My Top 10 Reads of 2017
I have read quite a few books this year, predominately nonfiction. Here are my top 10 reads, plz note the books are in no particular order & not necessarily they came out in 2017…
So here we go…
The Wisdom of Finance by Mihir Desai
Although this book came out in May, honestly, I had not heard of it. Writer, Columnist, Blogger, Twitter Sensation Sidin Sunny Vadukut had twitted Harvard Crimson article by Mihir Desai’s titled The Trouble with Optionality. It was a thought-provoking article which leads to this book discovery.
In Mihir own words ” The goal in the book is to try to demystify finance so that the people who currently demonize it will come to understand it, as opposed to simply oppose it. And then for the people who are in finance, we have to get back to the ideas. The ideas matter.”
It’s a fascinating read; it connects literature anything from Pride & Prejudice, “The Producers,” Working Girl to French revolution with Finance. This book shows how finance can be deeply connected to our humanity.
A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market by Edward O. Thorp
If one more significant role which Leonardo DiCaprio can consider playing & Martin Scorsese directing this is it, The Legend Ed Thorp: the man who beat the casinos & of course Financial markets.This book is a thrill ride, how Edward Thorp rose up from nothing to become a professor at MIT, invented card counting, got the wrong side of Casino Mobsters & also survived it. Thorp next stop was Wall Street through his statistical techniques he identified anomalies in Financial Markets & exploited it to its fullest. His life principles are taking nothing for granted, always question the status quo, Don’t judge until you have examined the evidence & find the problem, come out with theory & test the hypothesis in the practical world with skin in the game.
And Guess who has written the forward, another legend Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds by Michael Lewis
Well, you don’t need any reasons to read this book, Daa its Michael Lewis book…
This book is an intellectual adventure of Israeli psychologists namely Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, who single-handedly are responsible for the rise of behavioral science. This story, which only Michael Lewis could write, turn complex subject into a story about these two legends. Significant learnings from this story are how two very different individuals collaborated on an intellectual journey.
Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics By Richard H. Thaler
This book came out in 2015, had to reread the entire book in preparation to our interview with Prof.Richard Thaler which we did in June 2017 & Prof. Thaler won The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel on 9 Oct 2017. Yep, we got very lucky….:)
More about the book & our interview here: https://medium.com/@jayanthnanjappa/misbehaving-a-conversation-with-richard-thaler-a6ea02ba5ab9
Messy: How to Be Creative and Resilient in a Tidy-Minded World By Tim Harford
Messy came out in late 2016, one of the 1st books I read in 2017. Tim Harford is the author of the bestselling The Undercover Economist series books. The author makes a compelling case for being messy & disorganized, and you should stop being control freak. My favorite part is working on multiple tasks (not multitasking) might lead to breakthroughs in different approaches.
Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street by Sheelah Kolhatkar
If you have read The Big Short, Den of Thieves, Dark Money & watched & a big fan of Showtime’s Billions tv series. Then this is it. New Yorker staff writer Sheelah Kolhatkar has a compelling storyline in this thriller. Book follows the rise of Steve Cohen wealthiest and most influential figures in finance & Investment world. This book looks into a grey area of Investment world & how Wall Street took over US main street. Well written and with excellent sources, Captures the spirit of the hedge fund world.
The Success Equation: Untangling Skill and Luck in Business, Sports, and Investing by Michael J. Mauboussin
This book was long due, finally, read this year. Michael Mauboussin is Director of Research at BlueMountain Capital Management & adjunct professor of finance at Columbia Business School since 1993. The primary theme of this book is how influenced a particular activity is by skill or by luck in the field of Business, Investing & Sports. The best part of this book is around 20–25% of this book is notes & citations, which is excellent for further reading. All in all, it’s a must-read for anyone from sports or Investment world, highly recommend.
Organizational Alpha: How to Add Value in Institutional Asset Management by Ben Carlson
Ben Carlson is the Director of Institutional Asset Management at Ritholtz Wealth Management; this is Ben’s second book. Ben uses his experience from managing institutional portfolios to managing money at Endowment in the book. This book is a must-read for anyone who is into money management, can be used as a guide to draw up Investment Policy Statement. The book is simple, crisp & quick read.
Fifty Things that Made the Modern Economy by Tim Harford
Yep, there are two books of Tim Hartford in my top 10 reads this year. 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy began as a weekly economic history documentary radio podcast on BBC World Service presented by Tim Hard Harford himself, it was subsequently released a book with the same title. I picked this book to read about inventions related to Finance world like M-Pesa, Paper money, Index funds, etc, but later got interested in rest of book post listening to Russ Roberts EconTalk, wherein he discusses how many of cool technology which we use today all have origins to US military or Department of Defense from Computer, Touchscreen, Internet, etc. This book is a collection of Fascinating insights & how these inventions shaped our daily culture.
Innovation Stories from India Inc: Their Story in Their Words by Vijay Menon
This is my biased pick as yours truly has been acknowledged in the book ….:)
Beyond jugaad, that great Indian tradition of short-term quick fixes, what does innovation mean in Indian companies? That is the question addressed in the book. Vijay Menon is a Bangalore based marketing consultant and helps organizations to tell their story better. He has previously worked as a vice president of marketing in the IT industry, as a journalist with India Today, and as a nuclear engineer
Reading Innovation Stories from India Inc was just a delight. For an Individual who is a sucker for successful business stories, this book served the purpose. Book threw light on how suitable Innovation is required for fitting growth across market cycles. Since its 1st person views, the book is engaging & tries explaining complicated processes in simple language. The best part of the book was a diverse set of companies which it has covered from Conglomerate to MNCs to Large to mid companies. My personal favorite was Dr. Devi Shetty & Narayana health story.
I missed few great books which came out this year, will surely try to read them. Here are few compelling reads which I missed..
Philip Huber Chief Investment Officer at Huber Financial Advisors has come out with Twelve Books Everyone in Finance Will Be Talking About in 2018, thank you Philip for the list … Out of these 12, this four looks very interesting.
Happy Reading & have a great 2018….
