On January 20, 2012, John James Audubon’s The Birds of America: from Original Drawings sold for $7,922,500 at Christie’s of New York. This didn’t end up being the most expensive book because in 2010, another first edition of Audubon’s Birds of America sold for $11.5 million at Sotheby’s in London, setting the record for the most expensive book ever to be sold at an auction.
Audubon created his own technique for drawing birds in the 1820s. He captured the birds in their natural movements and drew them life-sized, which dictated the books’ towering height: an imposing 3½ feet. Can’t get that on your Kindle.
In a down economy, I wouldn’t think the purchase of expensive works of art would be in high demand. Forbes has tracked extraordinarily expensive works of art, and identified them in an article entitled The Ten Most Expensive Books.
So, it’s January 31, soon to be February 1. What did you read during the first month of the new year, and what’s on board for February?
Invest in yourself. Read more books during 2012.
by Jeff Madrick – Looking for the roots of our financial decline, Madrick narrates a history that brims with powerful men, ugly fights, infamous scandals, twists and turns, and true to the book’s title, lots of shameless cupidity.
by Michael Lewis – In his latest book on the planet’s seemingly endless financial implosion, Lewis drops in on Iceland, Greece, Ireland and Germany and chronicles the messes they’ve made of their markets and money.
by Steven Levy – A detailed intellectual history of Google’s major innovations that lays bare its outsize ambitions and prodigious talents.
by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner – The authors make a powerful argument that cozy connections between government and the financial industry were the primary cause of the financial crisis.
by Marc Ostrofsky - Get Rich Click! is a comprehensive source of information from one of the world’s most successful Internet entrepreneurs. The book outlines proven strategies and techniques for the Internet entrepreneur, and is full of real-life success stories about people of all ages who have made millions on line!
by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne - Written by the business world’s new gurus, Blue Ocean Strategy continues to challenge everything you thought you knew about competing in today’s crowded market place. Based on a study of 150 strategic moves spanning more than a hundred years and thirty industries, authors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne argue that lasting success comes from creating ‘blue oceans’: untapped new market spaces ripe from growth.
by Timothy Ferriss - Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan–there is no need to wait and every reason not to, especially in unpredictable economic times. Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing high-end world travel, earning a monthly five-figure income with zero management, or just living more and working less, The 4-Hour Workweek is the blueprint.