Literature Recs
I'm 16 targeting an Accounting & Finance degree, looking for useful material on valuation and modelling -- particularly DCFs and forecasting.
Most of the content I’ve found online focuses heavily on the mechanics of building spreadsheets but I’m more interested in understanding how people arrive at assumptions that actually make sense in practice i.e. revenue growth, margins, discount rates and terminal assumptions rather than just plugging numbers in mechanically.
I also run a student finance outreach initiative working with around 110 state school students across the UK, many without existing family exposure to the industry so I’d eventually love to pass useful resources and frameworks on to others as well.
Would especially appreciate:
- books
- investor letters or valuation writeups that changed how you think about businesses
- examples of clean, well-structured public models
- anything that helped bridge the gap between textbook valuation and how professionals think in practice
Would also appreciate any advice that tends to come more from experience than online articles.
(Bumps appreciated!)
I got excited reading the title and was about to say “Red and Black” by Stendhal.
But you are just another high schooler looking for dry financial textbooks….
Bleghhh. Go read Mauboussin, Howard Marks Memos, Rosenbaum and Pearl, Moyer etc etc.
Shits been said million x here
Thank you for your recommendations. I actually read "Red and Black" after seeing it in an article by Stanford about AI but I was very young and didn't appreciate it to a full extent.
Got into French literature after studying the language so I endeavour to re-read it (now that I am a bit more sentient). Do you have any other recs that could help with understanding people like Julien Sorel? Might be useful for life I would assume?
hahahhaha no way kid, i am totally impressed.
Maybe read Notes From Underground, Geanology of Morals, War and Peace - to dismantle grandiose ideals of “Great Men” and Status Resentment
Side note: I think I was helping u a few days ago on one of ur other threads. Feel free to dm me your linkedin or something and happy to have a chat / provide guidance
.
I bought a copy of Red and Black a couple of weeks back and am planning to read it once I finish something else, did you read it in French by any chance? I partially picked it up to practice my language skills but am worried about the density, I could barely handle Verne
Nope, some of my favourite books of OAT have been french books, but I never attempted to learn French. Language flows well in English, but it could be different in French.
Certainly not as linguistically dense as Madame Bovary for example
Clarification: I’m especially interested in material that sharpens political, economic and psychological thinking more broadly rather than just pure technical modelling content.
The Prize and the New Map for energy
Thank you so much, sounds really promising.
Barbarians at the gate
Thank you.
Atlas Shrugged
Very interesting recommendation. Less technical but definitely been meaning to read this as I've heard many things about Rand.
Wealth of nations
Definitely. Thank you for your reply.
Didn't read your post at all but I quite like The Old Man and the Sea. I think you should read that.
I hear this title a lot, really might have to.
Thank you!
Hello, I'm going to be a bit presumptious and hijack your thread a little (a lot). I really like reading and I've done a lot of it so forgive me that. Elsewise, for context, I'm mid-thirties and a senior ED in a coverage team at an IB.
About your second paragraph. You don't need any of that. You'll get it all on the job (assuming you want to work in IB and you posted it in this forum so I guess you do). I can tell you the terminal assumption one right now for free and it's PGR = 2% in most (90% of) cases. You didn't even need to read a book. Any higher and you outgrow the economy. Any lower and your company grinds to a halt. Yes there's nuance but that's in the 10% of cases.
Highly provocative advice here. Don't study Accounting and Finance. It's dead boring (my wife studied it and even got the book prize at LSE. We met at university so quite a first-hand account). And it doesn't really help you get into IB vs other subjects, especially much more interesting ones like STEM or Economics or PPE (and you specifically identified wanting to sharpen [your thought] about 2/3 of the letters in that). I mean, study Accounting and Finance if you do genuinely(?) enjoy it or you're some kind of Trial Balance pervert or something, but for me it's one devastating way to spend 3 - 4 years of your life where you can truly indulge your academic curiosity.
Also, I think Economics (i.e. decision making in the context of limited resources) is best studied academically than read about. I caution (and I have 2 degrees in Economics and declined a PhD offer at Oxbridge to sell my soul to this godforsaken-but-pays-really-well-industry) you won't learn a single fact about Economics in your whole degree. Not one. But it does change the way you think and approach decision-making. I mean if you must, read something about Game Theory (there's a lot of entry-level stuff out there), and then the classics like Guns, Germs, and Steel and the Adam Smith one I can't remember the name of.
So with the enormous and totally unsolicited preamble aside, books.
Someone mentioned Atlas Shrugged. I hated it. I am very pro-capitalist and libertarian but oh my god the characters are so one-dimensional. She should have just renamed the protagonists Miss Capitalist and Mr Socialist and Mr Incompetent and so on.
