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What books have you read multiple times?


Cevian

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I'd like to get into the habit of re-reading classic books which have made a major impact on my thinking, as opposed to just checking the box on a book I've read and always looking for the next great one.

 

What books have you (or still do) read multiple times?

 

The main ones I've read more than once are Nassim Taleb's books mainly because they are difficult reads. I'm tempted to re-read Against the Gods by Peter L. Bernstein since I seem to remember it was an eye opener such a long time ago.

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I like to read books first and then if they warrant it, revisit them on audible.

 

I done this with many investments books listed above.

 

When I was younger and trying to pull myself up by my book straps.... I listened to Tony Robbins Personal power and get the edge 10-15x each in 3 years. These were his inspired products akin to the first three star wars and everything since was the subsequent star wars.

 

I highly recommend them to anyone who suffers or has a hard time achieving in life.

 

To this day I still have his methodologies guiding me and reverberating in my mind with my own adaptations. It's been 15 years since I've been through them. 

 

Some snippets off the top of my head.

 

1. Using/creating pain to motivate yourself to do something difficult. Pain is a greater motivator than pleasure.

2. Don't major in minor things.

3. With a big enough why the how will follow

4. When things are at their worst, get excited because that's when the tide is about to turn.

5. If you don't attempt to achieve something big, you can't achieve anything big.

6. Interrupt your patterns

7. Act immediately on new ideas or they will be forgotten

8. Many inadequacies can be compensated for by massive action

9. Your success doesn't require anyone else's belief. Often others won't believe in you/your objectives.

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Not a book but Buffett's Letters had by far the most impact on my thinking and results. Seth Klarman's 'Margin of Safety' and Joel Greenblatt's 'You can be a StockMarket Genius' (I really HATE the title) were very good books with a huge impact on me. I was was much less impressed by the much praised Graham's 'Intelligent Investor. 

The first two books by Peter Lynch (Beat the Street and One up on Wall Street IIRC) are also VERY good and had a HUGE impact on my thinking. I think it was one of Lynch's books where I read about Buffett first. I think he wrote something along the lines that Buffett was doing what he was doing but buying whole companies.

To be honest it only dawned on me how poor my understanding of the investment world was when I read Lynch's books in the early nineties. Shortly after I had read Lynch's books SEC filings and lots of other stuff became accessible via the internet, THAT was a gamechanger, especially for someone living outside of the US.

I don't think a lit of good investment books have been written after Lynch.

 

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The Hyperion saga by Dan Simmons. Lord of the rings. Reminiscences of a stock operator.

 

Fwiw I think most books about investing are not worth reading twice. Either you get the concepts or you probably never will. After that you are imho better off getting your hands dirty. You won’t learn differential calculus (cooking, sex, poker) either by re-reading Kreyszig ten times: you have to practice.

 

Though periodically re-reading Kahneman or something similar about behavioral investing is probably not a bad idea to remind yourself how stupid you are.

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I would say my favourite book on investing is Joel Greenblatt's "You Can be a Stock Market Genius". I regularly re-read that if I am looking at a particular situation or just to remind myself about the major concepts.

 

Apart from that I have read Graham's "The Intelligent Investor" (the original one, not the horrendously b*stardised Zweig version!) several times.

 

I also regularly go back and read the Buffett Partnership letters to shareholders. They are incredibly valuable and lay out a huge amount of information on Buffett's early approach.

 

I like Buffett biographies too, but tend to only read things like that once.

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I also find that I like to listen to Audiobooks while commuting (about 30 mins each way by car, so long enough to get 'into' it, mentally).

 

I've used this time over the past couple of years to read listen to several books that I might not have invested the time to sit down and spend hours reading on the iPad or printed copies. It allows me to listen to a fiction work such as an Ayn Rand book or an interesting biography, and learn something during a chunk of time that otherwise would have just been wasted.

 

I think doing things like this give you a huge advantage over your contemporaries who are not interested in becoming a "Lifelong Learner" to coin a Munger phrase.

 

I also love watching YouTube videos on my lunch break at work and I have learned so much from watching everything I can get my hands on in this manner from Buffett; Munger; Klarman; Greenblatt; Zeke Ashton; Lauren Templeton etc.

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The Hyperion saga by Dan Simmons. Lord of the rings. Reminiscences of a stock operator.

 

Fwiw I think most books about investing are not worth reading twice. Either you get the concepts or you probably never will. After that you are imho better off getting your hands dirty. You won’t learn differential calculus (cooking, sex, poker) either by re-reading Kreyszig ten times: you have to practice.

 

Though periodically re-reading Kahneman or something similar about behavioral investing is probably not a bad idea to remind yourself how stupid you are.

 

Yep.

 

---

 

Stranger in a Strange Land - RAH

Revolt in 2100 - RAH

Canticle for Leibowitz - Miller

Deathworld Trilogy - Harrison

The God Makers - Herbert

Midas World - Pohl

The Saxon Chronicles - Cornwell

Ghenghis Khan Series - Iggulden

Walking Drum - L'Amour

World War Z - Brooks (the movie sucked)

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I've read some chapters from The Snowball multiple times, mostly about Buffett's partnership years. I skip all the personal stuff. Nassim Taleb's books as well.

 

And I like to do some counter-cyclical reading every year: reading about crashes and bear markets when stock markets are up a lot for the year and about about bull markets when they're down. Some suggestions here: The Great Crash - Galbraith, Bull - Maggie Mahar, The Great Beanie Baby Bubble - Zac Bissonnette (must read for investors in CryptoKitties and ICO's), The Funny Money Game - Andrew Tobias.

 

Fiction: The Shadow of the Wind - Zafón

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  • 2 weeks later...

I go back and read Steinbeck's "Cannery Row" every few years, by far one of my favorite books, also entertaining, funny, and quick to read.

 

I'm going to sound like a psychopath but one of my favorite sci-fi books is "Battlefield Earth" by L. Ron Hubbard.  Even though it's around 1000 pages I've read it 4-5 times.  Not an endorsement of the author as a person but it's a great book.

 

 

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