Getting information is quick and easy. Everything you want to know is immediately available online. But good instructive books still have their place, particularly when they’re packed with easy breakdowns of complicated subjects.
The Introducing... series of “Graphic Guides” by Icon Books (around R134 a piece) is rather good for giving any layman a solid understanding of just about any subject. We’ll look at four, starting with “Economics”.

Popularly known as “the dismal science”, this guide is a reasoned account of what happens in a country’s economy and attempts to give the reader an understanding of how past patterns repeat themselves.

The book traces the history of economic theory, from the ancient Greeks to the most recent economists, and shows how a particular economic approach might end as a political direction. Here you’ll find sections on private vs public ownership, capital vs labour, an intrusive

prescriptive government vs one happy to be governed by markets.
It may sound a bit much for a layman, but it isn’t. Heard of “radical economic transformation”? That concept is better understood once you have read up on some of the above subjects. This book is 174 well-illustrated pages of simple language on difficult subjects.

Cultural studies is a hot new subject, but what is it? There are many definitions, but the best is probably that of early 20th-century anthropologist EB Taylor, who wrote: “Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs and other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.”
It ranges from feminism and postcolonial discourse to the politics of the diaspora, from digital culture and the media to globalisation.

Postmodernism touches on just about everything you may have experienced, read or heard of events and thoughts that happened over the last century: the most extreme and exhilarating events, people and thought.
It takes you through conceptual art, constructivism, political witch-hunts, the Holocaust, globalisation, terrorism and unexpected wars.
Let’s look at one example: Deconstruction – “...is a strategy for revealing the underlayers of meanings in a text that were suppressed or assumed in order for it to take its actual form. “Texts are never simply unitary but include resources that run counter to their assertions and/or their authors’ intentions. “Meaning includes identity (what it is) and difference (what it isn’t) and it is therefore continuously being deferred.”

Lost? That’s OK, read it again and it will become clearer. And remember to deconstruct everything you read and place it in context.

Much easier to digest and probably far and away the most popular in the series is Psychology of Relationships, because it’s about you and a self-guide for getting on better with people.
Put another way: it helps you understand your relationship needs and is full of practical exercises to help you choose, enjoy and sustain a partnership that works.
The chapter headings say it all: All by myself; A game of two halves; Growing together, apart; Are you receiving me?; The self-esteem factor; The meaning of conflict; The myth of sex; The mystery of love.
Even if you don’t agree with all the insights, they will certainly be interesting.