What Book Are YOU Currently Reading? PART II

Questions on how we spend our money and our time - consumer goods and services, home and vehicle, leisure and recreational activities
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Alex Frakt
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What Book Are YOU Currently Reading? PART II

Post by 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.
cfs wrote:I see a LOT of books quoted on the forum [that is good]. I wonder, what book are YOU currently reading?

I will start.

Currently reading:
a. Larry Swedroe's Only Guide To A Winning Investment Strategy
b. Larry Swedroe's Only Guide To A Winning Bond Strategy

And note that I have read the books, but I continue to read both as a good refresher.

Now it is your turn. Thanks.

cfs
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Post by bolt »

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

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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Post by bolt »

" The Coffeehouse invester" is good and fast. Good luck!
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Jake46
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Post by Jake46 »

"Intelligent Portfolio" - by the Financial Engine folks.
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stratton
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Post by stratton »

Jake46 wrote:"Intelligent Portfolio" - by the Financial Engine folks.
I read the little section on real estate and it appears they are confusing owning a home with REITs in a portfolio. Enough so I consider the book of dubious value for investing.

Paul
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Post by Valuethinker »

Cashola wrote: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'?
4 Pillars is a much easier read.

Read it before you get to the II.
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desertdug08
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Non Finance Books

Post by desertdug08 »

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! :D

Cheers,

DUG
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Post by chaz »

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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zzcooper123
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Currently reading....

Post by zzcooper123 »

"Wealth Secrets of the Affluent" by Jarvis and Mandell
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Jake46
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Post by Jake46 »

stratton wrote:
Jake46 wrote:"Intelligent Portfolio" - by the Financial Engine folks.
I read the little section on real estate and it appears they are confusing owning a home with REITs in a portfolio. Enough so I consider the book of dubious value for investing.

Paul
That's not accurate. Real Estate and REITs are discussed separately in a section entitled "The Search for Better Diversification."
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ryuns
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Post by ryuns »

"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
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Post by tasdisr »

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
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Justin618
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Post by Justin618 »

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)
"Investing is simple, but not easy" - Buffett.
Stephen
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What book are YOU currently reading? PART II

Post by Stephen »

Melville's last novel: The Confidence-Man (1857)
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Post by c.Alvin »

"The Sextant Handbook" by Bruce Bauer

I am preparing for better times. :D
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Taylor Larimore
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Using Investment Gems to choose financial books.

Post by 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
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Post by Georgia »

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
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Post by TheEternalVortex »

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.
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What Book Are YOU Currently Reading? Part II

Post by cfs »

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
~ Member of the Active Retired Force since 2014 ~
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Post by nisiprius »

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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Post by chaz »

"An Innocent Man" by John Grisham.
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Post by MitchellF »

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.
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Writer recognition

Post by VictoriaF »

MitchellF wrote: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.
I also find this topic interesting. In general, there could be three different questions:
1. Who wrote this (book, article, etc.)?
2. Did John Smith write this (book, article, etc.)?
3. What are different web sites where John Smith posts and what aliases he uses at each site?

The first question is difficult and depends on the universe of potential writers.

The second question is probably the easiest given a large enough writing sample.

The third question may be the most difficult.

Thank you for the reference,
Victoria
Last edited by VictoriaF on Wed May 28, 2008 4:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by wilson08 »

"Babbitt" by Sinclair Lewis
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Post by runthetrails »

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.
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Post by nisiprius »

MitchellF wrote:TTo me it seems intuitively obvious that one person's writing style marks them like a fingerprint, but apparently this is a terribly controversial notion.
Writers certainly have schticks, and I'm not sure whether they're fully in control of them.

I have a theory--it's only a theory, because I haven't bothered to reread the books I read before I formulated the theory--that the word "secateurs" appears in every book that Elizabeth George has written. (She lives in California but writes wonderful "English mysteries," which in fact are set in England, so of course she's trying to get the locale-specific details right; the real test would be to check the relative incidence of the word in Elizabeth George versus Agatha Christie, or Dorothy Sayers... Hmm...

Well, Google Books finds it in five Elizabeth George books, but I know there are more than that... one in Dorothy Sayers... two in Agatha Christie... one in P. D. James... none at all in Arthur Conan Doyle... suggestive but not too conclusive, I guess...
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MitchellF
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Re: Writer recognition

Post by MitchellF »

VictoriaF wrote:
I also find this topic interesting. In general, there could be three different questions:
1. Who wrote this (book, article, etc.)?
2. Did John Smith write this (book, article, etc.)?
3. What are different web sites where John Smith posts and what aliases he uses at each site?

The first question is difficult and depends on the universe of potential writers.

The second question is probably the easiest given a large enough writing sample.

The third question may be the most difficult.

Thank you for the reference,
Victoria
This is the line I followed as well. I discussed this tonight with my wife who is a technical writer and my mother who runs an editing and proofreading company. I suspect that given the motivation and technological capability all three could be answered.

The second does seem easiest, and is the path the author of the book followed. The other two would be a challenge, but by no means impossible. Every writer has idiosyncracies. My mother points out that I use commas in a dependably erratic manner. My wife is notable for her love of, and her accurate use of the semicolon, which is a dying art.

So let's imagine we are tracking down my wife's authorship of various posts. We could screen for semicolon usage above average usage in a block of text. We could screen out those text blocks in which it used consistently incorrectly. We could then move on to specific unusual words that she uses and scan for their frequency. Given sufficiently sophisticated searching ability I can see how this could 'out' just about any author with a high frequency of success.

Sorry for the hijack you all.
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Post by zookeeper24 »

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

Guess I'm on a lost-at-sea theme.
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Post by chaz »

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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Honda Pilot Owners Manual

Post by PaPaw »

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.
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Post by nisiprius »

chaz wrote:"An Innocent Man" by John Grisham.
I found it disappointly one-sided. In Grisham's presentation, 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.
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Post by chaz »

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!!!
Chaz | | “Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons." Woody Allen | | http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
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Post by malloc »

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.
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Post by Kurmudjon »

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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Post by Bud »

Primal Leadership by Daniel Goleman

Excellent and different perspective on leadership
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HouseHubby
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Post by HouseHubby »

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.
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Post by tdhg566 »

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
As an Enrolled Agent I advise clients about taxes and investments. My work is retiree friendly, geographically portable, mentally stimulating, personally profitable and emotionally rewarding.
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shadowrings
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Post by shadowrings »

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.
Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people. | --- Carl G. Jung
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eilros
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Post by eilros »

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

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
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Reading....

Post by VennData »

'English, August' by Upamanyu Chatterjee

OT Shouldn't Bogleheads have some kind of... Declaration of Independence?
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Post by communipaw »

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].
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arthurdawg
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reading...

Post by arthurdawg »

just finished "the great upheaval" by jay winik,

just started "the discoverers" by daniel boorstin.
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bobcat2
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Spend 'til the End

Post by bobcat2 »

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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Post by bolt »

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

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
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Post by chaz »

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.
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Re: Spend 'til the End

Post by VictoriaF »

bobcat2 wrote:I just finished Spend 'til the End by Larry Kotlikoff and Scott Burns and will be rereading it this weekend.

Bob K
Bob,
It is interesting that you have already received it and had enough time to read it. Mine has not arrived yet, but I had an email from Amazon that it was on the way.
Victoria
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Re: Spend 'til the End

Post by CaptMidnight »

bobcat2 wrote:I just finished Spend 'til the End by Larry Kotlikoff and Scott Burns and will be rereading it this weekend.

Bob K
So, what is your review? Did you learn anything about using esplanner that you didn't already know?
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