Bogleheads.org

by **BenBritt** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 4:13 pm

Bengal22,Thanks for mentioning Bonhoeffer, I will order this book this week. I had it on my list and somehow forgot about it.

MP173,you might like After Camelot,A Personal History of the Kennedy Years.

by **Fallible** » Thu Oct 04, 2012 7:14 pm

Reading Jack Bogle's latest, "The Clash of the Cultures," and then plan to read former WSJ columnist Jonathan Clements's first novel, "48 and Counting" (subtitle "A story of money, love, and bicycling").

by **MP173** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 9:43 am

Thanks for the suggestions for the Einstein biography by Iassacson and the book on Kennedys. Went to the library yesterday and picked up the Einstein book, but shelved it. Just looked far too intimidating for my non scientific mind.

Came home with John Dunning's "The Bookwomans Last Fling", James Lee Burke "Creole Belle", and Joseph Finder "Vanished". I have enjoyed previous books by all three, with Burke being one of my favorite authors. Dunning is pretty good also.

Ed

by **Fallible** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 10:48 am

MP173 wrote:Thanks for the suggestions for the Einstein biography by Iassacson and the book on Kennedys. Went to the library yesterday and picked up the Einstein book, but shelved it. Just looked far too intimidating for my non scientific mind....

I know what you mean about the Einstein book, but I believe you really need only a general understanding of the "scientific" because the book's beauty, at least for me, is the man himself and how Isaacson brought that out. I hope sometime you'll give it another chance.

by **randomwalk** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 11:17 am

Fallible wrote:I know what you mean about the Einstein book, but I believe you really need only a general understanding of the "scientific" because the book's beauty, at least for me, is the man himself and how Isaacson brought that out. I hope sometime you'll give it another chance.

I'd second that. I have little capacity for hard science, but some authors have a special capacity for discussing complicated topics in a digestible format. Isaacson is one. Another would be Richard Rhodes; his The Making of the Atomic Bomb is in my top 5 for non-fiction.

by **Bungo** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 11:44 am

Recently started Sir Thomas Heath's A History of Greek Mathematics, Volume 1: From Thales to Euclid. So far so good, but it's not for everyone. It's dense and scholarly, a bit dry, and the author clearly wrote this at a time when the educated general reader could be expected to be able to read a bit of Greek. But I'm highly interested in the subject matter, and Heath is the authority, so this will be good background reading for the next year or so. I can't imagine trying to read it straight through, though.

by **cyclinggirl** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 11:46 am

The Long Road To Antietam: How the Civil War Became a Revolution by Richard Slotkin

by **MP173** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 1:27 pm

I will give Einstein a try next trip. Part of it might have been complete exhaustion from the last few weeks and the desire to just read easy stuff.

Ed

by **Riprap** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 5:39 pm

The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughful Investor by Howard Marks.

The book is more philosophical rather than a "how to" guide. Marks is a value investor, mostly in distressed debt but much of what he writes would appeal to Bogleheads particularly his thoughts on "second level thinking." His contrarian style parallels the Boglehead's ideas of rebalancing to control risk. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. As a bonus, below is a link which allows access to memos to his investors. The memos are also excellent reading, and it's hard to beat the price:

http://www.oaktreecapital.com/memo.aspx

Summary of The Most Important Thing from Amazon:

Informed by a lifetime of experience and study, The Most Important Thing explains the keys to successful investment and the pitfalls that can destroy capital or ruin a career. Utilizing passages from his memos to illustrate his ideas, Marks teaches by example, detailing the development of an investment philosophy that fully acknowledges the complexities of investing and the perils of the financial world. Brilliantly applying insight to today's volatile markets, Marks offers a volume that is part memoir, part creed, with a number of broad takeaways.

