The Way of the Business Writer

The Business Channel's Harvey Wallbanger (yes, that's a pseudonym) is taking nominations for the worst business book ever.  When I was at The Economist, I tried to write a parody book review of business books.  That was until the New York bureau chief solemnly led me to the mountain of review copies we'd left for dead, and pointed out that I couldn't come up with a concept that some idiot, somewhere, hadn't already published a book on.  No, I take that back--How to Make a Killing:  Investment Strategies from America's Top Serial Killers didn't exist, or anything like it.  But other gems, like Management Secrets of the Carmelite Nuns, turned out to be actual books.  Business books, it seems, are beyond parody.

The worst, however, was a book called "The Way of the Cockroach", in which would-be CEOs were explicitly instructed to behave like vermin.  Apparently there is nothing so contemptible that a business writer will not stoop to . . . telling other people to imitate.

Come to think of it, I may have found an explanation for the last twelve months . . .