly difficult and intimidating topic was made much more accessible through Lewis’ writing. Lewis has the experience on Wall Street to lend credibility to his book, the authorial capability to make accounting seem compelling, and the everyman sensibility to pass judgment in a rare and sensible way.
For the sports fan, up next should be “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game,” which combines Lewis’ journalistic tendencies with the most personal story he’s ever told. While Michael Oher, the subject of the book, has had a rough few years on the field since the movie came out, the book stands the test of time.
Other writings:
For a deep dive, going back to “Liar’s Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street,” Lewis’ first book is worth the read. Lewis seems as shocked as his readers to discuss the everyday excesses of the financial world he had left, so it stands up better than a 25-year-old work of journalism normally does. At this point, it reads more like history than journalism; there’s something about the events of the last decade that keeps a contemporary reader’s mind moving backwards and forward at the same time.
Also worth the time are Lewis’ shorter works, particularly “The No Stats All-Star,” written for the New York Times about Shane Battier and the Moneyball movement in the NBA. As the most famous author on the topic, he was granted more access to the Houston Rockets’ stakeholders than an average beat writer, offering a fantastic profile of one of the most engaging basketball players you may not know about.
Sources:
http://www.amazon.com/Boomerang-Travels-New-Third-World/dp/0393343448
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=moneyball
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=liar%27s+poker