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Put yourself in Taupo’s good books

Posted by on 22 February 2008, 5:10 am Sticky post

You too have discovered Price’s Bookshop of Taupo, New Zealand – another proud, independent bookstore; “the best bookshop between Wellington and Auckland” said a customer recently (and it was not my mum!).

Why would he say that? The wide range of books. The craftily displayed shop. The comfortable surrounds and friendly staff – and knowledgeable. Or maybe he was just on an endorphin rush after running around the lake, skiing down the slopes, riding through the bush or any other of the many activities undertaken here in this volcanic wonderland.

Already I digress. Books. That is what this is about. We have lots of books. All new. And if we do not have it already, we can usually source the book quickly from our local and international suppliers. You can view the Catalogue of books via the links to your left.

Buy books from the catalogue to the left• Choose a book and Add it to the cart.
• Choose another or go straight to Check out.
• Choose to pay afterwards (by direct credit, credit card by phone or by dropping into the shop)
• We will get in touch to confirm the order and collect payment

The links to your right and at the top take you to the rest of the website. There you will find:

  • book REVIEWS,
  • NEWS about the bookshop and books (including from Radio NZ, Listener etc),Reviews and events to explore
  • EVENTS at the shop (and some others of interest)
  • and you can have your say – respond to reviews, rate books, place your vote, or simply tell us what we should be doing better (and Trace and Alex love praise, so don’t be bashful about positive feedback).

Books are magic. Let us find some for you.

endorphin rush
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21 Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read

Posted by on 23 April 2012, 8:22 pm

The books that influenced existing entrepreneurs, collated by Entrepreneur:

  1. “The Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand
  2. “Out of the Crisis” by W. Edwards Deming
  3. “Extreme Programming Explained” by Kent Beck
  4. “The Four Steps to the Epiphany” by Steven Gary Blank
  5. “Reality Check” by Guy Kawasaki
  6. “Peak” by Chip Conley
  7. “The Happiness Hypothesis” by Jonathan Haidt
  8. “Against The Odds” by James Dyson
  9. “How To Get Rich” by Felix Dennis
  10. “Transparency: How Leaders Create a Culture of Candor” by Warren Bennis, Daniel Goleman, and James O’Toole
  11. “The Future Arrived Yesterday” by Michael S. Malone
  12. “Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
  13. “The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Business Law” by Constance Bagley and Craig Dauchy
  14. “Crossing the Chasm” by Geoffrey A. Moore
  15. “Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War” by Robert Coram
  16. “The Innovator’s Dilemma” and “The Innovator’s Solution” by Clayton Christensen
  17. “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Robert B. Cialdini
  18. “Maverick!: The Success Story Behind the World’s Most Unusual Workplace” by Ricardo Semler
  19. “Lucky or Smart? Secrets to an Entrepreneurial Life”, by Bo Peabody
  20. “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” by Robert Pirsig
  21. “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell

They also report Malcolm Gladwell’s “Tipping Point” and “Outliers” are also worth reading.

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The Innovators DNA by Clay Christensen

Posted by on 15 August 2011, 2:50 pm

Innovators by nature are disruptive according to authors Clay Christensen, Jeff Dyer and Hal Gregersen, and can be characterised by five habits: associating, questioning, observing, networking and experimenting. Suggestive that innovation can be learned – if you read the book. See review at The Economist.

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Books when starting a small business

Posted by on 16 January 2011, 7:32 am

Small business is the heart of any economy, and yet many small business owners go about their business with very little help. This need not be the case. There are some easily followed books available that can both provide some help and point to where more help can be found.

Starting up.

Business plans.

Going places.

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Books that will make great Christmas gifts

Posted by on 5 December 2010, 9:42 pm

There are so many. So many books to choose from, especially when buying a gift for someone else. Here’s some books that are very good – we’ll leave you to match them to the person although we will help a little by shifting the (loose) bias from male to female readers as we run down the list.

  • Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes – worthy of book of the year title, this fictional tour of duty in the jungle by a Vietnam vet is as close to being there as most of us will get (and want to get)
  • The Glass Rainbow by James Lee Burke – a terrifying roller coaster ride by the master of thrillers
  • Red Wolf by Liza Marklund – a fast-paced thriller with an excellent ending by another talented Swedish author (having just finished co-authoring Postcard Thrillers with James Patterson)
  • Freedom by Jonathan Franzen – a romp through modern American society with all the sex and drugs and anxiety
  • Hand Me Down World by Lloyd Jones – this journey by an African woman to find her child is every bit as good as Mister Pip
  • Ape House by Sarah Gruen – an engaging tale of animal (bonobos) and people that combines Gruen’s knowledge of the apes and skill as a storyteller
  • Rescue by Anita Shreve – a fast-reading tale of relationships that will have you crying on the beach this summer

And, remember, collect an exchange card just in case.

