Sometimes authors or publishers offer to send me a book for a possible review. I usually accept with every intention of reading the book and writing a review. Unfortunately, as I didn’t have the time to read the following books – I didn’t get past the first chapter on two of the books and skimmed through the other two – I thought I’d at least acknowledge receiving them.

The Young Investor by Dan Fournier. Subtitled “The North American Guide to Investing Online”, this appears to be a comprehensive book for the investor who is just starting out. I read two chapters “General Investing Guidelines & Tips” and “Avoid Mutual Funds…Embrace Exchange-Traded Funds” and found that the author writes well and gives solid advice. There is an intriguing chapter at the end titled “The Offshore Advantage” in which the author suggests that “all investors, at some point, should move a portion of their assets offshore”; something that I don’t recall ever reading in a finance book. The book has 336 pages and is available in paperback format for $24.95 from The Young Investor website.

Invest Now by A. Dawn. The author is a fellow blogger (A. Dawn Journal) who has self-published a book that he says is “jam-packed with timely information and timeless advice for the beginning Canadian investor”. The book starts off well-enough discussing different types of investment accounts but I found it a little light (it’s only 136 pages including blog posts reprinted from the author’s blog) on information on what an investor should actually do after opening an account. The author does suggest an “easy portfolio” which has a 25% allocation to non-Canadian Income but no rationale was given in the subsequent pages. The book is listed at $15.95 (US) and is available from Amazon.ca and more details can be found on the author’s website.

The Brainwashing of the American Investor by Steve Selengut. The author lost me in the first chapter where he claims that “Trading absolutely always produces more growth in capital, more growth in income, and more inflation insurance than any other strategy”. Right! Fortunately, Million Dollar Journey did read the book and wrote a review.

A Million Bucks by 30 by Alan Corey. The enterprising young author chronicles his journey from his mom’s basement to a seven-figure net worth by the time he turned thirty. Mr. Cheap wrote a review of the book yesterday and Thicken My Wallet featured an interview with Alan on his blog.