The Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics

That's a pretty good list, though I have to take exception to your suggestions for heterodox economics all coming from the Hayek-Mises-Rothbard Austrian/Libertarian tradition. There's considerably more to heterodox economics than Libertarian school. "Heterodox economics" is an umbrella term used to cover various approaches, schools, or traditions. These include socialist, Marxian, institutional, evolutionary, Georgist, Austrian, feminist,[3] social, post-Keynesian (not to be confused with New Keynesian),[2] and ecological economics among others.[4] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterodox_economics Steve Keen offers a fairly compelling criticism in Debunking Economics. Ha-Joon Chang, of LSE, has several books providing criticisms and overviews of economics, his Economics: the user's guide is a light and readable overview. http://www.worldcat.org/title/economics-the-users-guide/oclc... (http://www.worldcat.org/title/economics-the-users-guide/oclc/870896694&referer=brief_results) (It's worth noting that Ha-Joon Chang tends toward a Marxian view and in particular is a contrarian in trade and development concepts. I happen to think his views have merits.)…

The Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics http://www.amazon.com/Origin-Wealth-Evolution-Complexity-Eco... (http://www.amazon.com/Origin-Wealth-Evolution-Complexity-Economics/dp/1422121038/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320081538&sr=8-1) don't let the false prophets of equilibrium theory and efficient market theory bend your ear too far ;) if you get into looking for a job, there are a few books that list common questions for quant jobs also...

Economics is a bit like theology. You read it to get exposed to the ideas, learn about other people's beliefs, and be amazed by the beautifully argued but experimentally unsupported theories. I liked Eric Beinhocker, Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics.

"Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics" is really great Hacker News-ish book about economics. It's the only non-technical book that gets into agent-based computational economics. There's some unfortunate business strategy waffle in the middle but otherwise it's fantastic. Here's a review of it by the great Herb Gintis: http://www.amazon.com/review/R26IO7AY7JHS8C/