About a couple of years ago, I realized that while I enjoy professor and blogger Bryan Caplan's posts on economics, politics, immigration and other topics, my favorite posts were the ones that offered self-help advice. Many of these posts take as a starting point how Bryan overcame previous foolish behavior. With Professor Caplan's permission, I created this blog with a few of my favorite Caplan posts. His only request was to limit the number of blog posts to ten, as he was planning to bring out a book of his self-help highlights.
Well, he's been issuing book after collecting his blog posts, but apparently there were other topics he was more eager to get off his chest, so first we got books such as How Evil Are Politicians? and Voters As Mad Scientists. (Full bibliography at the official web site).
Now, however, Bryan has issued his self-help book: Self-Help Is Like a Vaccine: Essays on Living Better. For once, I can provide an Amazon link without apology, as Bryan is a big, public fan of Amazon.com, a good example of his insistence on thinking for himself rather than being roped in by the anti-Amazon mob, or any other mob.
I really enjoyed the book, and I hope a lot of other people buy it, too! There's actually enough good advice blog posts left, Bryan could easily assemble another good volume, so buy this one so he feels forced to put out a sequel. The next volume could include his advice to men on how to find a life partner.
The back cover of the new book has this quote from Alex Tabarrok, who says, "Bryan is my guru." This carries weight with me as Tabarrok often serves as my guru.
I will ask Professor Caplan what I should do with this blog in light of his new book. In the meantime, sample the blog posts and find out why you should buy the book.