Barbarians at the Gate was fun. It's a good insight into how IBs and PEs work for people who haven't worked in the industry. I'd put Gods at War (Steven Davidoff, admittedly quite a dry read) and The Caesars Palace Coup (Max Frumes, quite hard to follow at times) also in this category. I very much enjoyed The Dealmaker (Guy Hands) also; again, quite similar.
This is a really fun business book (not IB or technical and you won't "learn" anything, but one I wildly enjoyed): What Are the Odds (Mike Lindell).
Alchemy (Rory Sutherland) is a bit eye-roll at times and he writes far too many books about the same thing, but I recommend learning a bit about marketing from him.
Now the good stuff. Fiction. That is for me what truly expands your view of the world and which you noodle over on a hike or over a glass of whisky or whatever Gen-Z does these days.
Haruki Murakami is probably my favourite author. He can be polarising and a lot of people don't like what he writes. But there is a core philosophical theme throughout much of his work which has changed me a lot. Norwegian Wood really knocked my socks off. It's a short read and like having a bucket of freezing cold water thrown over your head. I won't spoil the plot or core philosophical message. South of the Border, West of the Sun I really enjoyed too. Of his more surreal work Kafka on the Shore was close to life-changing.
In some other works of fiction (and I am scandalising a lot of works that I read, loved, and have just forgotten now as I type this), I thought Catch-22 (Joseph Heller) was great. Fun but a devastating take on the horrows of war. Of the other "classics", the ones I enjoyed the most and which gave me the most to chew on were (1) 1984 (George Orwell), (2) Brave New World (Aldous Huxley), (3) The Time Machine (HG Wells), (4) In Cold Blood (Truman Capote; there is a horrible psychological learning in here I think), (5) Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky, but only if it's a good translation), (6) Slaughterhouse 5 (Kurt Vonnegut).
In the non-fiction camp, I'd suggest (1) Ordinary Men (Christopher Browning), (2) Politics on the Edge (Rory Stewart - here's a one to make you totally apathetic about politics). I ran out of thinking space here but there's a lot more I've read and just enjoyed without them necessarily changing the way I think about anything.
Also, listen to the sunscreen song.
WHY YOU SHOULDN'T LISTEN TO ME: You know my age / background and so while I avoid a lot of finance / self-help / etc. books because I find a lot of it repeptitive and obvious, that might not be true for you. I put Ray Dalio's Principles in this category. Captain Obvious advice in every chapter and I quit halfway through. But it's well-written and you might find a lot of the lessons genuinely groundbreaking.
Thank you so much for your response, the preamble was extremely valuable and perhaps far more valuable than what I was initially looking for. I'm not in a position to properly jot all my thoughts down but you gave me a lot to mull over. One thing I must say is that I think I definitely need to make time to read some good fiction and expand my game theory knowledge -- expand my horizons in general and indulge my curiosities. I shall be back some time in June after my exams with an array of musings and questions that I think will go far in helping me on my journey. I really cannot thank you enough. I aspire to be as well-read and generous as you are.
Small thing:
Don’t read guns germs and steel. It’s a terrible and poorly researched book.
But I 100% agree with the sentiment.
Agree with this comment but the chap needs something to write on his UCAS application
(accidentally replied in the wrong place, ignore this comment)
Gem thread so far, thanks everyone.
I am begging you to read some fiction bro
I've spent quite a bit of time reading fiction generally. Will definitely make sure not to stop. Would you happen to have any recs? Thanks for your reply.
i recommend World of Wakanda... very good book... made me think... about life... about love... about purpose...
This fried me; love your other comments btw I've actually laughed at them
Saw someone mention Crime and Punishment already but if you like Dostoyevsky definitely read the Brothers Karamazov. Personally enjoyed it more than C&P.
Thank you! I've seen loads of quotes from it so definitely on the list.
Yes mate. Long book so maybe a summer read.
Btw, don't study A&F lol. I study it right now at a target uni and you seem quite similar to me. You'll feel intellectually wasted unless you target your modules correctly. Better to study something like PPE, or Econ with Maths and actually have an opportunity to change the way you think and become more intelligent. Accounting is super useful, but most of the accounting I learnt and helped me get internships was just off my own back/practicing the modelling myself. Also pick further maths at A-Level if you're good at maths and if you're doing your GCSEs rn. That was my biggest regret as it'll help you get into good unis.
Finally, join SEO. It's this social mobility charity and if you went to state school (like I did) they'll accept you instantly. The events are useful for building a network.
Anything Salman Rushdie or Toni Morrison.
Thank you
Sci-fi: The Three Body Problem, This is How You Lose the Time War, Dune
Memoir: When Breath Becomes Air, Crying in H Mart
Thanks!
Hermann Hesse
I've heard this name a lot. Any specific recs?
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