What Fiction Do You Read?
Andy note: "Blast from the past - Best of Eddie" - This one is originally from Nov. 2009 . If there's an old post from Eddie you'd like to see up again shoot me a message.
We spend a fair amount of time on this site discussing the best books for this or that discipline or books about the market in general. Lately, there has been a predictable spate of books published on the crisis, and most of them have been pretty good. But I got an interesting PM the other day, and I thought it was worth exploring with all of you.
Don't fret: Team Obama is still spending the country into oblivion, the vampire squid is hard at work enslaving humanity, and I'm mostly sober; in other words, it's a pretty average Friday. We therefore have the time to discuss something that might be a little departure from our normally high-minded and well-reasoned market debates.
The question I received was, "What fiction do you read?" I gave the questioner the benefit of the doubt and assumed by fiction he was referring to novels and such, and not the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee minutes or pronouncements from the Congressional Budget Office.
It's an interesting question. I think most of us on WSO are pretty analytical and are therefore predisposed to concentrating on non-fiction. Plus there's the time considerations. If you're working 80 hours a week and spending a fair amount of your off-work time in a mostly futile effort to find willing (or at least not openly hostile) sex partners, it doesn't leave a lot of time for pleasure reading.
Fiction serves important purposes, though, and you might be missing out if your nightstand reading is all technical analysis and no fun and games. Your mind needs an escape, and television is far too vacuous to provide any real stimulation and relaxation. Your fiction should be enjoyable and escapist, preferably taking you far from your normal daily routine. Maybe it's a potboiler detective story or a trashy romance novel. Hell, for some of you it might even be Harry Potter, but I digress. Before you ask, Ayn Rand doesn't count. Not that you shouldn't read her (you should), you just shouldn't take her to bed.
What fiction do I read? Well, just last night I finished the Millennium Trilogy (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest) and it was fantastic. It's translated from Swedish and it's about a girl who is an extremely gifted computer hacker but she's also not quite right and is prone to extreme violence. The whole series was deeply immersive, completely escapist, and very hard to put down. Unfortunately, the author mysteriously died after delivering the 3 manuscripts to his publisher, so these are the last we'll see from him.
Aside from that, I also read a good bit of historical fiction and my share of screwball crime fiction (Elmore Leonard, Carl Hiaasen, etc). I love stories of con men and other miscreants, and reading things like that really relaxes me.
So what I want to know is what fiction you guys read. Do you read fiction at all? If so, read any good books lately?






Comments
Thanks!
Thanks for the recommendations, that trilogy sounds fascinating. The author just died after completing the manuscripts? Just wow.
I usually read historical fiction. It's been a while since I have touched the genre, mainly because I can't find the time. But you should should give James Clavell (author of King Rat, Shogun, Taipan, Noble House, Gai-Jin, Whirlwind) a try.
completely forgot about
completely forgot about clavell. i read shogun and it was awesome.
i began reading very early on and was mostly reading fantasy and sci-fi until i exhausted the good ones (not many good authors in that field, and come to think of it, i haven't really gotten to asimov yet, tho he looks promising).
but sometime late in highschool i began to read the classics like the three musketeers by dumas, tolstoy's war and peace, dostoevski's the idiot, had a small sortie to the complete hitchhiker's guide, and all of them are equally recommended. today i'm reading haruki murakami's norwegian wood - very nice, escapist, semi-pornographic even. but i can hardly find the time with all the coursework and me being a hopeless procrastinator...
oh, and the complete works of lewis caroll - very idealist state of mind. no, i don't think he was a pedophile, i think he admired children and their innocence, but that's for another discussion.
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"... then, lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it."
Heard they were good
"(The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest)"
Heard they were good a while ago from a friend of mine. Didn't give much thought about them since then. If you could recommend one to start with which one would it be? In other words, which was your favorite out of the three. Sounds interesting now that you shed some light on what's beneath the covers.
You have to read them in order
Start with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. You really need to read them in order. You won't be able to put them down.
Here's some really good info on the author and the books:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/1...
re:what fiction do you read
...SEC filings and equity research
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I'm making it up as I go along.
I tend to like travel
I tend to like travel writting - guess there's the obvious escapism thing going on there. It always makes me feel like a looser who's wasting his youth in some shitty office though so maybe I should stop.
In terms of fiction the best book I read recently was The Road by McCarthy - at the time thought it was absolutely amazing but looking back it's good but not the classic in waiting ppl make it out to be.
lol eqr
...SEC filings and equity research
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Myself, have a few favorite authors, Tom Wolfe at the top of the list, also enjoyed Jonathan Safran Foer's first two books, haven't picked up Eating Animals yet (mostly because I like eating animals...)
THE ROAD Movie!
The movie is coming out soon, starring Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Theron
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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo got a great review in The Economist, it's been on my list.
I second the recommendation for Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. Quietly emotional and powerful. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by the same author is even better, I have never read anything that so completely drew me into the protagonist's world. Great storytelling, a bit on the lighthearted side.
Spring Snow is another great piece of Japanese literature. It's the magnum opus of Yukio Mishima, a celebrate post-war author who is notorious for having committed seppuku (ritual suicide). The incredibly beautiful prose survives the translation, though I can only imagine what it would be like to read it in Japanese. A really subtle psychological tale.
The Remains of the Day is a Japanese-British work, written by Kazuo Ishiguro. The subject matter seems rather uninspiring at first, but it is probably one of the most powerful works on regret and loss ever written. The author manages to perfectly construct the inner world of the main character and share all his feelings and flaws. It is a very good book for bankers to read, because it deals with issues of sacrificing one's self for the sake of his career - highly recommended.
The Picture of Dorian Gray is possibly one of the best books I've ever read. Oscar Wilde's prose and wit can never be replicated and is exhilarating.
FYI: The first two
FYI: The first two installments of the Millennium Trilogy have already been made into movies.
Wow
FYI: The first two installments of the Millennium Trilogy have already been made into movies.
When I was reading them, I thought they would make good movies. Some books do and others don't, but I think this series lends itself well to film. I just hope they don't fuck it up.
A
American Psycho, of course.
Then I like dystopian books. The Ice People by Barjavel was awesome.
Interesting
I also enjoy dystopian literature. Makes me wonder if there is an antisocial streak in Wall Street types.
Bret Easton Ellis actually
Bret Easton Ellis actually writes in a very interesting style, although a bit much at times, I find the fascination around money and status quite interesting. I suppose I have been a bit cliche reading his books along with Bonfire of the Vanities, but it is whatever entertains you.
Martin Amis, Time's Arrow was great (pre Benjamin Button)
Anyone read Don Delillo?
palin
obviously the most recent fiction edmundo has read is palin's latest autobiography
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if you like it then you shoulda put a banana on it
Just about the only fiction I
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