A working vacation

Blogging will range from intermittent to nonexistent for the next week. I’m off with the blogwife to Budapest for a conference. [Sure, it’s all work to you–ed. No, really, check the program — I’m working for a few days.] A few days of vacation after that. Seems like the time for bloggers to go on ...

By , a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and the author of The Ideas Industry.

Blogging will range from intermittent to nonexistent for the next week. I'm off with the blogwife to Budapest for a conference. [Sure, it's all work to you--ed. No, really, check the program -- I'm working for a few days.] A few days of vacation after that. Seems like the time for bloggers to go on vacation -- Virginia Postrel and Matthew Yglesias are also on hiatus. What to do while I'm away? A few suggestions: 1) Check some new blogs out. If you are interested in global political economy, go check out this blog. Robert Tagorda at Boomshock is also generating some high-quality output. 2) Turn off the computer and read a book. My spouse once told me that the only difference between me working and me on vacation is that there's a different book in my hands. So, in quasi-homage to Brink Lindsey's retirement from blogging right after he published his critical review of books read during the past year, here's what I'm bringing with me to Budapest to read:

Blogging will range from intermittent to nonexistent for the next week. I’m off with the blogwife to Budapest for a conference. [Sure, it’s all work to you–ed. No, really, check the program — I’m working for a few days.] A few days of vacation after that. Seems like the time for bloggers to go on vacation — Virginia Postrel and Matthew Yglesias are also on hiatus. What to do while I’m away? A few suggestions: 1) Check some new blogs out. If you are interested in global political economy, go check out this blog. Robert Tagorda at Boomshock is also generating some high-quality output. 2) Turn off the computer and read a book. My spouse once told me that the only difference between me working and me on vacation is that there’s a different book in my hands. So, in quasi-homage to Brink Lindsey’s retirement from blogging right after he published his critical review of books read during the past year, here’s what I’m bringing with me to Budapest to read:

The Future of Freedom, by Fareed Zakaria [Didn’t you already bash this book here, here, and here?–ed. No, I critiqued the core ideas that Zakaria presented when he was in town before the book had come out. In response to a personal request by the author, however, I want to read it in print. Prague, by Arthur Phillips. It’s novel that actually takes place in Budapest. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon. Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by J.K. Rowling. [Yeah, this book really needs your plug–ed.] The Paradox of American Power, by Joseph Nye.

Ciao.

Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and the author of The Ideas Industry. Twitter: @dandrezner

More from Foreign Policy

Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.
Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.

Chinese Hospitals Are Housing Another Deadly Outbreak

Authorities are covering up the spread of antibiotic-resistant pneumonia.

Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.
Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.

Henry Kissinger, Colossus on the World Stage

The late statesman was a master of realpolitik—whom some regarded as a war criminal.

A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.
A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.

The West’s False Choice in Ukraine

The crossroads is not between war and compromise, but between victory and defeat.

Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi
Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi

The Masterminds

Washington wants to get tough on China, and the leaders of the House China Committee are in the driver’s seat.