Marks expounds on such concepts as "second-level thinking," the price/value relationship, patient opportunism, and defensive investing. Frankly and honestly assessing his own decisions--and occasional missteps--he provides valuable lessons for critical thinking, risk assessment, and investment strategy. Encouraging investors to be "contrarian," Marks wisely judges market cycles and achieves returns through aggressive yet measured action. Which element is the most essential? Successful investing requires thoughtful attention to many separate aspects, and each of Marks's subjects proves to be the most important thing.

http://www.amazon.com/Most-Important-Th ... ward+marks

by **jginseattle** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 6:24 pm

Walt in AZ wrote:The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughful Investor by Howard Marks.

The book is more philosophical rather than a "how to" guide. Marks is a value investor, mostly in distressed debt but much of what he writes would appeal to Bogleheads particularly his thoughts on "second level thinking." His contrarian style parallels the Boglehead's ideas of rebalancing to control risk. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. As a bonus, below is a link which allows access to memos to his investors. The memos are also excellent reading, and it's hard to beat the price:

http://www.oaktreecapital.com/memo.aspx

Summary of The Most Important Thing from Amazon:

Informed by a lifetime of experience and study, The Most Important Thing explains the keys to successful investment and the pitfalls that can destroy capital or ruin a career. Utilizing passages from his memos to illustrate his ideas, Marks teaches by example, detailing the development of an investment philosophy that fully acknowledges the complexities of investing and the perils of the financial world. Brilliantly applying insight to today's volatile markets, Marks offers a volume that is part memoir, part creed, with a number of broad takeaways.

Marks expounds on such concepts as "second-level thinking," the price/value relationship, patient opportunism, and defensive investing. Frankly and honestly assessing his own decisions--and occasional missteps--he provides valuable lessons for critical thinking, risk assessment, and investment strategy. Encouraging investors to be "contrarian," Marks wisely judges market cycles and achieves returns through aggressive yet measured action. Which element is the most essential? Successful investing requires thoughtful attention to many separate aspects, and each of Marks's subjects proves to be the most important thing.

http://www.amazon.com/Most-Important-Th ... ward+marks

A while back I posted a recommendation for Mr. Marks' book, which is essentially a collection of essays. One high profile Boglehead informed me that the reviews at Amazon indicated the book was "simplistic". What I found to be "simplistic' was the intellectually lazy manner in which she dismissed a book she had not read.

by **Lon** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 6:55 pm

Just finished "The God Illusion" by Richard Dawkins-----------It's a good read.

by **Igglesman** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 7:19 pm

Wild by Cheryl Strayed. NYTimes bestseller...I liked the narrative on hiking the Pacific Crest Trail...little too wordy for me on the "found" part of the story. I liked the book and recommend it.

500 Days by Kurt Eichenwald. If you like great spy thrillers...this is the book. It chronicles the first 500 days of the Bush administration and the war on terror (objectively as possible in my opinion).
Many side stories I did not know about and all the going-ons with other governments. I liked the book and recommend it.

by **Die Hard** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 8:53 pm

Legal Deception by Terri Crawford

The author's brother, Bob, was a victim of the Tri-State Crematory (Noble, Ga) tragedy. Her family, along with thousands of others, were devastated by the gruesome discovery that their loved ones bodies were desecrated instead of cremated.

by **Rick Ferri** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 9:12 pm

The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty:
How we lie to everyone - especially ourselves.

Dan Ariel, author of Predictably Irrational.

by **Fallible** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 1:23 pm

Rick Ferri wrote:The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty:
How we lie to everyone - especially ourselves.

Dan Ariel, author of Predictably Irrational.

I'm awaiting this one from the library, but did catch part of Ariely talking about dishonesty on CNN last night. He probably could've called his new book, "Predictably Dishonest."

by **chaz** » Sun Oct 07, 2012 7:08 am

"Zero Day" by David Baldacci.

by **MP173** » Sun Oct 07, 2012 5:59 pm

Just finished John Dunning's "The Bookwoman's Last Fling". Dunning is one of my favorite authors. His Cliff Janeway charactor is a bookman (collector and seller of rare books) and an ex cop and he is called upon to consult on the value of a rather large collection of extremely valuable books, some of which are mysterious missing ... and linked to a long unsolved murder. Dunning mixes books with crime very well. My only issue with him is he doesnt write very often.

