PICK OF THE PILE

Want to know where books go when they die? To the 14th floor of the Economist Tower, where Fiammetta Rocco, the Books and Arts editor of The Economist, has received hundreds and thousands of tomes this year. In this Economist podcast she reveals her top picks ('tis the season for list-making). Although there's been plenty to write about in 2008--the Olympics, Iraq, America's election and a little something called the global financial crisis--Rocco says it's been an underwhelming year for books. Still, a few shine through the "mass of mediocrity."

Of all the books on China, the two best fit together (like yin and yang): one is a broad sweeping history, and the other is a collection of 11 personal stories. Rocco's verdict: read both. As for the Middle East, our long wait for good reads is finally waning: the "harvest on books" in the fertile crescent "is beginning to ripen". Rocco picks a few that help us make sense of the region, from presidential pitfalls to Islamic justice.

Trying to understand the "mystifying vortex" that is the global financial crisis? A lot of authors want to help you. Lehman's collapse alone led to a half-dozen books. Regardless of how much change you have left in your pockets, Rocco suggests two books that make some sense, such as Mohamed El-Erian's "When Markets Collide" (despite its cheesy cover).

The standouts of the year are varied in subject: Rose George handles defecation, James Wood shows us how fiction works and a lexicographer explains the origin of the word window. Although it hasn't been a winning year for fiction, readers will get lost in Amitav Ghosh's opium fields (or at least in Rocco's reading of a passage from it, near the end of the recording).

In the end, as she aptly notes, the best books are the ones that authors cannot not write. Happy listening (and reading).

Picture credit: stephmcg (via Flickr)