If I could only read one book for the rest of my life

If my preference is measured by which book I have re-read most frequently, it would by Stalky & Co by Rudyard Kipling. The book is really a set of short stories about a trio of schoolboys at a military-focused public school on the English coast. The stories seem to capture both the uniqueness of the time when England sent its sons to maintain its empire across the country and the commonness of the school boy experience where young men rail against authority. Each story is different and sad in parts but each sits within a clear moral context. The stories speak to me through that feeling of boys who felt separate their schools and didn’t quite fit in.

However, if I had a choice of book, I would choose another Kipling classic, Kim. It is a book that I enjoy every time I read it. The vivid descriptions of India under the British empire. The young, resourceful boy who adventures across the land as a chela of a Tibetan monk. The intrigue of a multi-polar world played out on the streets of Ambala and the foot hills of the Himalayas. The racism and caste systems of India and Britain. British people building mini monuments to the home country in hot and humid India. Indians being anything but a common group of people. Kipling captures such a seminal time in human history through the eyes of boy. I smile whenever I think about this book.

If I had one non-fiction book for my career, it would be Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy by Bill Janeway. This book captures the beating heart of the modern economy. It says that the modern economy is the marriage of government, speculators and companies. Whether we like it or not, the three are critical together. One should not be considered more important than the others. This framework not only explains the last 40 years of global markets and companies but provides a simple framework for predictive insights of the future. What I do for my career is my choice but I am confident, barring catastrophe, that it will be a form of capitalism in an innovation-focused economy.

The graphic novel/comic would be the The Killing Joke by Alan Moore as a study of how we react to darkness in our lives and how we can remember the past in many ways. It is not a positive story and while good triumphs over evil, it is clear that it is more a repelling of evil than a defeat of it.

Finally, my cartoon book is either Farside or a Mordillo for the absurd.