Also working on "Lehigh Valley Railroad, The New York Division" by Mike Bednar. Bednar is a former railroader in the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania who documented the railroading scene in the 1970s-1990s with pen and camera. Although I live in NW Indiana, my wife is from Bethlehem and we make a yearly visit to the valley and I am intrigued by the area north to Jim Thorpe.

Next up...Creole Belle by James Lee Burke

ed

by **nisiprius** » Mon Oct 08, 2012 7:32 am

The Technologists by Matthew Pearl. Just finished it. Awful, awful beyond words, the tongue of man is not sufficient to describe the awfulness thereof. Kept slogging through it because it's about MIT, and, you know, I thought I might get some insights into what life at "Boston Tech" was like. But the characters are insanely one-dimensional, and about three-quarters of them are comic-book villains that do everything but laugh "bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!" The characterizations are clumsier than a 1950s Superman comic book, certainly clumsier than any modern adult-audience "graphic novel."

The chemistry and physics of the infernal contraptions that imperil Boston are completely impossible, not even a nod to feasibility, except possibly for the ergot-poisoning episode. I admit I haven't done the math, but I don't think you could disrupt the compasses of every ship in Boston Harbor even if you sunk a whole operating 3-Tesla MRI machine into it, let alone an old trunk full of soft iron bars and some batteries. I don't think Tesla himself could do it.

The institutional, social, and class rivalries are insanely exaggerated--P. G. Wodehouse's depiction of Bertie Wooster is delicately nuanced by comparison. The Harvard men hate the MIT men, the wealthy MIT men hate the MIT scholarship men, everyone hates female student Ellen Swallow, the factory workers hate the "collegies," Louis Agassiz hates evolutionists, and the Boston cops don't like anybody very much.

Let me put it this way: he writes almost as well as Dan Brown. :wink:

I can't say I know much about the era but certainly the real Charles Eliot (MIT chemistry professor and later president of Harvard) was a humane man with egalitarian views, so I figure I can't trust the book's depictions of William Barton Rogers, Ellen Swallow, etc. either.

I think the unforgivable thing is that this book reads as if it were intended to be made into a movie. Whatever vision it has is completely cinematic. Some of that stuff might work as a sort of steampunk movie, but one made from a graphic novel, not a book.

Ugh.

As penance, I have set myself the task of reading at least a little bit of Ellen Swallow Richards' Euthenics: The Science of Controllable Environment--A Plea for Better Living Conditions as a First Step Toward High Human Efficiency. And when I bog down in that, as I expect to, I have Samuel Prescott's When MIT Was Boston Tech requested through interlibrary loan.

by **ruralavalon** » Mon Oct 08, 2012 4:36 pm

The Clash of the Cultures: Investment vs. Speculation, by John C. Bogle.

Helpful in reinforcing good investment advice, and interesting insights into the history of the Wellington fund and Vanguard.

Also I learned that "bogle" refers to a devil or goblin in Scottish.

by **Fallible** » Mon Oct 08, 2012 4:51 pm

nisiprius wrote:The Technologists by Matthew Pearl. Just finished it. Awful, awful beyond words, the tongue of man is not sufficient to describe the awfulness thereof. ...
I think the unforgivable thing is that this book reads as if it were intended to be made into a movie. ...

Maybe it will be better as a movie if you throw in the right stars. One of the more awful novels ever written, "The Bridges of Madison County," was made into a successful movie thanks much to Streep and Eastwood. It was still dumb, but less disgusting. BTW, I thought your tongue quite sufficiently described the "awfulness thereof."

by **MP173** » Tue Oct 09, 2012 8:02 am

Changed plans and started VAnished by Joseph Finder. Excellent corporate thriller.

