An Aside

I recently received a mail from Vibhu urging me to list my favourite books on the site.

Given the nature of this blog, it seemed to me that I should focus on investing related books rather than a general reading list. That's of course not to say that I have this single-minded focus on reading management tomes. I do read serious, high-brow classics like Asterix, Tintin, Dilbert, Red Riding Hood... but then there's probably a different and better forum for holding forth on those!

The following are (in order of preference) on my list of 'highly recommended' books for investors like me:

1. One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch - excellent teachings on finding small and mid-cap winners. You can read an excellent synopsis of the book and Lynch's teachings here
2. Buffetology and The New Buffetology by Mary Buffet - Buffet's modus operandi, mainly oriented towards finding large-cap stocks at a good price
3. Rich Dad, Poor Dad - the book that inspired me to think about my finances and set me firmly on the path to a comfortable and early retirement (hope springs eternal...)
4. The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham - quite a tome, but this is by the guru of value investing and eminently worth a read

These four books are enough to help any small investor do well in stocks, provided he / she is willing to devote time and effort towards understanding and applying the lessons in these books to their hard-earned money.