Sharing news and commentary about education, careers, investing, and life.

Sharing news and commentary about education, careers, investing, and life.

Monday, July 9, 2007

Book Review: "Common Sense Investing"; "Into The Wild"; "Barbarians at the Gate"

After dislocating my shoulder early in the weekend, and thus being out of commission for any fun in New York City, I decided I'd be productive and read a lot. Thus began my 3 book (and too much coffee) odyssey.

The first book I started reading was Barbarians at the Gate but oddly enough it ended up being the book I finished last. It really does read like a novel except you feel better reading it when you realize it covers very significant historical business events. You can read about the plot in the link I provide above, just like I'll do for any other book I review, but the important thing is that if you have any interest in business then Barbarians is for you.

The second book I started reading was on Saturday night and it is called The Little Book of Common Sense Investing. I really have been liking Wiley's "Little Book of..." series and this one continues the trend - this applies to anyone who will ever invest and since that includes just about everyone then you should certainly take a look at this book. Believe me, it's a quick read and it makes a lot of sense. If you like this book (and you probably will) then you should also take a look at The Little Book of Value Investing which to me is even better.

The third book I read was when I woke up way too early on Sunday and couldn't get back to sleep. I decided to head over to Barnes & Noble, grab a coffee, and read something from their "Summer Reading" pile. I remember reading an excerpt of Into the Wild in Mr. Corbett's english class back in 8th grade, so I decided to grab the book and read the whole thing. Boy, if you decide to take a look at this book then make sure you're prepared for a sobering story. While it was an interesting story, it was too depressing for my tastes. If you're looking for something uplifting, don't read this book. If you're looking for something that'll make you question how you live your life, I don't even think this book will do that. I got the impression that Chris (whom the story is about) was sort of a nut job so the story wasn't too moving for me.

People often ask how I read 2-3 books a week - well, when you get injured as much as I do you end up having a lot of time on weekends and at nights! So there's my tale of 3 books in one weekend - next up will probably be Liar's Poker (to give me closure on my recent LTCM/Salomon/corruption/I-banking reading binge) or The Black Swan (to read Taleb's follow up to the brilliant Fooled by Randomness).

By the way, to clarify for some of our readers - every post has been by me (Rafael Corrales) but I anticipate Mr. Orion King posting in the future.

All the best,

Rafael Corrales
CK Tutors
http://www.cktutors.com

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