Bogleheads

Alex Frakt

The original What Book Are YOU Currently Reading? thread had so many responses it began causing formatting problems with the homepage. So I had to shut it down and start Part II here.

Here's the first post from the original thread.

bolt · Joined: 30 May 2007 Posts: 870 Location: Boston

My next book I'm reaquainting myself w/ fluent spanish, right now Im between books! Any spanish(slang too) /english book recommendations? Good luck!

Cashola · Joined: 18 May 2008 Posts: 10 Location: South Florida

I'm almost done reading my first book on investing, Bogleheads' Guide to Investing. Excellent read so far, but i'm afraid I've found myself to be quite biased toward Vanguard...another Boglehead in the making. I'm thinking of getting Four Pillars of Investing or The Intelligent Investor. Any suggestions on 'The Intelligent Investor'?
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http://www.cashola.org - Following the Path to Financial Nirvana

bolt · Joined: 30 May 2007 Posts: 870 Location: Boston

" The Coffeehouse invester" is good and fast. Good luck!

Jake46 · Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 10:40 pm Post subject:

"Intelligent Portfolio" - by the Financial Engine folks.

stratton · Joined: 04 Mar 2007 Posts: 7905 Location: Puget Sound

Valuethinker · Joined: 11 May 2007 Posts: 12890

desertdug08 · Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 5:29 am Post subject: Non Finance Books

Hey All,

Being deployed overseas I have alot of time for reading. I have read many of the books mentioned and have enjoyed them all. When I get home on my R & R, I plan to send out all the paperwork to transfer my accounts to Vanguard. In light of the Memorial Day Weekend may I suggest several books by Stephen Ambrose to give you a greater appreciation of just how great this country is and the freedoms we enjoy: To America, D-Day, Band of Brothers. Hey, you can only read so many investment books! Very Happy

Cheers,

DUG

chaz · Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Posts: 6639

I have just finished reading "Night" by Elie Wiesel. It is a shocker to see what he went through at age 15 and survived. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. The book reads like a diary.
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Chaz
"It is better to travel well than to arrive." - Buddha
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

zzcooper123 · Joined: 13 Oct 2007 Posts: 232

"Wealth Secrets of the Affluent" by Jarvis and Mandell

Jake46 · Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 1:06 pm Post subject:

ryuns · Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 1:12 pm Post subject:

"All the Pretty Horses" by Cormac McCarthy. Maybe not his most enjoyable to start with, but I felt like a good Western. Definitely one of the great modern writers.

Last bit of non-fiction I read was "In Defense of Food", which was immensely enjoyable.

Ryan

tasdisr · Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Posts: 27

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Justin618 · Joined: 02 Mar 2007 Posts: 171 Location: accumulation phase

The Wisdom of Crowds
by James Surowiecki

about the aggregation of information in groups, resulting in decisions that, he argues, are often better than could have been made by any single member of the group. (e.g. guessing the number of jelly beans in a jar)
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"Investing is simple, but not easy" - Buffett.

Stephen · Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Posts: 14

Melville's last novel: The Confidence-Man (1857)

c.Alvin · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 51

"The Sextant Handbook" by Bruce Bauer

I am preparing for better times. Very Happy

Taylor Larimore

Hi Bogleheads:

One of the best ways to choose a financial book is to use the link below to our list of "Investment Gems" (excerpts) from carefully selected books. Not only will you be able to get good ideas from the Gems themselves, but you will be able to pick the books that you would like to read more.

http://www.diehards.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=881

Best wishes.
Taylor

Georgia · Joined: 14 Sep 2007 Posts: 77

A book that takes the reader from a brief history of corn in the Americas to an examination of today's food industry might sound boring, but Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, A Natural History of Four Meals, is anything but.
It is a fascinating and insightful look at what we eat, where it comes from, and how it gets to our table. Plenty of discussion of commodity corn and how it permeates almost everything Americans consume.
His trek across the county to look at all types of farms as well as the ethical considerations of what to have for dinner have caused me to think more about my food purchases.
Great book. Should be required reading.
Georgia

TheEternalVortex · Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Posts: 1712 Location: San Jose, CA

I am currently reading a few books:
Forgotten Continent: The Battle for Latin America's Soul by Michael Reid
Dr. Bloodmoney by Philip K. Dick
Short Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop? by Francisco Goldman

I like all of them, although the Goldman book isn't that great.

cfs · Joined: 23 Feb 2007 Posts: 563

A lot of responses on the original!

Now we should watch Part II and lock it as soon as it hits 500 notes [to be on the safe side] and start Part III - we do NOT want to see any formatting errors here.

