Paperbacks reviewed by William Leith

Who Owns the Future? by Jaron Lanier (Penguin, £9.99)

Jaron Lanier is often called a visionary. He’s a digital guru. Very few people fully understand what’s happening in the digital world but if anyone does, it’s Lanier. Here he explains the business model that drives the new economy. Put simply, our digital masters give us things for free so they can spy on us. We think this is a good deal. But it’s not. It makes a small number of people very rich at the expense of everybody else. Those with the biggest servers will win because data is super-valuable. But it can’t work in the long term — this model destroys the middle-class, so the billionaires will run out of customers anyway. Great analysis.

The Golden Egg by Donna Leon (Arrow, £8.99)

If you’re a fan of Donna Leon I won’t need to describe Commissario Brunetti, the hero of her novels. He’s a married detective in Venice who is decent, thoughtful and curious. He’s great at extracting information from people in a charming way. In this novel, a man who is both deaf and mute is discovered dead — and Brunetti wonders why. Things don’t quite seem to add up. As he digs, the reader gets the archaeology of this particular case but also of Venice itself — you find yourself imagining the perspectives of narrow alleys, palazzi, canals and sudden stunning views. All beautifully spliced together.

Running With the Pack: thoughts from the road on meaning and mortality by Mark Rowlands (Granta, £8.99)

A philosopher who likes to run and philosophises about running — from the start, the reader’s mind is alive with ideas. As humans, we can outrun anything — other animals have faster top speeds but we have more stamina. Running, then, is a big part of being human. It’s why we can hunt so effectively. It’s a route to protein, which helped to make our brains what they are. The author tells us that this book will have the rhythm of a run and this is somehow true. Exercise energises your thoughts, and reading this book is a bit like thinking while you run — about life, death, history... and running itself.