I've been catching the train with Peter Costello, our former Treasurer, of late. Usually, as I walk to the train station for my 7.30am train, he would be striding up the path in his baseball cap and baggy shorts, a polite nod as we passed each other. But in the past couple of weeks, I have been catching a later train and, low and behold, there he is, ducking as he enters the train carriage and asking 'is it OK if I sit here' as he steps over the obligatory school bags scattered in front of the doors.

Not bad for a former Treasurer, catching the train and suffering the late and 'running out of time' timetables (along with the irritating announcements such as 'This train will be terminated') along with the rest of us. He often reads The Age or The Australian newspaper as we speed towards the city but I haven't seen him pull out a book yet.

I'm sure he has read The Great Crash of 2008 despite it being written by Ross Garnaut, who presented the Climate Change Review to Prime Minister Rudd in 2008. It is a 'whole-world' view of the financial crisis but also includes discussion of the effect of the crisis on climate change policy, on how to re-build after the crisis, and how ideology has changed as a result.

He might have read Keynes - The Return of the Master by Robert Skidelsky who asks the question "When unbridled capitalism falters, is there an alternative?" and answers it with the word 'Keynes'. Keynes believed that the future is 'unknowable' - something Mr Costello probably agrees with wholeheartedly.

Keynes also looked to the morals of a society that buys and buys and buys and Martin Lindstrom looks at why we buy things in his great little book Buy-o-logy. Do we really believe we need things when we buy them? What kind of people does that make us? Insecure? Scared? Or overly confident? I'm sure any political campaigner worth their salt has had a look at this book.

I don't know if Costello has been to Harvard Business School but I had a flick through What They teach You At Harvard Business School, a sly and witty memoir by by Phillip Delves, to see whether it is true that Harvard is at the root of all evil in the 'economic rationalist' and 'bottom line' world will live in. And yes, I would have to say - I think that Harvard Business School - 'the cauldron of capitalism' - probably is!

He probably hasn't read Women, Work and the Art of Savoir Faire: Business Sense and Sensibility by Mireille Guiliano (of the French Women Don't Get Fat fame), although his wife might have. Guiliano took the Veuve Clicquot champagne to the top rank of luxury brands and in this book she gives savvy, straightforward advice and tips on interviews, reviews, confidence, juggling all aspects of a woman's working life and how to keep savouring the good things as you move ahead.

And I wonder if Costello has read A Leader's Legacy by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, a book talking to the captains of industry about succession and legacy. Dividing current issues facing leaders into four main sections, 'Significance, Relationships, Aspirations, and Courage', to enable some lasting legacy to emerge, the book is an inspirational read for anyone in any profession or trade or even anyone working in not-for-profits. It is all about what comes after us and how we can make that the best it can possibly be.

But really, I just want to know what fiction Mr Costello reads....