Bogleheads.org

by **randomwalk** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 11:18 pm

This thread is the continuation of What Book Are YOU Currently Reading? PART IV, to inaugurate the newly reopened Personal Consumer Issues subforum and start fresh after 1500 posts in the previous thread. Reading is my favorite leisure and recreational activity.

I just finished The Greek Achievement by Charles Freeman.

Now reading Carthage Must Be Destroyed by Richard Miles.

Postscript: For those interested, here are the first four parts of this thread, dating back to April 7, 2007, with more than 3500 total posts:

Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV

by **riskonoff** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 11:24 pm

retiresecure! james lang

retirement savings time bomb (ed slotts)

the little book of Mainstreet (jonathan clements)

Pensionize your nest egg (Milevsky)

by **grok87** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 11:45 pm

randomwalk wrote:This thread is the continuation of What Book Are YOU Currently Reading? PART IV, to inaugurate the newly reopened Personal Consumer Issues subforum and start fresh after 1500 posts in the previous thread. Reading is my favorite leisure and recreational activity.

I just finished The Greek Achievement by Charles Freeman.

Now reading Carthage Must Be Destroyed by Richard Miles.

oh man you beat me to it- congratulations!
I'm reading Dakota by Kathleen Norris right now.
http://www.amazon.com/Dakota-Spiritual- ... 0618127240
good reading for lent!
cheers,

by **XtremeSki2001** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 12:01 am

Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
by Steve Coll

by **hsv_climber** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 12:09 am

Just finished: V. Frankl "Man's search for meaning. Intro to logotherapy". Very powerful book.

Next (just started): "Mistakes were made (but not by me) : why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful acts".

by **thirdman** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 1:04 am

"The Lost Continent." Bill Bryson. He drives his mother's Chevette around the United States in 1987 in search of the perfect small town. He ends up where he started, but in the interval reviews truck stops, state troopers, and Motel 6.

by **gkaplan** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 9:31 am

The Warburgs by Ron Chernow

by **Muchtolearn** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 10:29 am

I am finishing the Lost Symbol, hopefully today. By Dan Brown. Unbelievably good and interfering with my work and life.

by **nirvines88** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 11:21 am

Muchtolearn wrote:I am finishing the Lost Symbol, hopefully today. By Dan Brown. Unbelievably good and interfering with my work and life.

I thought this was a great book with a so-so ending. It's been a while since I read it, but I remember it being hard to put down. Dan Brown always has those cliffhanger chapter endings, making it difficult to stop!

by **nisiprius** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 1:23 pm

My wife and I have different-colored bookmarks and are taking turns with Believing the Lie, by Elizabeth George. It's pretty tough, because I also have Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, and they're both due back at the library in 2-1/2 weeks and not a chance either can be renewed.

by **Sam I Am** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 1:45 pm

Muchtolearn wrote:I am finishing the Lost Symbol, hopefully today. By Dan Brown. Unbelievably good and interfering with my work and life.

The thing about Dan Brown's books is they are almost believable. He weaves in enough truth to overwhelm the fiction, and you just have to remind yourself you are reading fiction.

Right now I'm reading The Night Eternal by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. It is Book III of The Strain Trilogy, so I might go back and read the first two books. Not a bad read, all in all, if you like disaster/vampire/end of the world as we know it kinda books. :shock:

Less scary than the economy!

Sam I Am

by **TheEternalVortex** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 1:51 pm

I'm reading a few books:

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Counterlife by Philip Roth

The Marriage Plot literally has me laughing out loud, and Murakami is interesting as ever.

by **HomerJ** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 2:15 pm

I just finished "What it is like to go to war".

Very powerful book, as told from a Vietnam vet who was definitely "in the shit"

I think every high school kid in America should read this book.

by **Simplegift** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 3:33 pm

Just starting, Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman, by Robert Massie (2011).

If you like narrative biography and Russian history, it doesn't get any better than this. Would also recommend any of Massie's previous books: Nicholas and Alexandra (2000), The Romanovs (1995), and Peter the Great (1986). All feature outstanding historical research, excellent attention to detail and interesting human dramas.

by **Igglesman** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 3:57 pm

The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War by David Halberstam. I miss David, such a great historical non-fiction writer.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. Not a bad read at all. Who knows, maybe they will make a movie out of it!! :lol:

11/22/63: A Novel by Stephen King. This turned out to be in my top 3 of Stephen's books. Quite a different book for him. You definitely feel that you are with Oswald on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas on 11/22.

by **max12377** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 4:07 pm

The Second World War, Volume 1: The Gathering Storm by Winston Churchill
A Random Walk Down Wall Street (latest edition)
True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor
11/22/63 by Stephen King

I am one of those readers that likes to bounce back and forth. I'm really enjoying the Churchill book and have recommended it to two of my coworkers.

by **ruralavalon** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 8:38 pm

All About Asset Allocation (2nd ed, on Kindle), by Rick Ferri.

I had put off buying the 2nd edition for quite some time, but do think that it does include some new information.

by **chaz** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 12:44 pm

"Dark Hollow" by John Connolly. Also good for Lent.

by **Jay69** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 12:59 pm

Muchtolearn wrote:I am finishing the Lost Symbol, hopefully today. By Dan Brown. Unbelievably good and interfering with my work and life.

