My Reading Review

This is a list of books where I have read and found interesting to share. I hope the descriptions and reviews provide a good idea of the books.

Business

The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman

• Description: The author argues that going to business school and pursuing an MBA Master Degree may not be the right path for everyone. The objective of the book is to provide an insight of the fundamental concepts of business. The book encourages readers to explore more if they want to know from their website links.
• Review: This book explores a lot of concepts in business in a condensed book and an easy read. The main benefit of the book for me is that it provides awareness of concepts which I didn’t know about, and study further.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

• Description: A translated version of the famous ancient Chinese War strategy. It is often used as an inspiration for developing strategies for business as The Art of War contains ideas that are transferable to a business environment.
• Reviews: I think some concepts are interesting and great for the applications in businesses. However, the 21st-century the business climate is changing as businesses are not always driven by the ‘top line’ of maximizing revenue as the ultimate objective. There are often other factors to consider usually driven by government and regulations such as corporate social and governance responsibilities.

Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis

• Description: This is a non-fiction book capturing the period in the 1980s of Wall Street written by Michael Lewis.
• Review: This is an entertaining read of what the work culture in Wall Street was like in the 80s it is an interesting contrast of the environment compared to present day. I particularly enjoy reading how the financial institution generates their business from the different departments and how learning the different financial instruments.

Investing

The Harriman Book of Investing Rules by Philip Jenks and Stephen Eckett

• Description: A collection of investing ideas and principles. The book states the collation of ideas may contradict each other due to the styles and strategies of well-known investors, traders, fund managers, analysts.
• Review: Great book for someone new and getting to know about the world of investing and understanding everyone has their own strategies for managing risk and reward.

The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham updated with new commentary by Jason Zheig

• Description: Book was originally first published in 1949, it explains the philosophy of ‘value investing’ which shields investors from substantial errors and teaches them to develop long-term strategies
• Review: This is a classic book, although I think the book is a bit long to read, I particularly enjoy learning the history of different companies and reading graphs and data from the new commentary.

The Naked Trader by Robbie Burns

• Description: An introduction to trading, where Robbie Burns from the UK lives a lifestyle that he can work his own hours and provided that you read and take the action you can have a lifestyle like him and ‘live the dream’. The book contains an enriching library of resource and toolbox of different trading strategies in mid-long term trading.
• Review: An easy to read book targeted at retail investors who want to start trading.

Financial Modelling

Financial Modelling by Simon Benninga

• Description: A practical application book for financial modeling within Financial Services. It contains a range of examples of financial modeling using VBA and Excel.
• Review: I believe this book is useful for developing the foundation of financial modeling. I developed modeling techniques using this book. My favorite part is it has downloadable examples and templates where I can learn from modifying the data and Marcos.

Economics

• 50 Economics ideas you really need to know by Edmund Conway
• Description: It is one of the editions of 50 things you need to know about a subject. It contains sections this includes the basics of economics, the political impact, how economic works, finance, and market, issues the world face and alternative economics. Each chapter of the 50 things contains about 4 pages with and has several examples.
• Review: The content is well laid out, making it easy to read and grasp the context. It reinforced my understanding of economics by focusing on the ideas for each chapter. It is a fun leisure read with interesting facts.

Freakonomics by Steven D.Levitt and Stephen J.Dubner

• Description: The book is based on social sciences and the titles of the chapters are normally rhetorical questions. The authors attempt to answer using logical reasoning and evidence they have gathered.
• Review: This is enjoyable read and captivating, where it makes the reader think to find answers to questions in everyday experiences of “Why are things the way they are”. After reading this, I started to wonder more and ask myself questions.

Personal Financial Literacy

• The 100-year life living and working in an age of longevity by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott
• Description: The book educates the reader about lifelong financial and career planning. It believes people should plan their career differently because it is different to what it was a few decades ago when life expectancy was a lot lower, and current average life expectancy is a lot higher.
• Review: This is an enlighting read, I particularly enjoy the scenarios of case scenarios of ‘what if’s’ the people chose their life differently, by starting their own business or focusing on family and part-time working. It’s uncommon for people to think about financial and life planning, generally not a popular topic that is talked about.

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

• Description: The book compares on what the ‘rich’ parents teach their kids to compare to the ‘poor’. The book explores the idea that you need to earn a high income and to be rich and explains the difference between working for money and having your money work for you.
• Review: The book heavily simplifies the concepts of what are assets and liabilities, which in reality is not that simple. It is a decent book teaching about financial literacy and long-term financial planning. This book is not a get rich quick book.

Self-help/Improvement

Talk like Ted by Carmine Gallo

• Description: A guide to public speaking, based on scientific analysis of hundreds of TED presentations and interviews with TED speakers.
• Review: I enjoyed reading and becoming more inspired by different types of approaches in presenting. The book contains tips for important points for the reader to take in. I followed up by searching for TED speakers and watching how to deliver their presentations.

Tools of the Titan by Tim Ferris

• Description: A collection of interviews with successful people, Tim Ferris has collated their routines and habits. The book is split into Healthy, Wealthy and Wise.
• Review: This book is a great leisure read, I found this collection of ideas very helpful and fascinating. I particularly enjoy the fitness and business elements of the book.

Principles by Ray Dalio

• Description: Written by a successful hedge fund manager of Bridgewater Associates, he strongly believes in setting out principles in order to be successful from the lessons he learned in his lifetime. He explains his own principles and intends to share with others.
• Review: Interesting read where I have implemented some of his principles and applying them in my own life. Though I think the book is a bit repetitive on the concepts at times.