This will not take very long to finish, cant put it down.

ed

by **samrnull** » Tue Oct 09, 2012 6:52 pm

Just finished reading A Random Walk Down Wall Street. I think this was the first book on finance that I have ever completed (other than browsing through Daniel Solin's books, which led me to Malkiel). Now, off to find some money to invest ;-)

by **nisiprius** » Tue Oct 09, 2012 9:07 pm

Payment Deferred, by C. S. Forester, author of the Horatio Hornblower novels. 3/4 of the way through. It is terrific. A murder mystery, I guess, although there's no mystery. The protagonist, if you can call him that, has the same dysthymic nature as Hornblower. One suspects Forester himself might have benefitted from a dose of a SSRI.

The protagonist is one of the most contemptible characters I have ever had the pleasure of hating. Wow! is he a dirtbag!

And he has really bad taste in furniture, too!

For investment interest, there's a good chapter on how he parlays the few hundred pounds he has stolen from his victim into a pretty decent fortune by using inside information to make a speculative currency trade... on margin. No, no real in-depth financial detail.

by **jebmke** » Tue Oct 09, 2012 9:10 pm

Taken - Robert Crais

by **chaz** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 7:36 am

jebmke wrote:Taken - Robert Crais

Crais is one of my favorite authors.

by **chaz** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 7:37 am

"Mystery" by Jonathan Kellerman.

by **denismurf** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 5:51 pm

Any Kellerman novels to avoid? I'm just starting with The Clinic.

by **MP173** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 6:22 pm

I cannot think of a Kellerman novel (Alex Davenport) that has been disappointing. Keep in mind these are slow simmering novels. If you want a fast passed, stay up til 3am, cant put the book down mystery, he is not quite the guy. But, he takes a very interesting look at the mental aspect of crime (and victoms).

Love his novels, and Alex is always dealing with the personal issues with Robin.

Ed

by **camontgo** » Fri Oct 12, 2012 3:28 pm

Just finished The Next Convergence: The Future of Economic Growth in a Multispeed World by Michael Spence, and just started The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail-but Some Don't by Nate Silver. So far, I'm really enjoying Silver's book.

by **ruralavalon** » Sat Oct 13, 2012 12:53 pm

Einstein, by Walter Isaacson.
Started thanks to a recommendation in this thread.
I'm just up to 1905, but already very interesting.

by **Bungo** » Sat Oct 13, 2012 1:41 pm

I'm about halfway through Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe. The author has done a remarkable job explaining the ideas behind string theory in a way that the general reader can understand, without oversimplifying to the point of insulting the reader's intelligence.

The only downside is that it was written 14 years ago (my fault for only getting around to reading it now), and I don't know to what extent recent research has validated or invalidated what I am reading, nor the degree to which string theory has gained or lost acceptance in the physics community, particularly in light of the recent discovery of the Higgs boson, which surely improves the score in favor of the standard model.

In any case, I'll certainly add Greene's two more recent books, The Fabric of the Cosmos (2004) and The Hidden Reality (2011), to my reading pile.

by **nisiprius** » Sat Oct 13, 2012 9:33 pm

Long Before Forty, by C. S. Forester. An autobiography of sorts. Very readable and very entertaining. I'm guess I'm sort of on a binge of reading Forester's non-Hornblower novels. About half of it is a long essay from The Hornblower Companion about how he writes, which I'd already ready.

Despite being very readable, there is a definite reserve, and I don't think he's ever going to answer the big question I had, namely, in the dysthymic character of Hornblower--an very able person with a very successful career, who constantly feels inadequate--was Forester depicting himself?

by **randomwalk** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 7:23 am

I just finished The House of Morgan by Ron Chernow.

