Primarily a nonfiction reader (Mostly biographies). However, I will read Russian fiction when I want a good story. For business books, I like Andy Grove's stuff and Geoffrey Moore's stuff. I also enjoy books written by billionaires like "My years at General Motors" and "Shoe Dog".  

I don't read/watch the news consistently. I would rather be uninformed than misinformed. 

1.5-2 hours a day on average. On a lazy weekend, I might knock out 1-3 books pending on size and difficulty of concept.

 

shoe dog is one of my favourites. 

which biographies were your favourite? I tried reading Benjamin franklins but I think it bored me to tears. Tried Russian lit a la Dostoyevsky but didnt enjoy it as much as French classics like les miserables.

 

"Ben Franklin an American Life" is actually one of my favorite books of all time. However, I knew only the basics about him walking into the book. Being one the most prominent politician, writers, diplomats, inventors, and businessmen at the same time. I found him to be extremely interesting. Founding UPenn. He is just super interesting all around. 

Walter Isaacson's genius series and anything by Rob Chernow is worth reading. If you can find an industry you are interested in look for biographies about people of interest. My personal interests revolve around startups. So I read a lot about tech people in the semiconductor industry and software-based. I enjoyed listening to this on audiobook. I think it is also narrated by Marc which is pretty cool.  startups. https://www.amazon.com/That-Will-Never-Work-Netflix/dp/0316530204

As for Russian literature. I would recommend first understanding the political and social climate of the time. Most of Tolstoy's (my favorite Russian author) work is mainly written in the time of 1790's-1900's. This time frame involves many conflicts and wars in Russia the most prominent is probably Napoleon's invasion of Russia which is the basis for "War and Peace". At this point in time, Russia had two classes. Nobility and serfs. The noble class of Russia would speak French to each other at soirees and large events and at their estates. While the serf class would speak Russian. This is because France was the social epicenter for all things culturally popular music, art, architecture, fashion, and thought. For this reason, Tsar Alexander and Napoleon could communicate very efficiently during Napoleon's invasion of Russia.  This is why the original printing of "War and Peace" is predominantly in Russian with large parts in French and a few parts in German. 

After you understand the society behind the author you have to look at the author's opinions and views on the world. I would recommend picking up smaller titles and then getting a scholarly analysis to help you understand the story from a professional's perspective.  A good example of this would be https://www.amazon.com/Tolstoys-Fiction-Second-Critical-Editions/dp/039… This has a few very good classic Tolstoy masterpieces. Such as The Death of Ivan Ilyich. The scholarly analysis definitely shows you all the details that you might not have understood in the first read-through and show the true genius of Tolstoy. You should also check out "After the Ball" and "God Sees the Truth but Waits" that are in the short story collection. After you have a taste for how Tolstoy writes I would recommend working through "War and Peace". 

 

I read newspapers during the day when I'm on shit breaks. At home I usually read books that have to do with my field. Then I have a lot of monographs/magazines on architecture and architectural theories just because I'm enjoy them, but I don't read everything on them- just the projects/authors I'm interested in.

I read 0% fiction nowadays, but I did have a literature phase lol. Books like The Catcher in the Rye and Animal Farm simply hit differently when you read them again. 

 

I try to do one business book and one fiction book as the same time, but never works out like that - end up focusing on one until I finish it.

probably one hour a day reading books. but not sure if its top quality focus, I have a wandering mind. 

reading barbarians at the gate ATM, been sitting on my shelf for years. and its surprisingly interesting. recently finished "start with why" by sinek and "Dune".

 

I definitely need to more... have a stack of great nonfiction pieces sitting on my coffee table I've yet to crack. 

 

Love a good non fiction book and try to keep up to date with the news relatively frequently.

Some of the good non fiction business books I've recently read would include the following.

1. Empire of Pain- About the Sackler family and their role in igniting the opioid epidemic through the drug they manufactured called OxyContin

2. Caesars Palace Coup- Examines the buyout of Caesars Palace by TPG/Apollo and the ensuing feud between them and the creditors(Oaktree, David Tepper). Only critique is that its quite 'lawyerly', so it can be confusing at times.

3. Billion Dollar Loser- Research into WeWork and its precipitous decline following its attempt to go public.

4. No Filter- Really fascinating look into Instagram, before and after it was acquired by Facebook.

For news outlets, I enjoy reading the FT times, however there are some great newsletters out there to which give you daily briefs on the most important events occuring in the financial markets/ or just global political events.

1. Matt Levine newsletter: Writes for Bloomberg, each one takes about 20 min to read but if you can find the time I would definitely recommend

2. Finimize

3. Robinhood Snacks: Probably my favourite daily brief newsletter out there, it's quite humorous and they explain concepts in a way which is easy to understand

4. Morning Brew: Also quite good, just have quite a few ads in between the content, which can get a bit annoying. 

 
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my reading ebbs and flows. if I'm at the beach and not involved in conversation, could be 7-10 hours over a weekend, ditto for weeks when I'm travelling (I only sleep or read on planes, never work). normally, 30-90 minutes a day, depending on what's going on at the house

currently on a philosophy kick plus reading books I've already read, but in spanish, as I try to attain fluency. normally only read nonfiction, stuff like philosophical essays, biographies, war, self improvement, and discussion of human behavior (like kahneman)

for business reading, the WSJ gets me through the daily goingson and since I'm not a trader, I usually stop there. I know what's going on in my portfolio (which is also my clients' $$$) all the time and have a watchlist of want-to-buys that I refresh periodically, but I'm not an avid reader of equity research or market prognostications, mostly because the stuff always sounds believable but no one ever posts their accuracy and even then it's impossible to know if they're accurate because they're good or if it's totally random (see Taleb's example from fooled by randomness about someone who sends random letters out to 10,000 people saying the market will go up, go down, he'll be correct for 7 months in a row for about 200 people). I'd put my business reading at less than 2 hrs a week during normal weeks, over 10 hours during weeks where we're doing portfolio work, researching a new idea, or reacting to/preparing for some market event. I also do not watch financial media at all, utter waste of time apart from the fact that bloomberg tends to have very mentally and physically attractive female anchors, if you need a good distraction

 

Good question. I also don't read much fiction like people here. However, I was thinking that is it only my case but seems like not (comments above also show that). Among my friends the ones who are readers, read mostly, even solely fiction. I mostly read non-fiction + business. Also, I love to read about diplomacy + history, and despite being trivial, love to read informative books with good infographics (starting from pre-historic life ending with military equipment). I think the reason why people here read non-fiction, is that we pay a lot of attention to our outer and practical world, rather than our spiritual and inner world. Nevertheless, fiction is enriching and important.

 

I own some fiction (mostly tolstoy) but the reason why I don't lean there is actually the reason why you lean towards fiction. there's lessons there, it's enjoyable, and it develops the mind. that, and the more you dig into history, the more parallels and lessons you'll find relevant to today, versus say a sci-fi book that may or may not have any bearing whatsoever on how you ought to think

 

The Spider Network: The wild story of a math genius and one of the greatest scams in financial history” by David Enrich

Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A history of financial crises” by Robert Z. Aliber and Charles P. Kindleberger

A friend of mine recommended these ones.

 

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