It’s time for another quarterly reading update. The goal is to read more books this year. So these updates are mostly for my own accountability, but if someone else finds something interesting, great.
Here’s what I’ve been reading over the last quarter.
- How to Lie with Statistics – Darrell Huff uncovers all the ways people can be fooled by statistics. Being written in 1954, some of the examples are dated, but no less relevant today. The book is short, humorous, and actually useful.
- The Money Game – This is one of the better investing books I’ve read in a while. Adam Smith (George Goodman) uses a series of stories about the games people play with money and markets, to uncover the emotion, mistakes, myth, and irrationality that surrounds investing.
- Why You Win or Lose: The Psychology of Speculation – It checks all the boxes for my affinity for old books. It was written in 1930, few people know it exists, and it’s a quick read. It also dives into the curse of normal human nature, crowd behavior, and the need to be abnormal — a contrarian.
- Mastering the Market Cycle – The latest book from Howard Marks was just released this week. I started reading it yesterday.
- The Daily Stoic – I picked this up on my last book buying spree. As the title suggests, it’s a daily read and only a minute or two at that. Ryan Holiday set it up to be a daily reminder, one quote from a Greek or Roman philosopher for every day of the year.
- Chapterhouse: Dune – This is the sixth and final book in the original Dune series. I was hesitant at first, but it turned out to be a good ending to a series that started out strong with the first three books, then become more of a philosophical slog than a story, with a huge jump in the timeline through books four and five. Overall, it was a good recovery.
- Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories – The first of a two-volume set of Arthur Conan Doyle stories about his world-famous detective. I bought both volumes but have only gotten through the one so far. It’s a fun read. The nice bit is that because it’s a bunch of short stories, you can read it piecemeal.
- Killers of the Flower Moon – The book came highly recommended and it’s another one I just started reading. It’s the story of one of the darker periods in U.S. history on the conspiracy and murder of Osage Indians out of greed and oil.
If those books aren’t appealing, here are a few more book lists I came across to help fill out your fall reading.
- Charles Munger: 32 Books That Every Investor Should Read
- 9 Underrated Investing Books
- Andrew Luck’s Book Club Archives
- 100 Best Books of the 21st Century
Last Call
- This Timeless And Boldly Optimistic Idea Could Change Your Life – R. Holiday
- The Curious Case for Emerging Markets – Bps and Pieces
- Circle of Competence – Behavioral Value Investor
- Quant Investor Cliff Asness Hasn’t Smashed His Screen This Year—Yet – Bloomberg
- What Billy Beane and Jim Simons Have in Common – Institutional Investor
- A Stats-Based Look Behind the VC Curtain – Medium
- It Isn’t a Replication Crisis. It’s a Replication Opportunity – Behavioral Scientist
- The Most Important Least-Noticed Economic Event of the Decade – N. Irwin
- Yuval Noah Harari Explains the Secret to Surviving the Tech Dystopia – GQ
- Mastering the Market Cycle: Howard Marks Interview (video) – CFA Society NY
- The Meb Faber Show: Howard Marks (podcast) – M. Faber
- The World’s Most Beautiful Battery – Bloomberg