Thanks for all the inputs and thanks for reading.

cfs
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cfs est nomen ejus

nisiprius · Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 6:26 am Post subject:

Slogging through a book whose title, yes, this is the title, is Lawrence Sanders McNally's Bluff. The book is by Vincent Lardo. I was had. I didn't spot the subtlety when I picked up the book at the library; I just said, "Ah, one of Lawrence Sanders' Archy McNally books I haven't read."

It's the thing that's becoming more and more common: an author dies and the estate hires another one to continue the franchise. Hardly new, think Ruth Plumly taking over the "Wizard of Oz" books from L. Frank Baum, but more and more common.

The Archy McNally books weren't Sanders' best. I'm not sure if this one is actually worse, but it's slow going, and at least one key aspect of the whodunnit-puzzle seems annoyingly and transparently obvious. We'll see if I'm right in about thirty more pages. The McNally books were never about the mystery, they were always sort of watered-down P. G. Wodehouse with McNally combining both Bertie Wooster and Jeeves aspects. Archy will say things like "he was full of P. and V."

I'd rate it about a C- whereas the real Archy McNally books are a solid C+, plenty good enough for summer reading.
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Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness; Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.

chaz · Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Posts: 6639

"An Innocent Man" by John Grisham.
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Chaz
"It is better to travel well than to arrive." - Buddha
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

MitchellF · Joined: 11 May 2007 Posts: 38

Today's book is "Author Unkown: On the Trail of Anonymous" by Don Foster. Really a fascinating topic. Foster 'found' a lost Shakespeare poem by using textual analysis to prove that the word usage and syntax matched Shakespeare's writing and no one else's. He later unmasked Joe Klein as the author of 'Primary Colors', which was authored anonymously.

To me it seems intuitively obvious that one person's writing style marks them like a fingerprint, but apparently this is a terribly controversial notion. Especially as the rules of grammar become more lax and we all grow up using different spelling and grammatical conventions I would assume that, given a large enough sample, the author of any piece could be identified by their unique writing voice. My confidence in this ability may acutally stem in part from reading message boards. Once I have read enough posts by a person I can often identify their work without having to look at who posted it.

VictoriaF · Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Posts: 3159 Location: Arlington, VA

wilson08 · Joined: 02 Apr 2008 Posts: 146

"Babbitt" by Sinclair Lewis

runthetrails · Joined: 05 Jun 2007 Posts: 415 Location: Tennessee

I'm reading Irrational Exuberance, with The Omnivore's Dilemma on deck.

On audio, I've finished listening to the Marcus Didius Falco series and have begun the Bernie Rhodenbarr series, by Lawrence Block. I've read a few of these in the "dead tree" format and enjoyed them. I also really like his Keller series, and wish he'd do more of those. It's interesting how sympathetic Block can make these 2 protagonists, one of whom is a burglar and another is a hit man.

nisiprius · Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 6:01 pm Post subject:

MitchellF · Joined: 11 May 2007 Posts: 38

zookeeper24 · Joined: 03 May 2008 Posts: 45

Currently on two: "Adrift" by Steven Callahan and "Endurance" by Sir Ernest Shackelton.

Guess I'm on a lost-at-sea theme.

chaz · Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Posts: 6639

I am at the middle of "The Innocent Man" by John Grisham, and I am totally shocked that the local police and the state police in Oklahoma in the 1980s would do what they did to get someone convicted of murder without any credible evidence! The prosecuting attorney and the judge were equally at fault! Where was their sense of justice?
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Chaz
"It is better to travel well than to arrive." - Buddha
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

PaPaw · Joined: 10 Mar 2008 Posts: 400

Honda Pilot Owner's Manual, I'm a car nut and visiting my daughter this week.

My daughter just bought one, based in part on the favorable comments by "catchup" on this forum as well as Consumer Reports and several other car review sources on the internet. The dealer had a really good deal going on the last of the 2008 models (2009 model is just hitting the showroom). Sold it to her for $6625 under MSRP. Now she has a few extra dollars to invest in something that will hopefully appreciate.

For what it is worth, she test drove Toyota RAV4, Toyota Highlander, Honda Pilot, Honda CRV and the Pilot was the clear winner for her. Met the criteria of 4WD (rural Washington state in the mountains), large enough for her husband to ride comfortably in (big guy), room for all the kids, quality built, excellent safety ratings, reliable reputation, not too expensive, able to tow stuff, plans to keep it 10+ years.

nisiprius · Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 12:58 pm Post subject:

chaz · Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Posts: 6639

It is very
difficult to fathom why the lawmen in the town acted the way they did. The way in which the guy repeated started to be given mental-health help and then repeatedly fell through the cracks again rang true and was quite awful to read.

