I love reading other people’s “Book of the Year” sections, but I don’t tend to do book reviews myself.

Why? Frankly, I am a slow reader. I find the problem with most books is that the best bits are in the details. If you try to skim these things off, you just get surface ideas, and everyone has those ideas, so they’re worthless.

It is only when you take the time to read correctly that you catch the little lines or ideas that give you a good appreciation of what is being said, which is often very different from what you would get from reading them. reviews.

(The same goes for research papers, government documents, and the like – if there’s anything you want to learn, go to the original source, there’s no shortcut.)

Anyway, it’s far from me to say, here are some of the books that I really enjoyed this year, most of which haven’t actually come out this year.

Hopefully you might come up with some ideas and if you’ve ever read one yourself I’d love to hear your reactions – just tweet me on @john_stepek, or ping [email protected]

Here is.

Confused by the blockchain? This Sci-Fi Classic May Just Help You

The first book on my list is a 1981 science fiction classic by Vernor Vinge, titled Real names. The story itself is pretty fun – if you liked Loan Player One, it’s like reading your great-grandfather (homage would be too strong a word but Real names is clearly a very big influence on this novel). It is much less dark and threatening than that of William Gibson Neuromancer, for example. It’s also very short – more big news than a novel.

But what I have really found useful from an investment perspective is the collection of essays on crypto, cybersecurity, the internet, and stateless money, drawn from various sources (wired features heavily) and mainly published in the 1990s, which accompanied the 2016 edition of the novel. There’s even a fascinating essay on a 1980s version of the Metaverse – Lucasfilm’s “Habitat” project.

For cryptosceptics in particular, it’s worth reading. These essays will give you a good theoretical foundation for blockchain, independent currencies and more, without getting too far down the rabbit hole. It’s especially helpful that bitcoin and the like didn’t actually exist at the time most of these essays were written, so while the authors may have their own ideological perspectives, they aren’t reporting any specific crypto tokens.

The insight of many authors is also fascinating. It should be remembered that some commentators were extremely skeptical of the transformative powers of the Internet until the early 2000s. And yet these people were talking about e-commerce revolutions at a time when Amazon was nothing more than a mail order bookstore and Netflix a mail order version of Blockbuster.

If you are already on your blockchains and all of your emails are coming from private channels, then nothing here will be news to you. But for the rest of us, ranging from crypto-curious (like me) to downright skeptics, this is a very useful introduction that might just open your mind.

A thriller about doing business in Russia

I also finally started to read (or rather to listen, via Audible) Red Notice, which is Bill Browder’s tale of how he created Hermitage Capital, a hedge fund focused on investing in Russia in its brief transition period after 1989, and how it all went wrong.

There’s no question that Browder isn’t shy about getting bigger, and it would be nice to have an alternate perspective (one that you can trust, which is of course tricky) from other people who look out for themselves. were in different rooms at the time.

However, there’s no doubt that he’s an amazing page turner, especially for an account that’s not afraid to get a little technical on financial matters when he needs it. It reads like a thriller, but it’s also fascinating for its flashes to Eastern Europe in the 1990s, and the sections detailing exactly how Russia was effectively stripped of assets by the same well-connected buddies who supervised the Soviet regime, are extremely informative. . I highly, highly recommend it.

The best investing book I have read this year

The investment book that I liked the most this year was The smart money method, by Stephen Clapham. Steve is a seasoned analyst and investor, and his book covers how to pick stocks.

The big difference between Steve’s book and many others like it is that a) it is clear that he has done a lot of this stuff, and that he understands from experience that there is no sure things no matter how good you are; and b) it is absolutely packed with ideas and case studies.

If you are a beginner, some of this book will be beyond you, but it will give you a good idea of ​​what to focus on and also give you a very clear understanding of how much work is in stock. picking (and that you might be better off sticking with funds or trackers for your own portfolio). And if you are experienced, it will give you great ideas on what to look for, new angles and ratios to use in your analysis, as well as entertaining and highly relevant investment stories.

You can listen to my podcast with Steve here.

Honorable mentions, plus one to pre-order now

I enjoyed Alasdair Nairn’s The end of the everything bubble – this is a succinct interpretation of all the bearish arguments. None of these will be new to MoneyWeek readers, but it serves as a reminder of how precarious our situation is right now. I would also recommend Raghuram Rajan’s The third pillar – it’s a brilliant, lucid and calm summary of how we got to where we are (covering everything from the rise of populism to crony capitalism) and why pay more attention to community – the “third pillar”, next to the market and the state – could help us move forward.

Finally, you all need to get my colleague Merryn’s new book, Share the power. I got a taste of it and it’s excellent. Merryn diagnoses exactly why everyone is fed up with capitalism, why they are wrong to be, and what we can do to make it work better for everyone involved (except maybe the grossly overpaid CEOs). It’s a must read on that basis alone.

But the other point is that it is short. Many investment books these days give the impression that they are an idea scattered over hundreds of pages. Merryn’s book, on the other hand, feels like it’s full of ideas, clear recommendations on how to implement them, and it doesn’t take half of your week to get right to the point. Head over to Amazon and pre-order it for a post-Christmas treat.