Reading List

A sunset from outside our coach. Every evening we have been rewarded with these amazing sunsets. Well, almost every evening. There have been a couple of cloudy days since we arrived at Myakka River Motorcoach Resort.

We had a chance to get together with family yesterday. Lorraine’s father spends his winters down in Florida. He hadn’t seen our coach and we gave him the tour yesterday. He took a seat in the captain’s chair, the best seat in the coach, and looked ready to take to the road.

During lunch I was asked about my reading list.

It has been part of my goal setting activities for many years now. Since 1989.

I usually take time over the Christmas break to pull my reading list together. Always a bit fluid mind you. It is dangerous for me and my wallet to wander into a book store. I seem to leave with another book or two.

I keep three bins in the coach for the physical books. Once a book is finished, it gets donated and I get to put another in its place.

Although, in the interest of full disclosure, I do have a couple of books not in a bin. Don’t let Lorraine know!

Here is the current list:

Financial Planning

The Intelligent Investor – Benjamin Graham. This is a classic book on investing and I have read it several times before. I re-read it, especially when stock markets get a bit frothy like they are today.

Your Retirement Income Blueprint – Daryl Diamond. Being retired, I decided it was important to gain some insight into planning our withdrawals.

Retirement Income for Life – Frederick Vettese. I’ve read a few of his books on retirement. He always provides good insight. This book deals with how to effectively draw down money during retirement. In our situation, we have three corporate pensions, four government pensions, two non-taxable investment accounts, three registered investment accounts and one taxable investment account. When to start, how much to draw and how to do so tax efficiently are topics covered in his book.

Personal Development

The Happiness Equation – Neil Pasricha. I am reading this book as part of a reflection on how I spent 30 years of my life in a very demanding career. Although I enjoyed a successful career, I found the work stressful. Perhaps I missed something along the way and this book might provide some insight.

The Happiness Project – Gretchen Rubin. If I cannot figure out the Happiness Equation then my fallback is this book. I will be happy darn it!

Purposeful Retirement – Hyrum Smith. So many people ask me what I do all day now that I am retired. Perhaps reading this book will give me some answers for them.

The Power of Habit – Charles Duhigg. A perspective on the science behind habit creation and reformation.

The Big Five for Life – John Strelecky. The publisher promises the following: “This book will inspire you. It will change your life in ways you can’t know now, but you’ll understand completely once you’re done reading it. It will also forever enhance the way you look at your role as a leader. That includes the way you lead at home, at work, in your community… and especially the way you lead you.”

Life and Work Principles – Ray Dalio. Ray Dalio heads up Bridgewater. The corporate culture of Bridgewater focuses on radical transparency. I’m not a fan of harsh and abusive corporate cultures and perhaps this one is different. The book focuses on the context and principles for life and work and how to deal with challenges and make decisions.

Perspective

Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else – Chrystia Freeland. Chrystia plays a key role in the current Canadian government. As the current government has tilted heavily to the left, I wanted to get some insight into how the key leaders are thinking about policy. Chrystia was a key negotiator of the recent free trade talks with the United States.

Wizard of Lies – Diana Henriques. Bernie Madoff committed one of the largest frauds in history. This book provides a perspective on that fraud.

The Golden Passport – Duff McDonald. This book focuses on the moral failure of the MBAs being produced by the Harvard Business School.

A Man for all Markets – Edward Thorp. He is the godfather of quants and a bit of a legend in the stock market.

Homo Deus – Yuval Noah Harari. He wrote Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind. I really enjoyed that book. Homo Deus is a brief history about tomorrow.

Black Edge – Sheela Kolhatkar. A book about those nasty hedge funds.

1984 – George Orwell. Read it a long time ago. Given everything going on in the world today, I thought I should read it again.

Pleasure

Now that I am retired, I get to read a few pleasure books without feeling too guilty about it.

The Reckoning – John Grisham. Love reading his books.

The Dead Zone – Stephen King. He lives close by us here in Florida. Must read a local author.

The Cuckoo’s Calling – Robert Galbraith. A retirement gift.

Career of Evil – Robert Galbraith. Another retirement gift.

The Silkworm – Robert Galbraith. The final retirement gift.

Ready Player One – Ernest Cline. Watched the movie and now I get to read the book.

Tiger Woods – Jeff Benedict. Loved this athlete during his prime years. So disappointed in his character.

Sleeping Giants – Sylvain Neuvel. A thriller in the tradition of Michael Crichton.

State of Fear – Micheal Crichton. I’ll see if it is better than Sleeping Giants.

That is my current list. Might be something of interest for those of you passionate about reading.

So many great books and so little time to read them.