Financial books, preferences (ebook, paper, subscription)

[Tpeters2010]

For next year, I have goal to read financial books more frequent than 2017. Typically I borrow eBooks from city library. Current financial selection is poor, so time to rethink that plan. Possibilities include buy ebooks or paper or use subscription service like Scribd or Kindle Unlimited (currently subscribed to Audible). Anyone use these services? Do you like the selection of finance titles?

Lastly, if you had a favorite finance book this year, please include for us to put on our 2018 lists.

[SwitchPool]

Usually just buy the books straight up from Amazon and use the Kindle app. Never really tried any of the book subscription services although never looked into it, might be interested if they are a savings. Spend maybe $150 on books a year. Read on my Paperwhite at home, and with sync I sometimes get a page or two in on my phone at work here and there.

[Zaphod]

Any finance book that is more than intro to personal finance or just extolling some new idea, I find really difficult to read on an ereader. Its always hard to get the graphs to display properly and similar math issues.

I have reverted back to buying physical books for anything serious, just far easier to read, highlight, annotate and quickly get back to something interesting later on.

Lifecycle Investing by Ayres Nalebuff was good, albeit a tad too long (but true of most books really). I just breezed through the tenth mention of the same principle.

[jfoxcpacfp]

I always have a book going on Audible but, like @Zaphod, find numerical topics hard to digest. (And I'm sure the books Zaphod is reading are several degrees of difficulty ahead of anything I would choose.) That said, all financial books are not filled with charts and graphs - I find historical finance and introspection pretty fascinating. For example, pulled from my Audible Library:

• Liars Poker


• Citizens of London


• Pound Foolish


• The Wizard of Lies


• Ponzi's Scheme


• Where are the Customers' Yachts?


• The One Page Financial Plan

[Zaphod]

jfoxcpacfp wrote:

I always have a book going on Audible but, like @zaphod, find numerical topics hard to digest. (And I’m sure the books Zaphod is reading are several degrees of difficulty ahead of anything I would choose.) That said, all financial books are not filled with charts and graphs – I find historical finance and introspection pretty fascinating. For example, pulled from my Audible Library:

• Liars Poker


• Citizens of London


• Pound Foolish


• The Wizard of Lies


• Ponzi’s Scheme


• Where are the Customers’ Yachts?


• The One Page Financial Plan

Not very many out of hundreds of books, but pretty fair listening.

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I listed the only book I thought applied to the forum that I've read, its safe. I left off all the "other" stuff Im reading. Those make me feel like I need to go back and take a few years advanced math, but skipping pages of what are likely important equations certainly makes the book read faster.

[jfoxcpacfp]

Zaphod wrote:

 

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I listed the only book I thought applied to the forum that I’ve read, its safe. I left off all the “other” stuff Im reading. Those make me feel like I need to go back and take a few years advanced math, but skipping pages of what are likely important equations certainly makes the book read faster.

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You're right, I had no business answering that one. :?

[notadoc]

"

Why Digital Reading Is No Substitute for Print"

https://newrepublic.com/article/135326/digital-reading-no-substitute-print

[MochaDoc]

Tpeters2010 wrote:

Typically I borrow eBooks from city library. Current financial selection is poor, so time to rethink that plan.

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Does your library system have access to overdrive.com? If it does, you should sign up. There will likely be a wider variety of ebooks available on that platform than in your library system. Strange but that occasionally happens. Also, if you have friends or family members with library cards for other systems, ask them if you can use their log-in information on overdrive. This will give you access to all the books present in those systems, as well. I have access to 5 different library systems through overdrive.com (3 of my own and 2 from a family member). I'm drowning in ebooks, financial and otherwise.

One more thing, have you thought about donating some of the money you'd spend buying your own ebooks to the library and then suggesting they buy the books you'd have bought on your own? I donated and then requested a couple books last year. My library has been very responsive. People and institutions are usually responsive to suggestions from people who invest in them.

[djohnflatfeecfp]

I agree that some of the better financial books are hard to find at the library or even on Overdrive.  I will spend the money on hard copies as I don't do well with audio books.

 

Maybe the top of the list for me is Your Money and Your Brain.  It is an oldie but a classic.

 

Just finished the Four Pillars of Investing.  Decent book, however, I would love to see it updated.

 

A fun one is Backstage Wall Street by Josh Brown.  Easy read and enjoyable to get some insights from behind the curtain.

[MochaDoc]

My favorite finance book from 2017 was a fairly basic personal finance book. It was in no way ground breaking but it was simple, well-written and accessible. Worth it...Not Worth it? by Jack Otter

https://www.amazon.com/Worth-Not-Profitable-Financial-Questions/dp/1455508446

[VagabondMD]

I prefer to listen to books, either from my Audible subscription or from the library, especially when it is a story. For more serious reading, I split between the physical books and the Kindle reader or app on the iPad.

I do not recall reading any personal finance books of late. I am currently reading Ray Dalio’s Principles, and while there is an investing storyline, it is more about life lessons.

For a recommendation, anything by William Bernstein or Larry Swedroe is high quality. A folksy classic, The Richest Man In Babylon is a fun read or listen.

[Hatton]

I listen to podcasts.  I mainly read ebooks on my iPad.  I am reading Ken Follets a column of fire about Elizabethan England.  I am thinking of rereading Bernstein’s 4 Pillars prior to the wci conference.

[MochaDoc]

hatton1 wrote:

I am thinking of rereading Bernstein’s 4 Pillars prior to the wci conference.

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Did WCI every share what books will be in the swap bag?