What are you reading currently?

[DanielGMask]

I'm currently reading Letters from a self-made merchant to his son, written by John Graham. Recommended by Munger and, of course, it delivers. Short and to the point. During 2014 I've also read:

 

 

1. Transcend: Nine Steps to living well forever, Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman

2. The Personal MBA, Josh Kaufman

3. I Will Teach you to be Rich, Ramit Sethi

4. The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz

5. Los Cuatro Acuerdos, Miguel Ruiz

6. Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, Mason Currey

7. Bull, Maggie Mahar

8. On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin

9. There's Always Something to Do, Peter Cundill

10. Antifragile, Nassim Nicholas Taleb

11. The art of learning, Josh Waitzkin

12. Supermoney, Adam Smith

13. Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger, Peter Bevelin

14. Happy Money, Elizabeth Dunn

15. The Hard Thing about Hard Things, Ben Horowitz

16. The little book that builds wealth, Pat Dorsey.

17. Conspiracy of Fools, Kurt Eichenwald

18. The Financier, Theodore Dreiser

19. The Essays of Warren Buffett, Lawrence A. Cunningham

20. Autobiography, Abraham Flexner.

[Kraven]

Jay21, what did you think of King of Capital? TIA.

 

I'm not Jay, but I thought it was surprisingly very good. Despite the descriptions, Schwarzman actually had relatively little role in the book. It was more a depiction of Blackstone generally with lots of discussion of individual deals in a manner I found quite interesting. I thought it was one of the better books in that genre.

[Palantir]

I am reading 500 pages.

[Liberty]

Jay21, what did you think of King of Capital? TIA.

 

I'm not Jay, but I thought it was surprisingly very good. Despite the descriptions, Schwarzman actually had relatively little role in the book. It was more a depiction of Blackstone generally with lots of discussion of individual deals in a manner I found quite interesting. I thought it was one of the better books in that genre.

 

Thanks Kraven. I'll bump it up the list.

[Guest ajc]

 

The Quest (Yergin)

End Of The Line: The Rise And Fall Of AT&T (Cauley)

Lake Wobegon Days (Keillor)

The Davis Dynasty (Rothchild)

Competition Demystified (Greenwald)

In The Plex (Levy)

 

 

 

[LC]

I am reading through the fifth book of the Night Watch series. Much fun! :)

[jay21]

Jay21, what did you think of King of Capital? TIA.

 

I'm not Jay, but I thought it was surprisingly very good. Despite the descriptions, Schwarzman actually had relatively little role in the book. It was more a depiction of Blackstone generally with lots of discussion of individual deals in a manner I found quite interesting. I thought it was one of the better books in that genre.

 

Thanks Kraven. I'll bump it up the list.

 

I agree with Kraven.  It's definitely not a technical book where you are going to learn the ins and outs of PE, but it's a very good narrative of the history of Blackstone, where they do give some interesting background on some deals, some other executives, Blackrock, etc.

[racemize]

Good to Great - Jim Collins

[mikazo]

I'm reading "The End of Poverty" by Jeffery D. Sachs. Very interesting book on the economics of developing countries.

[kevin4u2]

I'm reading "The End of Poverty" by Jeffery D. Sachs. Very interesting book on the economics of developing countries.

 

I would also read Nina Munk's book, The Idealist - Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty.  The book is about the success/failures the millennium village projects.  Nina Munk presents a very different picture than that of Jeff Sachs.

 

If want to listen to some very good interviews on the topic, I would listen to the Econtalk episodes where Russ Roberts interviewed Nina Munk and then the follow up interview with Jeff Sachs.  Russ made some comments in the Nina Munk interview that Jeff Sachs really didn't appreciate. 

 

SACHS - (quoting Russ Roberts) "And yet, in many ways"--and you concede that the program had some positive effects--"but in many ways it's one of the cruelest things in the world to come to a group of people, set their hearts on fire saying I'm going to change your life; there's magic coming--it's the magic of expertise and wisdom and money--and your lives are going to be different. And to take that dream, which every human being has of a better life, especially for their children, and to smash it, and through your own hubris--it just, it's so depressing partly because those arguments tend to win." That's what you said.

 

http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2014/01/nina_munk_on_po.html

http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2014/03/jeffrey_sachs_o.html

 

Enjoy!

[mikazo]

Thanks kevin4u2! I'm definitely going to look into those.

[bookie71]

I am currently listening to Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years & The War Years.  It is something like 50+ disks. (6 volumes if you buy the book set).

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=Abraham%20Lincoln%3A%20The%20Prairie%20Years%20%26%20The%20War%20Years%20

It is a fascinating trip through history and a different time. I like to get something that I wouldn't read to listen to each summer while I am driving ( usually a history type).  If I tried to read it I would get bored and quit.

I highly recommend this one.

