[mrmarket]

The purpose of this thread is simple really; post what book you are reading right now. Include the Title, Author and if you want a small synopsis/review of it so that people can get a general idea of the book. Don't be shy about posting your book because everyone is welcome. That includes high brow salivating Proust intellectual f-u-c-k sticks and knuckle dragging Stephen King droolers. You can both learn from each other.

Now you might wonder why would a book thread belong in a gambling forum? Sports Betting and most gambling does not take place in a vacuum. You need a variety of skills to succeed. Expanding your horizons to include different topics, opinions and facts can only help your decision making processes.

For the more skeptical amongst you here is an more in depth exploration of why reading is important from an investment perspective. It's based on the works by that rich old f-u-c-k Charles Munger (Buffett's 2nd in Command).

http://www.focusinvestor.com/FocusSeriesPart3.pdf

All that being said I think the most important reason to read is because it is fun. But who knows you might become an erudite gambler and impress some cocktail waitresses with your book smarts. We live in hope.

I debated whether to start this thread in Players Lounge but decided it had less chance of being buried by the various JJGold rambling threads. If it ever takes off cross posting it with PL would probably be a good idea.

[mrmarket]

To get things rolling here is what I am reading right now:

Genre: Non-Fiction
Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the search for the American Dream. by Adam Shepard.

Synopsis:

College student makes a rebuttal to the book Nickle and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich by moving to a random town in the USA and starting his life again from scratch. He starts off homeless and then in a shelter moving progressively further as the story unfolds.

[Maverick22]

Genre: Fiction
Title: "Go Dog Go"

Synopsis: "Go Dog Go." is a heart warming novel. A compelling and disturbing look at the canine psyche.

If I may quote a passage:

'Big… dog…, little… dog.' [turns the page] 'A red dog… on a…'

Well, anyway, I'm not one to give away the ending, but I will say that it spirals toward an incredible twist-turn that parallels my own life.

[Dark Horse]

I usually have a few books laying around at the same time, but hardly ever read a book from cover to cover. I'm mostly looking for tidbits of information that add to my thought process at the present time.

A work on math by Girolamo Cardano, Renaissance mathematician who was the first to write on game theory.
Soccernomics - by Simon Kuper, about overlapping areas between soccer and economics.
Expert Handicapping by Dave Liftin, mostly about form cycles in horse racing.

The last science books I read were Entanglement by Amir Aczel, and a couple of works on chaos theory. I also read from the Bhagavad Gita from time to time. And I love Labyrinths, selected stories by Jorge Luis Borges. He writes stuff like "He could express himself with fluency and ignorance in several languages."

[gryfyn1]

Genre: Non-fiction

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond

synop: A comparative study of societies from the past to the present, from the Easter Islanders, Greenland Norse, Tokugawa Japan to modern day Rwanda, and how the way the effected the environment and the responses to that led to there succeces or demise. And a review of how the problems of the past can help or problems of the future

[Justin7]

Collapse was a great book.

[fletch49]

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Written in 1957, a novel about American society and the struggle between those in power and those who actually have the intelligence. Fascinating resemblance to the 21st century !!

[jbrent95]

Citizen Coors: An American Dynasty

[Carson05]

One up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch

Wisdom of Life and Counsels and Maxims, Essays by Arthur Schopenhauer

[mrmarket]

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Written in 1957, a novel about American society and the struggle between those in power and those who actually have the intelligence. Fascinating resemblance to the 21st century !!

This is one of my favorite books. I've read it twice and will probably read it again this summer.

[fletch49]

I am about 80% finished on it. Fascinating reading! Very timely considering it was written in 1957. WOW!

[MadTiger]

When you are dealing with a classic produced by a genius, that tends to happen.

EDIT:

AUDIOBOOK

Genre: Fiction
Title: "The New Breed"
(from W.E.B. Griffin's Brotherhood of War series)
Synopsis: Old and new faces find themselves swept into a maelstrom of danger when the United States becomes deeply involved in the 1964 Congo Rebellion

[Dave Head]

mrmarket:

About "Atlas Shrugged", by Ayn Rand, you said:

This is one of my favorite books. I've read it twice and will probably read it again this summer.

The most notorious Ayn Rand devotee is Alan Greenspan. Here is a link to a video, in which he admits that he was wrong. It's less than 2 minutes, but you can skip to the end where he admits it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqe0V...eature=related

Here's a link to another video that goes into detail about just how far he had his head up his ass:

http://www.businessinsider.com/jim-g...eenspan-2010-4

Thank you, mrmarket, for bringing this Ayn Rand trash to the Handicapper Think Tank. There's a reason that Players Talk is the way that it is, and now you had to bring it here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[Joe Dogs]

The Tipping Point......How little things can make a big difference.

Malcolm Gladwell

[Sawyer]

Cin Ali is my favourite these days..

[uva3021]

The Ancestor's Tale - Richard Dawkins

Basically the book has introduced me to the "Tyranny of the Discontinuous Mind." Which in all respects of life is a practical application

[Justin7]

The Tipping Point......How little things can make a big difference.

Malcolm Gladwell

I enjoyed Tipping point, but like Freakonomics better (there were a lot of parallels in the two books).

[SportsInsights]

“Sports Investing: Profiting from Point Spreads: Finding Value in the Sports Marketplace”

In my humble opinion it’s the definitive book on value betting. It attempts to redefine sport betting as an investment class activity….and yes, I help to write it!