It is clear that the lawmen could not find any real evidence to lead them to the real murderer, so they framed 4 men, 2 for each murder victim.

They just wanted convictions at any cost!!! Ada, Oklahoma, did not like having 2 young women killed without someone being convicted!!!
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Chaz
"It is better to travel well than to arrive." - Buddha
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

malloc · Joined: 01 Dec 2007 Posts: 338

Careful of Ayn Rand.
The theme of "I'm so intelligent that rules don't apply to me" is insulting to the rest of the world
and can be the beginning of a "slippery slope" ... to jail.

Kurmudjon · Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 4:41 pm Post subject:

Have a Garrison Keillor book entitled "Pontoon." Being a native Minnesotan thot I should read at least one of his books. Saw his "Prairie Home Companion" show over in St. Paul a number of years ago.
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Bud · Joined: 22 Jul 2007 Posts: 66

Primal Leadership by Daniel Goleman

Excellent and different perspective on leadership

HouseHubby · Joined: 09 Apr 2008 Posts: 30

Just finished "The Boglehead Guide to Investing."

Now that my financial life is in order, I'm currently reading "Beyond Opinion: Living the Faith We Defend" by Ravi Zacharias. A bit deep.
- HH
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The destination matters.

tdhg566 · Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 8:59 pm Post subject:

Fooling Some of the People All of the Time by David Einhorn

and

Bad Money, Reckless Finance, Failed Politics and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism by Kevin Phillips
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shadowrings · Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 1:52 am Post subject:

Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon. I found this an interesting read in the genre of "hard" sci-fi. For a first time novel, I found it to be impressive and fast-moving detective story. In the 25th century it's hard to die, death has been rendered almost obsolete with the development of digitized consciousness. "Morgan's 25th-century Earth is convincing, while the questions he poses about how much Self is tied to body chemistry and how the rich believe themselves above the law are especially timely." The story is complete and self-containing but definitely has the potential to give rise to further sequels. I'm curious whether Morgan can deliver the same quality and depth in the future.
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Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.
--- Carl G. Jung

eilros · Joined: 20 May 2008 Posts: 55 Location: North Dakota

I just finished The Little Book of Common Sense Investing yesterday and am 60 pages into The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing.

TheEternalVortex · Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Posts: 1712 Location: San Jose, CA

Recently finished:
A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
Mr. Adam by Pat Frank

Currently reading:
Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle
What Happened by Scott McClellan

VennData · Joined: 26 Feb 2007 Posts: 132

'English, August' by Upamanyu Chatterjee

OT Shouldn't Bogleheads have some kind of... Declaration of Independence?

communipaw · Joined: 05 Mar 2007 Posts: 88

A Conservative history of the American Left by Daniel Flynn and Helluva Town: New York City in the 1940s and 50s by Vivian Cherry [ a photography / picture book] so not exactly "reading" it].

arthurdawg · Joined: 02 Jun 2008 Posts: 583

just finished "the great upheaval" by jay winik,

just started "the discoverers" by daniel boorstin.

bobcat2 · Joined: 20 Feb 2007 Posts: 1887

I just finished Spend 'til the End by Larry Kotlikoff and Scott Burns and will be rereading it this weekend.

Bob K
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The real difficulty in changing any enterprise lies not in developing new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones. - JM Keynes
Good questions outrank easy answers. - PA Samuelson

bolt · Joined: 30 May 2007 Posts: 870 Location: Boston

Ayn Rands "atlas shrugged" I just got it.......its a part time summers read being thicker than a phonebook. Good luck!

modal · Joined: 20 Feb 2007 Posts: 1080 Location: USA

Library books

The last book I read was on the psychology of a particular addictive behavior.

Currently, I am reading Status Anxiety as someone on this board suggested it.

I'm trying to get my brain back into Spanish so I'm getting some books next time.

Spiritual Books

Lessons From the Heart: Learning to Trust God for True Peace, Fulfillment and Joy by Jack Grahman

chaz · Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Posts: 6639

After reading 2 non-fiction books with heavy emotional overtones ("Night" by Elie Wiesel and "The Innocent Man" by John Grisham), I am back to fiction, reading "Blood Red" by Heather Graham.
_________________
Chaz
"It is better to travel well than to arrive." - Buddha
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

VictoriaF · Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Posts: 3159 Location: Arlington, VA

CaptMidnight · Joined: 15 May 2007 Posts: 679