but my favourite was a novel I picked up entirely randomly, in an airport bookstore: The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure (Sourcebooks Landmark). It is a beautiful and elegant account of an ordinary M unexpected and reluctant descent into heroism during the second world war. I have no idea who Belfoure is, but he needs to write another book, now.

One of my favorite books of the year.

One of those gems to come out of the academic press. . . . If you’re worried about cancer, this lucidly argued book will be a godsend

Nassim Taleb, author of Fooled By Randomness, “is to conventional Wall Street wisdom approximately what Martin Luther’s ninety-five theses were to the Catholic Church.”

Explores what makes great CEOs stand out from their peers. I realize that there are thousands of business books on the subject, but, trust me, this is the first to really answer the question.

A classic from the early ’70s by one of the great political writers of his time. Written just before Richard Nixon resigned, it’s as devastating a portrait of him as has ever been written.

One of the heirs to the Freakonomics legacy. A very clever young writer tells us all sorts of things about what driving says about us. I kept waiting for the moment when my interest in congestion and roads would run its course. It never did.

I don’t need to say much here. This book invented an entire genre. Economics was never supposed to be this entertaining.

If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be? The new Lee Child, of course! It might be nice for him to escape for a few hours to a world where one man can solve every one of the world’s problems with nothing but his wits and his fists.

Hirschman wasn’t just a man with a thousand extraordinary adventures (fighting fascists in Spain, smuggling Jews out of France, writing “Exit, Voice, and Loyalty” and a handful of other unforgettable books). He was also wise and decent and honest. I finished that book with tears in my eyes.

I read Jeremy Adelman’s biography of Albert O. Hirschman early this year and was deeply moved by it.

We used to go into Toronto and prowl the used-book stores on Queen Street looking for rare first editions of “The Unmaking of a Mayor” and “God and Man at Yale.” To this day I know all the great Buckley lines.

We used to go into Toronto and prowl the used-book stores on Queen Street looking for rare first editions of “The Unmaking of a Mayor” and “God and Man at Yale.” To this day I know all the great Buckley lines.

His nonbusiness books like “The Blind Side,” by the way, are even better. That book is as close to perfect as a work of popular nonfiction can be.

What really excites me as a sports fan, though, is all the smart sports books coming from an academic perspective: “The Sports Gene,” by David Epstein; “The Numbers Game,” by Chris Anderson and David Sally; and “The Wages of Wins” and “Stumbling on Wins,” by Dave Berri and others.

What really excites me as a sports fan, though, is all the smart sports books coming from an academic perspective: “The Sports Gene,” by David Epstein; “The Numbers Game,” by Chris Anderson and David Sally; and “The Wages of Wins” and “Stumbling on Wins,” by Dave Berri and others.

What really excites me as a sports fan, though, is all the smart sports books coming from an academic perspective: “The Sports Gene,” by David Epstein; “The Numbers Game,” by Chris Anderson and David Sally; and “The Wages of Wins” and “Stumbling on Wins,” by Dave Berri and others.

What really excites me as a sports fan, though, is all the smart sports books coming from an academic perspective: “The Sports Gene,” by David Epstein; “The Numbers Game,” by Chris Anderson and David Sally; and “The Wages of Wins” and “Stumbling on Wins,” by Dave Berri and others.

I mentioned Adam Alter, who is a psychologist at New York University. I also really like Adam Grant, who is a psychologist at Penn and the author of “Give and Take.”

Years ago, he wrote a book called “The Person and the Situation” with Lee Ross. If you read that book, you’ll see the template for the genre of books that “The Tipping Point” and “Blink” and “Outliers” belong to. That book changed my life.

Lewis is tougher, because what he does is almost impossible to emulate. “The Big Short,” one of the best business books of the past two decades, was about derivatives. I read Lewis for the same reasons I watch Tiger Woods. I’ll never play like that. But it’s good to be reminded every now and again what genius looks like.

I reread Malcolm’s “Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession” just to remind myself how nonfiction is supposed to be done.

The best science book I read was Adam Alter’s “Drunk Tank Pink,” which is a really provocative look at how much our behavior is contextually determined.

I loved Jonathan Dee’s new novel, “A Thousand Pardons.”