Books that Changed My Life

Hi Everyone,

With the spring semester of college almost wrapping up and free time, I thought that I would take the time to catch up on some reading. I wanted to share some of my favourite books and see if I could discover some new books for summer reading through the recommendation of the wso community.

Here are some of the books that have changed my life:

Finance

Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits (Fisher) – historical investment book
The Intelligent Investor (Graham) – Buffet’s mentor
Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco – The beginning of big LBO’s
When Genius Failed & The End of Wall Street – LTCM & financial crisis
Den of thieves – 80s insider trading

Psychology

How to Win Friends and Influence People (Carnegie) – best book on improving your social skills
Outliers, Blink, Tipping Point (Gladwell) – Human psyche
Influence - The Power of Persuasion, by Robert B. Cialdini – haven’t read it but a lot marketing b-school professors like it
why we buy –psyche of human purchasing
Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger – fun read with good quotes

Strategy

The Prince (Machiavelli) – Retaining control (I didn’t love it, but it’s a classic)
The Book of Five Rings (Mushashi) – samurai strategy
Essence of Decision Making: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis (Allison, Zelikow) – decision making

Fiction

Kane and Abel (Archer) – slow at the beginning but great, fun fiction
The Count of Monte Cristo – a great story of love and revenge (don’t watch the movie! Read the book)
The Fountainhead (Rand) – capitalism at its greatest

Biographies

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt – 26th President of the U.S. biography (often ranked with Washington and Lincoln as top Presidents of all time)
Titan: The life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow (Rockefeller was worth $318.3 billion (based on 2007 US dollar); he donated 50% of it.)

What are some of your favourites and why? Any recommendations on any genre/subjects would be greatly appreciated.