An annual favorite, Ron and Ed talked about the best books they each read in 2020. Sometimes there is overlap, other times none. All book links are below including a special top 5 list that specifically includes authors interviewed on the show.

Let’s start with a quote:

“You don’t have to get people to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” —Ray Bradbury, Sci-fi Writer

Ron’s Top Five books from authors we have interviewed (more in the bonus show)

5. How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life, Peter Robinson (Episode #320)

4. Snapshots from Hell, Peter Robinson (Episode #320)

3. Evasive Entrepreneurs, Adam Thierer (Episode #294)

2. The First Cell, Dr. Azra Raza (Episode #289)

1. Humanocrarcy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People Inside Them, Gary Hamel (Episode #313)

Ron’s Top Five Books of 2020

5. They’re Both Wrong: A Policy Guide for America’s Frustrated Independent Thinkers, John Tamny, 2019

Love this from the Foreword: “Just because an idea appeals to a lot of people doesn’t mean it’s wrong. But that’s a good working theory.”

4. How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom, Matt Ridley, 2020

An excellent account of innovation, along with one of my favorite definitions for innovations: “Enhanced forms of improbability.”

Also, “The number of people predicting the death of Moore’s law doubles every two years.” –Peter Lee of Microsoft Research, 2015

3. Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the 116 Days that Changed the World, Chris Wallace, 2020

A page turner most momentous decisions in history made by a president who had no knowledge of the Manhattan Project. It was a day, he later said, “when the world fell in on me.”

2. Empires of the Sky: Zeppelins, Airplanes, and Two Men’s Epic Duel to Rule the World, Alexander Rose, 2020

Dr. Hugo Eckner, once the most famous person on the planet, and Juan Trippe, the founder of the first world-wide airline, Pan American. Ultimately the birds would conquer the clouds.

1. Witness, Whittaker Chambers, 1952

After his early years as a Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet spy (1932–1938), he defected from the Soviet underground (1938), worked for Time magazine (1939–1948), and then testified about the Ware group in what became the Hiss case for perjury (1949–1950), often referred to as the trial of the century, all described in his 1952 memoir Witness.

This is a classic, a work of deep philosophical meaning. His opening letter to his children is profound.

Ed’s Top Five Books of 2020

5. Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All, Michael Shellenberger, 2020

4. Gospel Parallels: A Comparison of the Synoptic Gospels, New Revised Standard Version, Burton H. Throckmorton, Jr., 1992

3. Why Liberalism Works: How True Liberal Values Produce a Freer, More Equal, Prosperous World for All, Deirdre Nansen McCloskey, 2019

2. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, first published in 1925

1. The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World, 2020 [Episode #325]

Bonus Content is Available As Well

Did you know that each week after our live show, Ron and Ed take to the microphone for a bonus show? Typically, this bonus show is an extension of the live show topic (sometimes even with the same guest) and a few other pieces of news, current events, or things that have caught our attention.

This week is Bonus episode 326 - More books and more. Here are just a few links discussed during the bonus episode:

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