Hi ya'll. Was just wondering if anyone would recommend me a book. I'm just about to order Financial Shenanigans from Amazon (after being so inspired by Einhorn), and thought I might as well order some more. Doesn't have to be finance related. Could be something on psychology, philosophy, career development, self-reflection or even cosmology. Preferably something underrated. Thanks.
Or maybe I should just read some financial statements...
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Are you a history buff? If you are, I have millions of suggestions.
Somewhat. And depends on what kind of history. The last book I read on (natural) history was Guns, Germs and Steel. If there was only one book you could read for the rest of your life, what would that be? Or your top 3. Thanks!
uhhhh the bible obviously
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These are all books I had to read for my IB course: Liar's Poker, Michael Lewis; Den of Thieves, James Steward; When Genius Failed, Roger Lowenstein; The Big Short, Michael Lewis; Too Big to Fail, Andrew Ross Sorkin; Boomerang, Michael Lewis; This Time is Different (a bit more technical), Reinhart & Rogoff.
Enjoy.
read the old testament or new one if you havent
you will get every of the areas mentioned above inside it
and then go through other "holy books" - quran, qabalah, kabbalah, etc.
regardless of your opinion on religions or god or whatever, those books are simply gold, amazing stuff virtually every sentence carries a message. after going through them, you will feel as a much richer person
if you dont want to read the "holy books", i have million suggestions - from remarque to tolkien :D
Great stuff. Reading these books is crucial to personal enlightenment. Must read for everyone.
Top 5:
Naturalis Historia (Roman era encyclopedia)- Pliny the Elder Alexander the Great- Robin Lane Fox Commentarii de Bello Gallico- Julius Caesar Encyclopedia Brittanica The Master of Disguise: My Secret Life in the CIA-Antonio J. Mendez
But I'm a huge history nerd.
You might like Naturalis Historia, great volumes regarding everyday lie in Ancient Rome. Snapshot in time (around 70AD).
If it is top3 of anything other than the 3 I listed above, then:
Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001- Steve Coll The Ascent of Money- Niall Ferguson Lord of Finance- Liaquat Ahamed
Thanks. I've read most of the finance books listed here. Although, I'm looking for something less mainstream. As for the holy books, I've went through the old testament, but wasn't much of a fan. Sorry, but I find more enlightenment in secularism, but we can agree to disagree.
General improvement and for Career stuff: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People , Be excellent at anything, and What color is your parachute.
Some good finance books: The (mis) behavior of markets, the big short, and Against the Gods.
-- The Idea Factory: Learning to Think at MIT (seriously one of the most depressing books ever, but somewhat strangely peaceful by the end) -- The Presidents Club (you'd think the topic is dry, but the writing is superb) -- Best Practices for Equity Research Analysts (not really ER-exclusive; just a good overall guide to valuation and company analysis in general) -- The Fabric of the Cosmos (astrophysics and cosmology; written in such a way that it's nowhere near dumbed down, but still very colourful and understandable) -- Why Men Love Bitches (mainly because I'm curious if any of the men on here actually think like this)
The Idea Factory: Sounds mind bending. I'm going to look into it. Presidents Club: Also going to look into it. Best Practices: I skimmed through it in the library. Very good read. Fabric of Cosmos: I actually have it sitting on my desk collecting dust, but the universe can wait. Why Men Love Bitches: Sounds like you have relationship issues..
Thanks for the suggestions!
Girlfriend has the last book and gives me less drama when she's actually read any of it. I read bits when I'm waiting on her to get ready. It's stereotypically true for the most part.
Just finished up With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by E.B. Sledge. Gripping stuff if you're at all into WWII and generally feeling great about your current life. Puts a lot into perspective.
Fooling Some of the People All of the Time -David Einhorn
How to Win Friends and Influence People -Dale Carnegie
I was just gonna order this from Amazon, but... anyways, Google is our best friend.
Investment Biker - Jim Rogers Thoroughly enjoyed that one
I recently finished Thinking fast and slow, by prof. D. Kahneman, a good read
This Time is Different, Reinhard & Rogoff - this is a pretty good semi-technical non-fiction book.
Ethics for the New Millennium by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
This is probably the best $15 I've ever spent. The first chapter was a little tough for me to wrap my head around, but it is necessary to set up the rest of the book. It is truly enlightening.
I've always been skeptical about people who claim to be holy, yet spends most of his/her time soliciting their books. Too cynical?
reminiscences of a stock operator
Theodore Roosevelt series by Edmund Morris
Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr Ron Chernow
House of Morgan Ron Chernow
The Great Gatsby
A Farewell to Arms
Here are a few more...I believe some of these have been mentioned already.