Have a few pages of this left as well.

I really enjoyed Dan Browns Deception Point and Digital Fortress to.

by **Default User BR** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:23 pm

Hex by Allen Steele. The rebellious former Earth colony of Coyote has received an offer from the mysterious advanced alien Danui of a world for humans to colonize in the Danui system. A survey team is dispatched there, where they find it much different that expected.

Brian

by **stoptothink** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 1:46 pm

Just finished "Our Daily Meds" by Melody Petersen and "Overdosed America" by Dr. John Abramson. Nothing new; I enjoyed Abramson's work more as he was actually a highly respected physician and seemed to be more objective than Petersen when examining the data. Up next, "The Survivors Club" by Ben Sherwood. Almost done with the 90 or so books I got through the Border's liquidation.

by **MP173** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 7:50 pm

I am really glad this has been resurrected. The past trip to the library left me sort of high and dry.

Random Walk down Wall Street...just started it.

Also reading The Pennsylvania Railroad 1940's and 1950's by Don Ball.

Ed

by **chaz** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 9:46 pm

MP173 wrote:I am really glad this has been resurrected. The past trip to the library left me sort of high and dry.

Random Walk down Wall Street...just started it.

Also reading The Pennsylvania Railroad 1940's and 1950's by Don Ball.

Ed

I'm glad also - this thread has had good tips.

by **Riprap** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 10:23 pm

"Silent Cal's Almanack: The Homespun Wit and Wisdom of Vermont's Calvin Coolidge" Edited by David Pietrusza. Kindle version $2.98.

Coolidge seems to have been very Bogleheadish. There is much to be said for a President who doesn't say much.

Couple of quotes:

"Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been the minding of my own business"

"Many times I say only 'yes' or 'no' to people. Even that is too much. It winds them up for twenty minutes or more."

"Debt reduction is tax reduction"

Regarding legislation "It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones."

On pork barrel spending "The people who start to elect a man to get what he can for his district will probably find they have elected a man who will get what he can for himself."

"One newspaper is better than many criminal laws."

"I don't recall any candidate for President that ever injured himself very much by not talking."

by **traineeinvestor** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 11:02 pm

"Hetty"

Charles Slack's biography of Hetty Green - interesting but not as detailed as some of the other biographies of other tycoons from that era which I have read.

by **Juniormint** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 11:23 pm

Sam I Am wrote:
Muchtolearn wrote:I am finishing the Lost Symbol, hopefully today. By Dan Brown. Unbelievably good and interfering with my work and life.

The thing about Dan Brown's books is they are almost believable. He weaves in enough truth to overwhelm the fiction, and you just have to remind yourself you are reading fiction.

Right now I'm reading The Night Eternal by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. It is Book III of The Strain Trilogy, so I might go back and read the first two books. Not a bad read, all in all, if you like disaster/vampire/end of the world as we know it kinda books.

Less scary than the economy!

Sam I Am

This has nothing to do with your post but rather your avatar. GO Bulls!

by **Juniormint** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 11:28 pm

My CFA Fixed Income and Equity Portfolio Management book.

And for enjoyment, American Pastoral by Phillip Roth.

by **6miths** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 11:55 pm

Recently listened to 'The Emperor of All Maladies: Biography of Cancer' by Siddhartha Mukherjee. Was amazing. Must read for all medical professionals at the very least. Just finished reading 'The Age of Wonder' by Richard Holmes which was about science in the UK during the romantic period and spanning the life and times of Joesph Banks, the Herschels and Humphry Davy and their involvement with the Royal Society in London. A bit denser but very interesting nonetheless.

The Emperor of All Maladies is not to be missed.

by **ejvyas** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 12:18 am

Jay69 wrote:
Muchtolearn wrote:I am finishing the Lost Symbol, hopefully today. By Dan Brown. Unbelievably good and interfering with my work and life.

Have a few pages of this left as well.

I really enjoyed Dan Browns Deception Point and Digital Fortress to.

Love Dan Brown's books!

I am currently reading Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

by **cheese_breath** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 1:16 am

Vulture's Picnic by Greg Palast. I'm about half way through. Exposes unethical and criminal practices in the energy industry, especial big oil. Some may find the raw language and/or political comments in the book offensive. But on the other hand it is both informative and entertaining.

by **Exuberent** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 2:39 am

Just finished "Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel. Enjoyed it.
Just started "The Lemon Tree" by Sandy Tolan. Subtitle is "An Arab, a Jew, and the heart of the Middle East". 100 pages in and looking forward to discussing it at my wife's next book club meeting.

by **ajn** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 12:58 pm

re-reading various George Orwell essays and books:

Autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful. A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats. Benefit of Clergy: Some Notes on Salvador Dali

