Books

WELCOME to the world of the wikibook. Wikipedia, as web surfers will know, is the innovative online encyclopedia that can be edited by anyone.

GORDON PARSONS examines the tacit techniques that companies use to get us to part with our hard-earned cash.

DAMIAN Thompson wonders why so many people are prepared to believe wacky conspiracy theories and unscientific explanations rather than trust their good sense.

THIS book by Kevin Myers covers a 10-year period of the Troubles running from 1968 to 1978. It chronicles the day-to-day violence as well as the sex life of rookie journalist Myers. By the end of the account, Myers appears rather disillusioned by the experience, ending his career in the north after reporting on deaths of 12 Protestants as the result of a bomb placed in the La Mon House Hotel by the IRA.

UNUSUALLY for me, Western infatuation with Oriental mysticism is an immediate turn-off, smacking of the Beatles and the Maharishi and hardly anything to do with the troubles of the 21st century. However, I found this book fascinating from start to finish.

DO Good Lives Have to Cost the Earth? questions the supposition that a good life is one that supports the economy through constant spending through the winning manifesto that we need to "stop working so much... and start to party."

PAUL DONOVAN delves into the world of bully-boy tactics and compromised journalism used by the mainstream British press.

IN November 1944, Polish lawyer Rafal Lemkin published Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. He employed the new term "genocide" to describe the "acts of barbarity" perpetrated by the fascist invaders throughout the continent.

WHY steal a priceless painting that you won't be able to sell? Why bother searching for a criminal who has hurt no-one?

GREEN fatigue is the new enemy of global warming, but The Hot Topic seeks to inform that this need not be the case.