Now reading The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene.

by **coldav** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 8:54 am

"Cities of the Plain" by Cormac McCarthy. It's the third book in his Texas/Mexico trilogy, the first two being "All The Pretty Horse" and "The Crossing." I consider him to be a great contempory novelist.

by **Blues** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 9:02 am

"American Pastoral" by Philip Roth.

PS: McCarthy's trilogy was a fantastic (and moving) read.

by **chaz** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 10:02 am

"Worth Dying For" by Lee Child.

by **gkaplan** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 3:05 pm

A Hard Death by Jonathan Hayes. This is Hayes' second book, published in 2009. He doesn't seem to have written anything since. I hope he hasn't written himself out, because I really like his stuff.

by **coldav** » Sun Oct 14, 2012 3:12 pm

Blues wrote:"American Pastoral" by Philip Roth.

PS: McCarthy's trilogy was a fantastic (and moving) read.

Yes, McCarthy is something else. Critics consider "Blood Meridian" to be his best, but I lean toward "All The Pretty Horses" and "The Crossing" as my favorites.

by **Blues** » Mon Oct 15, 2012 9:18 am

coldav wrote:
Blues wrote:"American Pastoral" by Philip Roth.

PS: McCarthy's trilogy was a fantastic (and moving) read.

Yes, McCarthy is something else. Critics consider "Blood Meridian" to be his best, but I lean toward "All The Pretty Horses" and "The Crossing" as my favorites.

I've read all of his work but for two, possibly three. The ones you mention are all amongst my favorites. Powerful stuff, indeed.

by **randomwalk** » Mon Oct 15, 2012 10:13 am

Blues wrote:I've read all of his work but for two, possibly three. The ones you mention are all amongst my favorites. Powerful stuff, indeed.

I find him to be bafflingly uneven. Blood Meridian, The Road, and All the Pretty Horses are amongst my favorite books, but I loathed No Country for Old Men and Child of God. The next one I plan to read is Suttree.

by **Blues** » Mon Oct 15, 2012 10:37 am

Suttree is a great read. It was one of my first by McCarthy.

I liked "No Country" a lot. Perhaps because the evil was so reminiscent of that in "Blood Meridian" and perhaps also because I'm retired from federal law enforcement and have an appreciation for such tales. Quien sabe?

by **jebmke** » Mon Oct 15, 2012 10:44 am

The Affair - Lee Child

by **MP173** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 7:19 am

I look forward to reading McCarthy. He is on my list but for one reason or another overlook him when at the library.

Thanks for the reminder.

Halfway thru Creole Blues by James Lee Burke. Is it just me, or is Burke slipping just a bit? Having a bit of difficulty with this one.

Ed

by **chaz** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 4:53 pm

jebmke wrote:The Affair - Lee Child

A good author.

by **jebmke** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 4:55 pm

chaz wrote:
jebmke wrote:The Affair - Lee Child

A good author.

Can't decide who would win in a fight - Joe Pike or Jack Reacher.

by **chaz** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 10:06 pm

jebmke wrote:
chaz wrote:
jebmke wrote:The Affair - Lee Child

A good author.

Can't decide who would win in a fight - Joe Pike or Jack Reacher.

Myron Bolitar would win.

by **jay1ess** » Thu Oct 18, 2012 7:55 am

A Coffin for Dimitius, Eric Ambler 1939--An adventure into Turkey, Istanbul well written by an author well known in his day for screenplays. This actually was made into a fairly good movie.

Briar Patch, Ross Thomas 1985--a quickly read tightly written with a fast pace and intersting characters. Enjoy

by **DanielBrown** » Thu Oct 18, 2012 9:31 am

I finished “Casual Vacancy” -J.K.Rollings. Her first adult book. But I am not much impressed. Right now I am reading ‘Life of Pi’ by Yann Martel. I will also give Einstein a try next trip.

by **chaz** » Thu Oct 18, 2012 10:57 am

"Divine Justice" by David Baldacci.

by **norookie** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 9:24 pm

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