The train bore me away, through the monstrous scenery of slag-heaps,
chimneys, piled scrap-iron, foul canals, paths of cindery mud criss-crossed
by the prints of clogs. This was March, but the weather had been horribly
cold and everywhere there were mounds of blackened snow. As we moved slowly
through the outskirts of the town we passed row after row of little grey
slum houses running at right angles to the-embankment. . . At the back of one
of the houses a young woman was kneeling on the stones, poking a stick up
the leaden waste-pipe which ran from the sink inside and which I suppose
was blocked. I had time to see everything about her--her sacking apron,
her clumsy clogs, her arms reddened by the cold. She looked up as the train
passed, and I was almost near enough to catch her eye. She had a round pale
face, the usual exhausted face of the slum girl who is twenty-five and
looks forty, thanks to miscarriages and drudgery; and it wore, for the
second in which I saw it, the most desolate, hopeless expression I have
ever-seen. It struck me then that we are mistaken when we say that' It
isn't the same for them as it would be for us,' and that people bred in the
slums can imagine nothing but the slums. For what I saw in her face was not
the ignorant suffering of an animal. She knew well enough what was
happening to her--understood as well as I did how dreadful a destiny it
was to be kneeling there in the bitter cold, on the slimy stones of a slum
backyard, poking a stick up a foul drain-pipe. The Road to Wigan Pier

by **Igglesman** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 1:50 pm

FYI, The Millionaire Next Door went on sale for $2.99 for the Amazon Kindle edition. Look in Kindle Books...100 books for less then $3.99 for March.

Nice price.

by **pchela** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 6:24 pm

The 80/20 Principle: The Secret of Achieving More with Less. I love it. very inspirational, by the way

by **BenBritt** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 7:47 pm

Just finished The Measure of Our Days by Jerome Groopman, M.D. This is a great book written by a caring Doc. Well worth reading.

by **bengal22** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 7:54 pm

Just finished "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln." by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Just started "Brighton Rock" by Graham Greene

by **chaz** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 8:36 pm

I was given a tip to read some Ann Perry novels - on my to do list.

by **Grt2bOutdoors** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 9:00 pm

Just started reading Eisenhower - In War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith.

by **grok87** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 10:19 pm

mamief45 wrote:Just finished "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln." by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Just started "Brighton Rock" by Graham Greene

i like Greene but I never read Brighton Rock. I hear its pretty depressing.
My favorite Greene novels are Travels with my aunt and Monsignor Quixote.
cheers,

by **CountryBoy** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 10:21 pm

Daniel Deronda by George Eliot

by **Whiggish Boffin** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 10:45 pm

General Chemistry by Linus Pauling, Dover paperback edition. I know how it turns out, but I never get tired of the story.

by **david99** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 11:24 pm

I just finished reading Overdiagnosed Making People Sick In The Pursuit of Health by Dr. H. Gilbert Welch.
Dr. Welch says that due to several factors such as fear of lawsuits, highly sensitive machines that can pick up the smallest abnormality, and profits made from screenings that no abnormality is overlooked. The result is that people are sometimes given medications or surgery when they may not need it. I was recently talking to a friend who is a physician and he says that he does practice defensive medicine because of fear of lawsuits.

by **Jay69** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 11:31 pm

ejvyas wrote:I am currently reading Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

Hmmmm, going to have to add this to the list.

by **nirvines88** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 11:32 pm

Common Sense on Mutual Funds. John C. Bogle

Just checked it out from my library today!

by **Loon11** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 11:37 pm

Angle of Repose
Stegner

by **danieljquirk** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 3:12 am

I read Shantaram a few years ago and it is sitting on my night stand again. The first page is stunning and it is hard to put down.

I finished the Catherine the Great book by Robert Massie a few months ago. I thought it was not nearly as good as Peter the Great and Nicholas & Alexandra, both of which I thought were excellent.

I just reread The Last Lion, the first volume of the Winston Churchill Biography by William Manchester. It is very long, but it might be the best biography I have ever read, certainly in part because Churchill is so entertaining. The opening lines are gripping:
"The French had collapsed. The Dutch had been overwhelmed. The Belgians had surrendered. The British army, trapped, fought free and fell back toward the Channel ports, converging on a fishing town whose name was then spelled Dunkerque.
Behind them lay the sea."

You can't a judge a book by its cover, but sometimes you can judge by the first page.

I'm looking to read a biography on Gandhi. Any recommendations?

by **Mrs.Feeley** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 4:14 am

"The Power Makers: Steam, Electricity, and the Men Who Invented Modern America," by industrial historian Maury Klein (2008, Bloomsbury Press). Colorful, entertaining account of how steam engines and the development of the electrical power grid in the 19th century changed everything. Includes fascinating details of the development of investment markets, and how the super-wealthy, who had previously invested only in real estate, discovered that they could make fortunes by investing in utility co. bonds as well as factories. Great, engrossing read!

by **hsv_climber** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 12:02 pm

Did not like David Bach: "Automatic Millionaire". Too easy/obvious for any reader of this message board.

by **rdmayo21** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 12:07 pm

Star Wars: Darth Plagueis (yes, I am a nerd)

by **SamB** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 12:12 pm

"Throw Them All Out," by Peter Schweizer. Make sure your toilet works before attempting this short book. You will be heaving a lot. It documents the insider stock tips, land deals, and cronyism in government. If you do not believe in passive investing, this book is for you. It is a road map for successful active investing.

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