What I Just Read

In just under 200 pages, The Investor's Manifesto gives you everything you need to manage your investments: * A historically grounded discussion of the tradeoffs between risk and return, * How to design an investment portfolio using index funds, including advice on withdrawal rates and how (and how often) to rebalance, * A good discussion of human psychological biases (the author uses the wonderful phrase "investing psychopathology" to describe this topic), and * How to navigate the financial services industry without getting your head handed to you. Finally, there's a chapter that summarizes everything, followed by a solid reading list for continuing your investment education, broken down by topic: theory, history, psychology, and business. Anyone wanting to reach a reasonable competence level in investing should read at least one of William Bernstein's books. This one or The Four Pillars of Investing  will suffice. Since he's not a Wall Street guy--he's...

This is an extraordinary, beautiful--and excessive--book that places certain a priori requirements on the reader. It is not a book for the normal person. You have to be a lover of languages, as well as a student of all the weird things your brain and ego do to you when you learn a new language. It will help you to enjoy this book if you speak some French as well as a little Italian. You'll have to be a lover of poetry, including poetry's various technical elements. You have to be able to appreciate wordplay, a good turn of phrase, and other geeky nuances of language. You have to enjoy fooling around with words! If that's not you, this is not your book. And even if it is you, you'll still need to be extremely patient with the author. More on that in a moment. Just like with this author's beautiful and better-known Godel, Escher, Bach ,  it is next to impossible to describe this book. Literally, Le Ton beau de Marot  is about a subtle little poem, "Ma Mignonne...