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Like most people, I discovered Meg Gardiner through Stephen King's laudatory essay in Entertainment Weekly wherein he expressed his shock over the fact that she wasn't yet a household name in the US. With complete conviction he stated that he was 'convinced (he) had found the next suspense superstar', and when Stephen King says that, the publishing world sits up and pays attention.

But long before I heard that Dutton was going to be publishing Meg's books here in the US, I decided to check out her blog and became hooked. Her voice was compelling, her anecdotes amusing, and her gathering of weird and wacky news stories from around the globe provided me with endless fodder for small talk at bars around New York: "Did you hear about the gnome that is terrorizing this small village in Argentina..?" became a common opening gambit of mine, as did "Are you aware of the prolific number of underwear bandits in the world?"

So when I heard that Meg was going to be signing books at Barnes & Noble, I grabbed my copy of The Dirty Secrets Club and headed over to meet the person behind the novels and endlessly entertaining blog.

And it was really fun. Meg Gardiner is vivacious, amusing, and very charming, and has clearly been enjoying her new found success while keeping her feet on the ground. She recounted her attempts to persuade neighbors in England that she was in fact a normal, pleasant person and not a ghoulish weirdo from the mythical land of California who spent her time putting imaginary people to death. She spoke about her incredible good fortune in being noticed by Stephen King, and then laughed over how his criteria for selecting her book had not been the scintillating language nor the gripping plot, but rather the large and easily read print.

My wife and I have periodic arguments about throwing books out. I love to throw books out. I treat that as a sign of my love of books and -- even more -- my love of readers.

But isn't it a horrible thing to throw out books? It just doesn't feel right. Shouldn't you donate the books somewhere? I think not, at least in many cases.

Here's the problem. If you donate the otherwise-thrashed book somewhere, someone might read it. OK, maybe that person will read one more book in life but more likely that book will substitute for that person reading some other book instead.

So you have to ask yourself -- this book -- is it better on average than what an attracted reader might otherwise spend time with? No I'm not encouraging "censorship" of any particular point of view, but even within any particular point of view most books simply aren't that good. These books are traps for the unwary. A lot of books don't make the cut of "above average to those readers they will attract" and of course since you've spent some time with the volume you ought to be in a position to know. (But note the calculation is tricky. Sometimes a very bad book can be useful because it might appeal to "bad" readers and lure them away from even worse books. Please make all the appropriate calculations here.)

The worst thing you can do is to give such a book to a friend or family member. You are tempting them, but with mediocrity.

So all you altruists out there, ready your trash can and exercise your elbow. See if you can toss a book into the bin with one fell swoop from across the room. The love of humanity demands it.

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Tyler Cowen, Discover Your Inner Economist, economics, practical, incentives, signals, markets, Penguin Books, books