[Guest ajc]

 

The Sea Of Crises

 

http://grantland.com/features/sumo-wrestling-tokyo-japan-hakuho-yukio-mishima-novelist-seppuku/

 

 

 

[CorpRaider]

Just finished the chronological compendium of the BRK annual letters.  It was pretty good.  I gotta' say though I didn't see a great deal that couldn't be picked up via Cunningham's logical arranged book and wow is it faster. 

 

Now I'm reading the Davis Dynasty book.  So far, so meh.

[Guest ajc]

 

Now I'm reading the Davis Dynasty book.  So far, so meh.

 

+1. I probably got about 50 pages in and haven't looked at it since.

 

 

 

[Steve]

 

just finished : The Facebook Effect (found it fascinating), and The Everything Store (was evaluating AMZN LEAPS and thought I should read this... highly recommend)

 

currently : Zero to One (love it so far... one of those books that makes you think deeply)

 

-Steve

[jtvalue]

For those reading Davis Dynasty the first 50 pages are slow.  I would encourage you to keep going - it gets much much better and the Davis Dynasty is one of my top 5-10 investing books

[Ham Hockers]

I just finished reading the last in the Game of Thrones series. It's not about investing. Am I still allowed on this board?

[Kraven]

For those reading Davis Dynasty the first 50 pages are slow.  I would encourage you to keep going - it gets much much better and the Davis Dynasty is one of my top 5-10 investing books

 

The Davis Dynasty is certainly worth reading.  There is some interesting stuff in there.  Unfortunately it's poorly written and there's too much about his personal life in there.  That would be fine if his personal life was interesting, but it isn't.  All we really learn is how damn cheap he was with things like wearing the same sweater until it falls apart and using his kids as slave labor to build a pool (which didn't work, but apparently taught them a lesson that pools don't just materialize for the asking).

[rkbabang]

I just finished reading the last in the Game of Thrones series. It's not about investing. Am I still allowed on this board?

 

I've spent the last few months re-reading F. Paul Wilson's  The Adversary Cycle/Repairman Jack series in order by when they take place (not by when they were published), starting with 'The Keep' and ending with 'Nightworld'.  That is about 25 books (26 after 'Fear City' comes out this month).  I'm on 'Infernal' right now, so 8 more to go.  And of course I have 'Fear City' on pre-order which will come in this month, so that makes 9 more to go.

 

 

EDIT:  FYI if you're interested in the order to read them in to get one continuous story from start to finish:

 

Pre-Repairman Jack Adversary Cycle Novels

1) The Keep

2) The Touch

3) Reborn

4) Reprisal

 

Young Repairman Jack Novels (young adult novels)

5) Secret Histories

6) Secret Circles

7) Secret Vengeance

 

Early Repairman Jack Novels

8)  Cold City

9)  Dark City

10) Fear City (TBP: Nov 2014)

 

Repairman Jack Novels

11) The Tomb

12) Legacies

13) Conspiracies

14) All The Rage

15) Hosts

16) The Haunted Air

17) Gateways

18) Crisscross

19) Infernal

20) Harbingers

21) Bloodline

22) By The Sword

23) Ground Zero

24) Fatal Error

25) The Dark at the End

 

The Last Adversary Cycle Novel

26) Nightworld

 

[oddballstocks]

Reading Antifragile, excellent book.

 

Next up is: Bank Valuation and Value-based Management

 

Recently finished and recommend: SPIN selling, Art of Profitability, Flash Boys, Marketing High Technology, Origin and Evolution of New Businesses

 

 

[CorpRaider]

Thanks.  Yeah, I'll plan to soldier on and finish it.  Its not that long and after finishing all the berk letters in chronological order, it is a breeze.  hah.

 

So far, I've learned using 90% margin (permissible if you owned a seat on the exchange) was a good thing when insurance stocks are bombed out. 

[writser]

Does anybody else here have a Goodreads account to track what you have read / want to read? Mine: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/22378380-restirw .

 

I recently enjoyed the latest Peter F. Hamilton book, "The abyss beyong dreams". "Ancillary justice" was also great. But I'm a bit of a SF nerd. Snowball and the Paulson / Geithner books were my latest non-fiction reads.

[jay21]

Does anybody else here have a Goodreads account to track what you have read / want to read? Mine: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/22378380-restirw .

 

I recently enjoyed the latest Peter F. Hamilton book, "The abyss beyong dreams". "Ancillary justice" was also great. But I'm a bit of a SF nerd. Snowball and the Paulson / Geithner books were my latest non-fiction reads.

 

No, but i have Excel/Google Docs to keep my reading list

[Lance]

Don Thompson's The Supermodel and the Brillo Box: Back Stories and Peculiar Economics from the World of Contemporary Art

 

Thanks,

Lance