April Reading List

Beating the Street

by Peter Lynch, John Rothchild
Recommended

Comment: "This book is pretty good. It has great and practical advice for both the novice and the advanced stockpicker. The only downside is that the stock picks are dated now. For instance, he recommended Allied Capital which has since gone bankrupt and is the subject of David Einhorn's book which I finished last month. But just because the recommendations are not valid anymore doesn't mean you can't learn from Lynch's thought process and reasoning. I found these passages invaluable."

 

Inside the Economist's Mind: Conversations with Eminent Economists

by Paul A. Samuelson, William A. Barnett 

Comment: "I hardly ever do this and I hate to say it, but I quit this book before I finished it. It is a little more technical and less accessible than other books on economists that I've read, e.g. "Lives of the Laureates" and "The Worldly Philosophers". I also found it to be repetitive because a considerable amount of the interviews were with people I've already heard describe their background in depth. "

 

Prelude to Foundation (Foundation, Book 1)

by Isaac Asimov
Recommended

Comment: "This book was fantastic. I couldn't put it down.
The Foundation trilogy, of which this is not a part but it is in the line of books, won a special Hugo award for best science fiction series ever. This is the first book in that line, so I started at the beginning. I can't wait to read the rest."

 

Endgame: Bobby Fischer's Remarkable Rise and Fall - from America's Brightest Prodigy to the Edge of Madness

by Frank Brady
Recommended

Comment: "This book was fantastic. Frank Brady knows more about Bobby Fischer than any other living person.
I loved following Bobby's fanatic/obsessive preparation and rise in the chess world and then hated what the pursuit of the world's #1 position did to him as he descended into a sad character on the fringe of society. This book was not exactly an apology for Fischer, but it did have those qualities. For example, Brady gave a number of reasons why Fischer may have become anti-Semitic, one being to strike back at the US Chess Federation.
Reading this book got me so excited about chess that I am going to start learning the game. I think it will give me skills on thinking strategically.
This book is definitely worth your time."

 

The Number: How the Drive for Quarterly Earnings Corrupted Wall Street and Corporate America

by Alex Berenson, Mark Cuban

Recommended

Comment: "What a fantastic read. Alex Berenson is a captivating writer who masterfully wove together many different narratives - accounting, government regulatory, and stock market history as well as the stories of corporate misdoings by Computer Associates, Enron, Tyco, and Worldcom. "

Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings (Wiley Investment Classics)by Philip A. Fisher, Ken Fisher
Comment: "My expectations for this book were high. I was severely disappointed. The best part of this book is that it's over. The worst part of this book is that Phillip's son Kenneth owns the rights to the book. He took that privilege and ran with it. Kenneth, a billionaire investor, droned on for a dozen pages of prologue before writing another 27 for the introduction. If you happen to pick up this copy, and I suggest that you don't, skip all of Kenneth's writing. It's horrible.
Phillip writes like I hope that I don't: overly verbose with too complicated a structure. His writing also has too many references to previous statements so quoting him is impossible. In my view, the best investment writers drop little nuggets of wisdom. Because of the way Fisher writes, you won't get much of that from this book. The other problem with the writing is that there are too many examples so the book doesn't stand up historically. I don't want to read about Dow Chemical in the '50s or Motorola in the '70s. Both of these stocks are also written about because Fisher owned them which I found highly annoying.
I did find bits and pieces that I believe was adopted by other investment managers, e.g. three year rule, buying something when it is priced well and not haggling over 1/8ths.
However, I recommend that you skip this book."