Before going on holiday I read Jared Diamond’s ‘Collapse’, which I thought was very good (I’ve also read his ‘3rd Chimpanzee‘ and ‘Guns, Germs and Steel’ – he’s an author whom I rate highly). It was a much more optimistic book than I had expected, in overall tone, but I was disappointed with the end – I felt he could have written more about the options and decisions that we face. Overall, well worth reading, especially for the material about Montana and the Greenland Norse, which were wholly new to me.

NB for a different view to the received wisdom on the Easter Island collapse (which Diamond makes great play of) go here (HT Arts and Letters Daily)