Episode · EconTalk · 2025-07-28
Russ Roberts & Doug Lemov: books mentioned on EconTalk
Read Like a Champion (with Doug Lemov)
Many students graduate high school today without having read a book cover to cover. Many students struggle to learn to read at all.
Doug Lemov discussed Animal Farm by George Orwell, Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, Atonement by Ian McEwan, and 1984 by George Orwell. Russ Roberts recommended For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway, Middlemarch by George Eliot, and As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, and discussed The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Animal Farm
Discussed“I gave him Animal Farm to read and I didn't give him a lot of background knowledge and I didn't tell him anything about the Russian Revolution and about how this is this is, you know, an allegory for the so he, you know, read the book diligently.”
Where to get it
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Number the Stars
Discussed“Like, we're assuming that they're like learning about uh, you know, if it's Number the Stars, classic canonical, you know, fifth or sixth grade text set in uh, Denmark during World War II during the Nazi occupation.”
Where to get it
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Atonement
Discussed“I just finished reading uh Ian Mchuan's book Atonement. The first 60 pages of it like I didn't really someone recommended to me. I didn't really like it.”
Where to get it
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1984
Discussed“Almost everything that's in most important to society has been written and captured in books. And if I know those books and I have access to them, then I can connect to people about, you know, I can, if you refer to Shakespeare or to 1984, if I don't know anything about George Orwell in 1984, I can't even have”
Where to get it
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For Whom the Bell Tolls
Recommended“I'm reading uh I'm reading For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway which I read 50 years ago for the first time and now I'm rereading it and I have no interest in rereading and I should just say for the record if you had said to me hey what what's your next book next book it be? How about”
Where to get it
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Middlemarch
Recommended“Middle March is one of my favorite novels. I read it uh 50 45 years ago probably. And the last page of Middle March is a masterpiece.”
Where to get it
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The Sound and the Fury
Discussed“having tried to read um um Sound the Sound of the Fury and at 16 and not getting very far and thinking, well, it's just a bad book.”
Where to get it
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As I Lay Dying
Recommended“so, but I took the course and uh, one of the I think the first Faulner we read was As I Lay Dying and As I Lay Dying is a book I recommend. I uh spoiler I love Faulner became one of my favorite writers and it wasn't so enamored of Conrad by the end of the course... and when”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (1) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“Uh we're going to talk about reading again today, specifically based on uh his new book co-authored with Colin Driggs and Erica Woolway, the Teach Like a Champion Guide to the Science of Reading.”