Best Used Bookshop Finds of 2009

Chimpanzee Politics, by Franz de Waal

Outstanding. Although it took me some time to get into the book's slow rhythm and pacing, the insights were well worth it. This cost me $1 and gave me at least a decade's worth of information to think about.

The Art of Memetics, by Wes Unruh and Edward Wilson

On first glance, this struck me as an odd mix of marketing and chaos magick and I am rather glad I picked this up on a whim. It was far better than I expected. Grounds memetics in mythology which yields a unique style of insight. Personally, I found this to be a wealth of business and communication concepts.

Light Infantry Tactics, by Christopher Larsen

The illustrations were often bad enough to be "worse than nothing" but the writing is clear and the topic is fascinating. How do you operate a small team in a combat situation? I have read this over several times now and would recommend it to anyone.

A Field Guide to the Global Economy

Very dated but beautifully presented. This reminded me of the McLuhan / Fiore collaborations, which were very visually oriented. This is less collage based, aiming for a sleek textbook feel that makes it worthwhile to this day.