Street Freak -- Jared Diliian (story about trader at Lehman, great book)
Fooled by Randomness -- Taleb (much better than Black Swan)
The (mis)Behavior of Markets -- Benoit Mandlebrot (what Taleb bases most of his popular works on)
Outliers -- Malcom Gladwell
Almost anything by Michael Lewis
The Next 100 Years -- George Freeman (interesting book about predictions for this century from the founder of STRATFOR. http://www.amazon.com/Next-100-Years-Forecast-Century/dp/0767923057)
Path of Destruction (Star Wars: Darth Bane, Book 1) Drew Karpyshyn (the first fiction book I read in over ten years and I couldn't put it down....story about how the rule of the dark side works....ha-ha)
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, Tucker Max (absolutely hilarious)
Most books by George Carlin
Also, I started reading the book by David Einhorn (Fooling Some of the People) and thought it was absolutely painful to read...I couldn't even finish it.
On Bullshit -- a micro-book about the pervasiveness of bullshit in society
Back to the Land -- CJ Maloney (basically how a pet project of Eleanor Roosevelt in the new Deal was the beginning of welfare in the US and how it impacted the people in the experiment)
Ha a little skepticism doesn't hurt. The book is more about philosophy than religion, and he makes a point to say that in the book. It is a good read about how another culture sees the world without making you feel like he is saying, "my word is law".
The Count of Monte Cristo - IMHO the best book ever written. One unfortunate man is framed by three covetous friends for treason. This is the tale of his reinvention and retribution.
Don't worry that this is both a classic and 1200 pages, I seriously couldn't put it down and I am not an English professor.
100% recommend if you are only ever going to read one novel in your life!!
ps Robin Buss translation is the best
+1 for Comte de Monte-Cristo. One of the first novels I read in its entirety in the native language. There is something amazing about French literature, there really is.
How to Piss in Public: From Teenage Rebellion to the Hangover of Adulthood- Gavin McInnes Shit My Dad Says- Justin Halpern
Don't get me wrong - I think Why Men Love Bitches is an excellent book for females (for those who haven't flipped through it, it's basically a huge, $9.99 pep talk on how to be less of a doormat, less whiny, and less overbearing as a girlfriend/woman in general). It certainly helps explain why Bankerella has so many fanboys ;)
Nobody likes bankerella for her "sassy personality"...
Seconded on Thinking Fast and Slow
Two inspiring books for overachievers: Musashi (Eiji Yoshikava) Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
I really like:
More Money than God - Stephen Mallaby; it's a little layman, but a very readable history of hedge funds Fooled by Randomness - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Two of my favorite books of all time -- All Quiet on the Western Front and The Things They Carried. Both are depressing as all hell, but I'm a better person for having read them.
Have you read Michael Herr's Dispatches? Same vein, amazing book. “The best book I have ever read on men and war in our time" - John Le Carre (no slouch either, his books are great)
Life's a Pitch.
Book recommendations - Getting into finance (Originally Posted: 06/20/2012)
Okay so like most people I have way too much time on my hands during my internship. Does anyone have book recommendations for me? I'm just getting into finance and my finance knowledge is very basic. I've heard liar's poker and the intelligent investor are good places to start.
If I were you and just starting to learn finance, I would read Alpha Masters. It's the top hedge fund guys and the author just picks their minds about investing. You can always learn about the details of investing on the job but knowing the mentality of an investor takes a special breed.
^this
Need book recommendations (Originally Posted: 11/19/2013)
Yes, I know this is the 18937th thread on this topic. Hear me out.
Looking for some book recommendations that are NOT: 1) Finance-focused 2) Biographical 3) Lifehack-ish
Mainly interested in learning more about: 1) Product design 2) Business strategy 3) History (yep, it's a guilty pleasure) 4) Socioeconomic trends (think Freakonomics)
Thoughts? So many book recs on this forum are finance or biographical in nature. I love those books too, but I'm a little full on them as of late.
Suggest away!
Second The Big Short. Is definitely mainstream, but couldn't put it down.
I'd suggest something more random... try Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of my Years at Lockheed.
Guns, germs, and steel
+1. To summarize in one sentence: Guns, Germs, and Steels is about how environmental factors (geography, demography, and ecology) led to Europe (and Asia) dominating the New World.