[TomG]

“Sports Investing: Profiting from Point Spreads: Finding Value in the Sports Marketplace”

In my humble opinion it’s the definitive book on value betting. It attempts to redefine sport betting as an investment class activity….and yes, I help to write it!

Has anyone else read this book yet?

[Sawyer]

“Sports Investing: Profiting from Point Spreads: Finding Value in the Sports Marketplace”

In my humble opinion it’s the definitive book on value betting. It attempts to redefine sport betting as an investment class activity….and yes, I help to write it!

Is it available online? in PDF?

[Jiggy Fly]

Picked up a supermarket copy of an "Archie Comics" this morning. Can't wait till Betty and Veronica dyke it out.

[mrmarket]

mrmarket:

About "Atlas Shrugged", by Ayn Rand, you said:


The most notorious Ayn Rand devotee is Alan Greenspan. Here is a link to a video, in which he admits that he was wrong. It's less than 2 minutes, but you can skip to the end where he admits it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqe0V...eature=related

Here's a link to another video that goes into detail about just how far he had his head up his ass:

http://www.businessinsider.com/jim-g...eenspan-2010-4

Thank you, mrmarket, for bringing this Ayn Rand trash to the Handicapper Think Tank. There's a reason that Players Talk is the way that it is, and now you had to bring it here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Enjoying a book does equate to following its philosophy. I also enjoyed Don Quixote. Are you going to site some article about how hazardous it is for me to be charging windmills as well? Perhaps you should read some of the books in this thread instead of trolling.

[elgreco]

One up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch

Good for you. Excellent book. I actually can't think of a better one to begin an education in investing. As I'm sure you already know, Lynch is a student of Benjamin Graham who wrote The Intelligent Investor. That book is known as "The Bible of Value Investing". While you should read that at least once in your life, don't rush... it will bore you to tears (but i forced myself through it).

I just finished "Personal Foul" by Tim Donaghy... man did that screw up my view of the NBA.

[benjy]

Fiction: Nothing to Lose by Lee Child. I'm not a suspense fanatic but I've been going through his books about 2/wk. Very entertaining. I'll be needing something else too soon.

Non-Fiction: Nudge by Thaler. I find behavioral economics fascinating. Good read. If you dig Freakonomics you'd like it.

[Jasonal_98]

Genre: Fiction

Title: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson

Synopsis: A murder mystery set in Sweden. I picked this one up as it seemed to be a "hot" book at Amazon. Excellent, and can't wait to read the sequels after I finish the last 200 pages of this one. The third book in the trilogy comes out next month.

[fletch49]

Anything by Malcolm Gladwell is great! That is of course ONLY if you like to have your view of the world stretched and broadened. Not everyone here seems to enjoy that Most do however!

[mrmarket]

Finished:
1)Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the search for the American Dream. by Adam Shepard.
Recommendation: Do not recommend.
Review: Sloppy Writing. Pollyanna simplistic pick yourself up by your bootstraps young naive interpretation/outlook of social problems. Authors premise of book as social analysis flawed from the beginning. Author comes across as unlikeable Tony Robbins wannabe.

Currently Reading:
2) How the Scots Invented the Modern World by Arthur Herman
Synopsis: Historical examination of how the Scottish people were influential in shaping modern western culture as we know it today. Also examines non Scottish origins of modern world.

[dvsbmx]

The Prince of Providence - The rise and fall of Buddy Cianci, Americas Most Notorious Mayor by Mike Stanton. The title of the book pretty much says it all. Its a biography of former Providence mayor, Buddy Cianci, and in my opinion, one of the better books I've read in a long while.

Too Fat to Fish by Artie Lange with Anthony Bozza. This is another biography about the life of Howard Stern show side kick Artie Lange. For anyone looking for an easy read with some great humor as well as tragedy pick this up.

[BrigadierPudding]

The Handicapper by Robert Allen Kalich. It's the story of a compulsive gambler who after years of losing immerses himself into handicapping college basketball. It's fiction so there's the wife, family and friends angles throw in for dramatic effect. It's also set in the 80s, pre-internet, etc. Takes a bit of time to get to the main plot, but it's nicely done once there. Decided to give it a whirl after I saw Alan Boston mention it in an interview.

[flyingillini]

Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life

A great read!

[shari91]

Awesome thread!! Currently re-reading for probably the 10th time:

Genre: Non-Fiction
Bringing Down the House: How Six Students Took Vegas for Millions
Author: Ben Mezrich

Synopsis:
It's about the MIT card counters who took a run on Vegas in blackjack and made a killing. The movie 21 was based on this book. Awesome read and always makes me think about if this would still be possible to do today and if so, who I'd want on my team.

Reading for the first time:
Genre: Non-Fiction

Egonomics: What Makes Ego our Greatest Asset (or Most Expensive Liability)
Authors: David Marcum and Steven Smith

Synopsis:

This was given to me by a guy who has been gambling for 40+ years and told me to read it in the context of betting. Although it was aimed at the corporate world, the book talks about how finding the right balance of ego and humility can increase your success in your 'work'. Deals with how our egos subtly or obviously interfere with our success but also sparks the drive to achieve, the nerve to try something when others call us foolish and the tenacity to conquer adversity.

[sycoogtit]

Playboy

EDIT
In the Think Tank, really?

[Johnny 55]

The Magician by Sol Stein.

[bookie]

Winning Results with Google Adwords...I'm late to the party on how adwords work...I never clicked on one, or thought about it...so I didn't understand all the economic activity that takes place through and around them (Google sells 20 billion dollars of them a year)...so now I'm reading a couple of books that are giving me ideas about how to use them in my business.