Book reviews: Honey Money | Free Ride | All Cheeses Great And Small

HONEY MONEY

by Catherine Hakim

(Penguin, £9.99)

Star rating: * * *

WE ALL know about “human capital”, says Catherine Hakim in this bracingly controversial book. Human capital is about work experience and university degrees. We also know about “social capital” – that’s how well-connected you are. But what about “erotic capital”? Hakim describes this as “a nebulous but crucial combination of beauty, sex appeal, skills of self-presentation and social skills”. It’s your gorgeousness factor. And, she says, it counts for a lot. If you’re attractive, you have more, and better, opportunities. But this makes us feel uncomfortable, so we pretend it’s not true. A book sure to divide its readers.

FREE RIDE

by Robert Levine

(Vintage, £9.99)  Star rating: * *

IF YOU’RE trying to sell something – let’s say it’s a book – and I steal it, that’s bad. If I buy it and lend it to someone else, that’s not bad. If I buy it and lend it to everybody I know, round the clock, is that bad? Maybe. In this book, Robert Levine tries to solve the tricky problem of internet copyright. Twenty years ago, we didn’t have a magic way of sharing information for free, ten years ago, we did. Now we have a generation of people who expect to get stuff for nothing. But this harms the people who make the stuff, who don’t get paid. This is an important debate, and this opinionated book is a welcome part of it.

ALL CHEESES GREAT AND SMALL

by Alex James

(4th Estate, £8.99)

Star rating: * * * *

THIS IS terrific. Alex James, formerly – and, occasionally, still – the bassist from Blur, tells us what happens when he gives up being a pop star. He buys a tumbledown farm in the Cotswolds. And he’s absolutely smitten with it – the broken buildings, the trees, the river, the piles of rubble. He tells us about the history of the farm. We get a sense of land. The fact that it’s being described by a previously urban person gives it a fizz and a spark. Lovely.