Peter J. Boettke

I always used to want to write my ideal economics textbook. Then I read this book and realised that Heyne, Boettke, and Prychitko had already written it. Clear enough in its exposition to be accessible to the general reader whose interest in economics might have been piqued by something like Freakonomics, and heterogeneous enough in its outlook to interest and challenge a well read but orthodox economist, this is one of the best books on the subject I've ever read.

Sadly, a really boring book about how to teach economics and some of the key (esoteric) ideas behind "mainline" economics.