In an era where reading battles for attention against screens and perpetual connectivity, four HEC academics embody a quieter, steadfast devotion to the written word. As Mark Twain once quipped - although the attribution to the great American satirist is unsubstantiated - “The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.” For it is through reading that we deepen our perspectives and refine our communication. And, contrary to popular myth, Americans and Indians read the most books annually, between 16 and 17 books a year; whilst 36% of Chinese respondents reported reading a book every day or most days.
Craig Anderson: Consilience and the Solace of the Desert
Marketing professor Craig Anderson’s intellectual curiosity was piqued by E.O. Wilson’s Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge and its treatise on the interconnectedness of disciplines. It resonated with the specialist in awe, inspiring him to pursue methodologies that transcend the silos of traditional academic inquiry. “The idea behind this book is that all these fields are searching for truth. Our findings should converge,” Anderson explains in our Breakthroughs podcast. This philosophy has led him to incorporate methods from physiology and even genetics into his marketing research.
Yet Anderson’s reading list extends beyond the theoretical. Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire, a contemplative memoir of time spent as a park ranger in Utah, occupies a permanent place on his bedside table. “It helps me keep perspective when I get stressed out,” he shares. The book offers not just a reflection on nature but a broader meditation on society’s relationship with the wild – “an antidote to the pressures of academia”.
Keith Robson: The Civilizing Process
One of the most influential text for accounting professor Keith Robson is Norbert Elias’s The Civilizing Process. This sweeping historical analysis examines how manners and social norms evolved alongside state formation in Europe. “Elias shows how behaviors that were once acceptable gradually become beyond the pale,” Robson reflects. The book’s exploration of power dynamics and societal shifts informs Robson’s understanding of organizational behavior and governance.
Elias’s work, often cited alongside luminaries like Anthony Giddens and Michel Foucault, draws a vivid link between micro-level social etiquette and macro-level state control. Robson appreciates this layered approach: “It’s not just about how we eat or dress; it’s about how these rituals reflect and reinforce systems of power.” For Robson, reading Elias is akin to unearthing the blueprint of Western civilization’s psychological architecture.
Daniel Martinez: The Flux of Difference and Repetition
Philosophy and accounting might seem an unlikely pairing, but for Daniel Martinez, they are intimately intertwined. His guiding light is Gilles Deleuze’s Difference and Repetition, a philosophical treatise that interrogates the nature of identity and transformation. Martinez draws parallels between Deleuze’s ideas and the elusive nature of economic structures. “Things are always escaping containment – even in accounting. There’s this sense that movement happens regardless of, or sometimes because of, attempts to regulate it,” he explains. The specialist in contested markets has been exploring the mechanisms of this movement for the better part of his 15-year academic career. Martinez’s fascination with French luminaries extends beyond Deleuze to the works of Michel Foucault and Bruno Latour, thinkers who similarly question the rigidity of institutional frameworks. By viewing accounting through this philosophical lens, Martinez uncovers new insights into how organizations function – and malfunction. “It’s about understanding flux,” he notes, “and how we measure what constantly shifts beneath us.”
Kristine de Valck: Reclaiming Conversation
In our hyper-connected world, where dialogue often cedes ground to digital interaction, Kristine de Valck finds an antidote in Sherry Turkle’s Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age. As a marketing professor specializing in consumer behavior, de Valck values Turkle’s call to revive face-to-face communication. “It’s about putting away the phone and reconnecting with people,” she says. Turkle’s exploration of how technology reshapes intimacy and attention speaks directly to de Valck’s research into social media and digital communities. The marketing expert acknowledges the irony of studying digital behavior while championing the primacy of in-person engagement. Yet, de Valck views this duality as essential to understanding modern consumer habits. “We can’t avoid technology, but we need to reclaim the human element that technology often eclipses,” she asserts. Turkle’s work, she believes, serves as both a warning and a guide to preserving meaningful interaction in an increasingly fragmented world.
A Shared Intellectual Thread
What unites these four academics is not merely a love of books, but a recognition of reading as an act of intellectual and emotional sustenance. In their offices at HEC Paris, volumes by Elias, Deleuze, Turkle, and Wilson sit not as relics, but as living companions in their scholarly pursuits. Each book, a portal to new ideas, reinforces the belief that research is not a solitary endeavor but part of a grander conversation across disciplines and generations. Our Breakthroughs podcast highlights the conviction that reading is not just an academic exercise - it is a practice of continuous self-renewal. In the words of former US First Lady Michelle Obama, “Read, read, read.” For Anderson, Robson, Martinez, and de Valck, this mantra rings true, shaping their work and inspiring the next generation of thinkers at their business school – and beyond.
