The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story, by Michael Lewis (Coronet, £6.99 in UK)

If you are floundering in the e-world, wondering how come it is so e-asy for some to achieve vast richEs fast, then this wonderfully e-ntertaining and incisive tome is required reading. Jim Clark is a man with a Midas touch; he has brought three companies to market, each valued at in excess of a billion dollars. First it was Silicon Graphics, then the Internet browser company Netscape, and finally Healtheon, which aimed to take a large slice of the $1 trillion US health-care industry for itself. Michael Lewis is granted apparently wide access to his subject - and makes the most of it as he recounts the torrid story of the Healtheon project. He paints a vivid portrait of the remarkable Mr Clark, a man who cures his premier cru hangovers by writing computer code and who comes across as part genius, part child and part prat, albeit an occasionally endearing one.