Economics 101

I've spent the majority of my day today catching up on reading for my economics course. My first introduction to economics was less than thrilling.  It was one of those awful undergraduate classes for me where you did the best you could on the tests, never fully understanding the concepts (okay, let's be honest- never getting close to understanding the concepts).  Many of my friends, who are intelligent and capable people, also took the same course, and I think it's safe to say we all just prayed we would make it out with a B. (For the record, I did make it out with a B, thank goodness!)

So, you could say that I was less than delighted to have to take more economics classes in my graduate program; however, much to my delight- I have really enjoyed my economics class thus far.  I can't say that I get everything 100% of the time, but once I work at it, I get most of it.  This is mostly due to my professor, I think.  Her style of teaching is non-intimidating and the way she explains concepts makes them easier for me to understand.  

To help us further understand the basic concepts of economics, she assigned this book:

Naked Economics, Available from amazon.com for $11.53.

I've really enjoyed this book, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is a bit confused about economics, the basics of a market economy, supply & demand, and so on.  The author, Charles Wheelan, presents the material in a way that he says even the "layman" can understand, and he does it with a surprising amount of humor.  I mean, if I admitted to laughing out loud while reading this book- would you judge me?  Because I did laugh out loud- maybe...

I haven't finished reading the book yet, but I look forward to doing so.  I hope my student friends out there in blogger world have also found some enjoyable reads this semester!