It’s interesting to note that while I used to almost always get my books from Half.com, now I almost exclusively use Amazon coupled with their Prime shipping. I’ve ordered on average about 50 books a year the past 3 years (although this year is a little higher).
I just read Think Twice: Harnessing the Power of Counterintuition on the plane to Colorado. I like Mauboussin’s work, but I’ve read so much behavioral literature at this point it was mostly rehashing. Probably worth the read if you’re new to the space. I also read Riches Among the Ruins: Adventures in the Dark Corners of the Global Economy in Colorado and on the way back to LA. This was a good book in the same vein as Jim Roger’s books and Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. Although the conclusions (it was highly profitable to trade emerging market debt but now too efficient) remind me of Ben Graham’s conclusion about stock analysis about 30 years ago.
The five best reads this year are below. What I liked about these reads is that they give you a framework for how to invest based on history. And by history I mean hundreds of years rather than the last three. The takeaways are usually quite different than the commonly accepted theories of today. What they are not are simple explanations of what happened after the fact – they are useful in building your portfolio going forward. I don’t need to know what went wrong, I need to know how to prepare now.
3. The Myth of the Rational Market
5. The Capitalism Distribution
Honorable Mention: The Ivy Portfolio (I can’t nominate my own book, right?)
Interesting new upcoming book I have on pre-order – The Billion Dollar Mistake: Learning the Art of Investing Through the Missteps of Legendary Investors.
What is your favorite read?
