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Good day my good friend.

I forgot to mention last week that this week is one of my planned breaks from writing the newsletter. Which is just as well, as I have been out three days this week, and spent the one day I had working sorting out someone to tile my downstairs toilet. I’m broken, so putting together a few words on a transport matter might have broken me even more.

Instead, I thought that I’d share some books I have read recently on both transport and the current state of the world, that I think you should read. So enjoy.

Paved Paradise (Henry Grabar)

Any readers of the now late, great Donald Shoup will love this book. It’s an extremely entertaining romp through the joyous world of parking in the United States. Ranging from organised crime running parking garages to frankly dystopian images of American downtowns being flatten to make way for yet more free parking because of reasons.

Oh, and “Whoever said life was about the journey and not the destination never had to look for a place to park” is now one of my favourite quotes. I will find any excuse to use it.

High Tea on the Cunard Queens (Paul Curtis)

This was a book that I did not expect to enjoy but did. It is the memoirs of Paul Curtis, who joined the RMS Queen Mary as an entertainments officer, and served on every one of the ‘Cunard Queens’ ocean liners that plied the North Atlantic routes. This was during the time when ocean liners started losing out to airlines.

The guy has 50 years of stories of passengers acting like idiots. That alone is worth reading. He also writes with a clear fondness for these ships and their crew. A most light hearted and amusing read, ideal for a Sunday afternoon at home.

How The Railways Will Fix The Future (Gareth Dennis)

I already passed comment on this book on LinkedIn a couple of weeks back. This is a must-read book for any transport wonks out there. It articulates the challenges facing transport over the coming years in a clear, and concise way, and recommends some simple ideas that will make a substantial difference.

No matter what your interest in transport is, Gareth covers it and covers it well.

Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism (Yanis Varoufakis)

While I like the central thesis of Varoufakis’s work here – namely that the next stage of capitalism will be a return to feudalism as opposed to the liberty promised by the internet and free markets – I really struggled with this book. It frequently goes off on tangents without any real purpose other than to act as a letter to his late father, and ignores basic economic facts (such as interest rates being high when he states they have been low).

Overall, I love the idea presented in this book. Just not how it is presented. You should make up your own mind on it.

Politics (Aristotle)

The founding text of political philosophy, and essential to read if you want to know the moral case for and against different types of government. Even if it was written in Ancient Greece.

If you have not read it already, I warn you. Some chapters are a tough read, moralising about the position of slaves and women in society, and it is very much of its time. But it is about the best moral exploration of everything from democracy to dictatorship that you can possibly read. I read this for the first time several years ago, and it changed how I view the merits of different political systems.

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (Timothy Snyder)

Lesson 1 hits hard: Do not obey in advance. And it hits harder after that. If you are worried about the rise of despots and tyrants around the world, and in your country, you should get this book. Above all, it shows you how to have agency when others are trying to strip it from you. Highly recommended.