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Cemetery Lake by Paul Cleave

Posted by on 28 November 2010, 4:21 pm

If Paul Cleave’s Cemetery Lake had been written today, no doubt an earthquake would have been the trigger that caused bodies to float to the top of the Christchurch lake. As it was, nature found a way in 2008 to release the bodies, compelling quilt-ridden ex-cop Theodore Tate to annoy even more of his colleagues, to dig up even more graves and to drink even more bourbon. Get the picture? Anguished detective with limited resources but limitless attitude shows up the rules-bound force once again. The language is simple and crisp. The story is full of intrigue and twists. The ending does not disappoint. The book is a good read, and further evidence that NZ has some good crime writers.

Paul Cleave has written four books to date (The Cleaner, The Killing Hour, Cemetery Lake, Blood Men), winning acclaim offshore including touted to be ‘the next Stephen King’ by German radio.

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Best books of 2010 (part I)

Posted by on 16 November 2010, 12:07 am

We come again to that time of year when critics and writers are asked for their best reads of late. Books mentioned by more than one UK panelist from The Guardian list include:

  • Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
  • Hitch-22 by Christopher Hitchens
  • The Big Short by Michael Lewis
  • The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
  • Sunset Park by Paul Auster

Or for a set of recommended books not necessarily on the front shelves, see this top-50 from The Independent.

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The Evolutionary Void by Peter F Hamilton

Posted by on 7 November 2010, 3:22 pm

The UK mag Prospect put forward The Evolutionary Void by Peter F Hamilton as their September book to read, a book to fill the void of traditional space fiction seemingly created by the rush to wizard and vampire fantasy of late. This is the third book in the Void trilogy and the fifth set in the Commonwealth universe, bringing to page a combination of futuristic technology and the human foibles of today.

The Commonwealth Saga
1. Pandora’s Star (2004)
2. Judas Unchained (2005)
The Void Trilogy
1. The Dreaming Void (2007)
2. The Temporal Void (2008)
3. The Evolutionary Void (2010)

You will probably enjoy this book if you liked authors: Issac Asimov (the 1950s Foundation series), Iain M Banks.

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The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson wins Man Booker

Posted by on 14 October 2010, 9:40 am

Against the odds a funny-sad book – The Finkler Question – about what it is to be Jewish by Howard Jacobson won the 2010 Man Booker prize. It appears it was a close call between this and Peter Carey’s “Parrot and Olivier in America”. Just as interesting as the result, Frances Wilson, one of the Man Booker judges, reveals what led the panel to choose The Finkler Question as the best fiction of 2010 by a Commonwealth citizen, and also what other books they liked (that were not necessarily short-listed).

All is not lost for Peter Carey, though – in terms of awards. The Australian who lives in New York has now been nominated for the American literary prize, the National Book Award. The short-list for best recent US fiction is (with the controversial omission being Jonathan Franzen’s “Freedom”):

  • Peter Carey, Parrot and Olivier in America
  • Jaimy Gordon, Lord of Misrule
  • Nicole Krauss, Great House
  • Lionel Shriver, So Much for That
  • Karen Tei Yamashita, I Hotel

Listen to Jim Mora’s interview with Jacobsen on Radio NZ.

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Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

Posted by on 13 October 2010, 11:23 pm

Another big book. Another heavily touted American masterpiece: Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. Again it is good. It does entertain, and stimulate. But, to me, it failed to match the hype. The story is about middle-class, mainly-white America: a family of selfish and often self-loathing individuals; with men who obsess about sex and women who fall at their knees; where money can be accessed effortlessly (but at what price?); set amidst a society drugged by consumption; mingled with the modern debate about climate change and Iraq; all wrapped together with the sort of confessions that students of psychology can dissect for hours; and underlaid with an angst about America.

What is it like? Some compare it to Franzen’s earlier widely acclaimed “The Correction”. I was reminded of the 1999 film “American Beauty”, although “Freedom” had little to do with beauty (but did involve sex with the neighbour). Rather than a self-portrait of modern America – as some have claimed – it was, to me, a provocative tale of one section of modern America. At times the story raced and the characters fascinated; at other times it was a bit like watching a reality TV show (maybe Franzen has captured life accurately after all). If nothing else, this is a book that will be discussed. And it did elicit this wonderful review at The Washington Post.

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Top economic books

Posted by on 13 October 2010, 5:09 pm

Not of wide readership but noted here for my economist colleagues, the general reading books discussed at Harvard in Greg Mankiw’s “The Economist’s View of the World” course are (source: Steve Landsburg)

  • The Worldly Philosophers, by Robert Heilbroner
  • Reinventing the Bazaar: A Natural History of Markets, by John McMillan
  • Thinking Strategically, by Avinash Dixit and Barry Nalebuff
  • Capitalism and Freedom, by Milton Friedman
  • Equality and Efficiency: The Big Tradeoff, by Arthur Okun
  • Nudge, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein
  • How the Economy Works, by Roger E.A. Farmer
  • The Return of Depression Economics, by Paul Krugman
  • The Road to Serfdom, Friedrich Hayek
  • The Myth of the Rational Voter, by Bryan Caplan
  • The Big Questions, by Steven Landsburg

The exceptions to the list are many but would include “Black Swan” by Nassim Taleb, especially for those interested in financial markets, and “Economics in One Lesson” by Henry Hazlitt.

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