Owen Dean's Non-Business Books for Business Readers

If one of your new year's resolutions is to read more books, you might be interested in checking out a few of the titles that Vanderbilt's Owen Graduate School of Management dean Jim Bradford has read and discussed with MBA students in his Dean's Book Club.

In an article published last month on Forbes.com, Bradford called his love of reading an attribute that has broadened his perspective and helped him make better decisions. He thought his Owen students could benefit from good books as well:

"The big question is how we prepare graduates for the complex, sometimes ambiguous environments they'll encounter after their studies. It's increasingly clear that graduates who have not only analytical ability but also perspective and wisdom will win the day," Bradford writes.

Here are a few of the wisdom-building titles the book club has tackled:

• River Town by Peter Hessler
• Hot, Flat & Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman
• The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria
• The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb
• Factory Girls by Leslie T. Chang
• The Colossal Failure of Common Sense by Lawrence G. McDonald and Patrick Robinson

Have you read anything that's broadened your perspective lately? Leave your recommendations in the comments.

Image courtesy of Flickr user user Horia Varlan, CC 2.0.