The Best Books of 2003: Volume I
If you think about it you shouldn't be that surprised that The Economist is a great place to find books. Economics, after all, dabbles in politics, history, science, mathematics and gambling after all. Despite this I always feel the need to explain that the magazine is an excellent pointer to what's good.
The online version of the magazine has selected their top books of the year. This is a saver - the beginnings of a queue for next year.
One book in particular that caught my attention is The Zanzibar Chest (review here), the memoir of Kenyan born Englishman. We used to call them "Kenya Cowboys." They were the descendants of the colonialists, thoroughly their own species and often more knowledgeable in things African than we. After 6 years of work for Reuters the author muses on "The Dark Continent."
Even though it is not the account of a native African I’m still interested; there aren’t too many people who care enough to write about Africa and remember its people. Even those who care sometimes get too daunted by the sheer hopelessness to be found in trying to imagine a bright future.
6:20:39 AM 
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