Or, per Wikipedia:
"The book attempts to explain why Eurasian civilizations (including North Africa) have survived and conquered others, while arguing against the idea that Eurasian hegemony is due to any form of Eurasian intellectual, moral or inherent genetic superiority. Diamond argues that the gaps in power and technology between human societies originate in environmental differences, which are amplified by various positive feedback loops. When cultural or genetic differences have favored Eurasians (for example, written language or the development among Eurasians of resistance to endemic diseases), he asserts that these advantages occurred because of the influence of geography on societies and cultures, and were not inherent in the Eurasian genomes."
Good recommendation, but very dry.
I'll recommend The World is Flat, but you might already have read that.
Friend told me to check these out on product design, never got around to it.
The Design of Everyday Things: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465067107?ie=UTF8&tag=designsojourn-2…
Universal Principles of Design: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1592530079?ie=UTF8&tag=designsojourn-2…
The Goal is always a solid read
Finnegans Wake - JJ
Gang Leader For A Day- awesome book!! definitely check it out if you want to read about socioeconomic trends- it's an "insider" profile of some of Chicago's gangs/the Chicago hood (a sociologist from UChicago became friendly with and ingrained himself in a gang, to the point where he was allowed to be the gang leader for a day).
Some books that I have read multiple times and will continue reading multiple times: Ender's Game, Animal Farm, Lone Survivor (Unbroken is a similar story, both AMAZING), How to win Friends.. there are definitely others that I'm forgetting off the top of my head but these are a good start. Finance books are good, but they don't "get me going" like some military or fiction books. Enjoy
Book Recommendations - Few good reads? (Originally Posted: 07/13/2010)
Work is keeping my personal life to a minimum. At most, I'd like to enjoy a few books to take my mind off of things for a few hours a week if possible.
Anyone have any solid recommendations for a few good reads? I'd prefer them not to be too entrenched in the industry, just something smart with a good feel. Fiction, non-fiction, really anything that has a spark of interest.
Cheers
I'm planning on picking up Jack Kerouacs on the road, it's supposed to be a classic. If your in banking you'll probably get a vicarious thrill from the thought of just getting up packing up your car and hitting the road.
This one has been on my list for a while but it keeps getting pushed back. A good vicarious thrill is Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer - highly recommended.
Lost in the Cosmos- Walker Percy
joy of drinking by barbara walters
I bet you have read this book by now but I truly love it and read it four time :)
BARBARIANS AT THE GATES
Dune series gets pretty entertaining. Old Herb kind of started to lose it.
Seven Pillars of Wisdom
"The Pet Goat"
ISBN 0-02-686355-3
Starts on pg 153
Slaughterhouse Five by KV if you havent already
And if you like that youll probably like the rest of his work (for the most part.)
I like Richard North Patterson books- quick, intense, out of the box airport (junk(shit)) novel
+1 for Jack Kerouacs on the road --- if you like this you would like his othe book the darma bums
If you like history (WWII)-- the good war by studs terkel
The Great Gatsby-- you have probably read it already but its just as good the second time over( or 3rd)
[quote=Tmgolf
The Great Gatsby-- you have probably read it already but its just as good the second time over( or 3rd)[/quote]
Better I'd say.
I feel this was about The Stranger as well.
Arch of Triumph---Erich Maria Remarque
I recommend some history books.
"A History of the English Speaking Peoples" by Winston S. Churchill;
"The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" by Paul M. Kennedy;
"The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" by Edward Gibbon;
"The Decline of the West" by Oswald Spengler.
The latter two might need greater effort when reading. Good luck and happy reading.
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand is awesome.
Into the wild looks pretty good too.
A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe
Bonfire of Vanities is also another good Tom Wolfe novel and has a Wall Street twist to it (about a trader who kills a black kid in a hit and run accident while cruising around the bronx with his mistress.
and of course The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test
I second The Next One Hundred Years by George Friedman. Some of his predictions are crazy (like a resurgent Japan) but very interesting and thought-provoking.
Literature-wise, I think On The Road by Jack Kerouac is a classic that a lot of people on here could appreciate. Make sure to get the original scroll version. Basically, Jack Kerouac wrote the book during a three week amphetamine binge onto a single scroll of typewriter paper. He couldn't get anyone to publish it so eventually he had to tone it down somewhat, the original scroll version depicts his true vision.
Financial Modeling-simon benninga
Some of my favorites unrelated to finance:
"A Billion Wicked Thoughts"
Breaking BUD/S
A humorous take on how to get through Basic Underwater Demolition/ SEAL training. Great life points and advice.
mark
Mastering The Market Cycle and The Most Important Thing, both written by Howard Marks. Really enjoyed reading these books along the quarantine.
Hesse's Siddhartha is pretty good. Classic fiction about Buddha and an easy read... I think the tiny paperback version has fewer than 200 pages.
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