I appreciate these two books, in particular, for their thinly-veiled lessons in economics and human behavior.

Also, their titles don’t fit the usual “Asterix and” formula.

With “Mansions of the Gods,” Caesar hits upon a new way to force Asterix’s people out of their Village: He’ll build big apartment buildings right next door. Who’d want to live next to those? The Villagers, of course, nearly fall for it, despite Asterix’s begging and pleading not to.

It’s a story so good that they made a great animated movie out of it!

In “Obelix and Co.,” Obelix discovers a brilliant money-making scheme related to his menhir delivery business. It nearly destroys the village, of course, as he creates a new industry, drives the town into a single economic model, and then floods the market with sub-par crap.

It becomes an economic battle for the Village, as Caesar and Obelix throw new wrinkles into the business model to tilt the flow of money to their own businesses.

Goscinny’s script is super perceptive of human behavior and economic swings. Everything makes sense.

The best part of it all is that Asterix sees it coming, and opts to stand out of its way to let nature takes its course. This might be the only case ever where I’m OK with the star of the story taking no part in its resolution, on purpose.

It’s one of the most clever stories in the series, and was the first book I thought of for this list.