Summer is a good time for catching up on the books you have been meaning to read. Here is my list of business and finance books that are on my reading list (I’ve read some of them already):
- Blink by Malcolm Gladwell: Mr. Gladwell, a native of Waterloo, who now lives in New York, writes a very engaging book about how our sub-conscious mind makes split-second decisions and how these decisions can be uncannily accurate or lead us astray. This book is so fascinating and un-putdownable that I was able to finish it in two evenings.
- The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell: After reading Blink, I want to read this book, which Mr. Gladwell describes as follows: “It’s a book about change. In particular, it’s a book that presents a new way of understanding why change so often happens as quickly and as unexpectedly as it does.”
- Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb: Not many investors realize that investing involves dealing with a range of possible outcomes, each of which has a certain probability of happening. Mr. Taleb, a professional trader, writes a scholarly treatise on probabilities and randomness and how we are frequently unable to deal with them. While, I found the book to be thought provoking, it is written in an essay format and jumps between topics in a seemingly random manner.
- The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman, is called “an exciting and very readable account of globalization”.
- The Long Tail by Chris Anderson promises to be a best-seller business book this year. The book is an expanded version of this article published in Wired magazine.
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9 responses so far ↓
1 hurley // Jul 21, 2006 at 8:28 am
thanks for your books list, i am very interested in knowing about Online stock market trading related topics.
2 Alex Givant // Jul 21, 2006 at 10:41 am
Good list of business books from Andy Kessler (author of “Wall Street Meat” and “Running Money” - about his hedge fund manager’s times).
http://www.andykessler.com/andy_kessler/2006/03/biz_books.html
He just release new book “End of Medicine”, should be good one.
3 Canadian Capitalist // Jul 21, 2006 at 1:10 pm
Alex: Thanks for the link. I happened to like Blink, mainly because I’ve never thought about it before. I’ll check out Andy Kessler’s books.
4 awardtour // Jul 22, 2006 at 4:26 pm
If you enjoy the cross-topic books of gladwell or the long tail, you might also want to check out Stumbling on Happiness. Very interesting book about how humans are terrible at predicting what will make them happy.
I just finished up The Long Tail. Aside from some interesting case studies, it doesn’t add much on the original article. None the less, interesting topic and solid writing.
5 albert // Jul 26, 2006 at 6:00 am
I read the economic times paper daily and also try to catch up with some business mags wenever i get time and try to keep myself updated with the latest in the market.
albert
http://creditsolutionsteam.com/
6 Todd // Aug 2, 2006 at 4:07 am
I have heard about 3 people reccommend Blink to me so far. I picked up the audiobook from audible a couple months ago, but I have yet to listen to it.
It’s good to hear that you liked it, now all I have to do is clear some time out and listen to it.
7 Andrew // Aug 8, 2006 at 4:55 pm
I am a big fan of Malcolm Gladwell through his writing in The New Yorker. Those are two books I plan on gettig to at some point. I recently read an online interview with Gladwell and Adam Gopnik, another New Yorker writer, about Universal Health Care. Here is the link:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2000/0003.gladwellgopnik.html
Since you are a resident of Canada I was wondering your experience of health care in Canada. Do you think universal health care is a good system? Thanks for any comments.
8 mmmlife // Aug 9, 2006 at 1:11 am
Fooled by randomness is definitely a great one. Taleb specifically talks about how certain probabilities are wildly undervalued by the wide marketplaced and how buying options that represent these probabilities will be winners in the long run. At the same time, selling overvalued probabilities to finance these theoretically yields profits in the long term, but requires that you have the bankroll to see through the regular losses. When you do hit though, you hit big.
Also recommended trading reading: When Genius Failed — about the collapse of Long Term Capital Management.
9 ANTHONY // Dec 11, 2006 at 4:49 am
mmmlife thanks for the trade reading article.Besides trade there is a need to check the credit and debt issues specially to Stop debt collector harassment.
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