Books 01 (May 08 - Oct 08)

[pepper]

LenaHuat,

Tks for recommending books on similar subject. Will keep them in mind.

[blid2def]

Just read Reuters' coverage (Lifestyle, today's Sunday Times) on an upcoming book (Amazon, Jun 10) about the lives of four veteran bad boy actors: Richard Harris (deceased), Olivier Reed (deceased), Richard Burton (deceased) - see a trend here? - and Peter O'Toole (still alive).

The book: "Hellraisers: The Life and Inebriated Times of Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole And Oliver Reed" by Robert Sellers.

I'm not sure what font size the publisher uses for the cover, but I think it'll probably be quite small - or we're looking at a coffee-table-sized book. That aside, it looks like this might be an interesting book. Of the guys mentioned, I have firmer recollections of Peter O'Toole's performance in "Lawrence of Arabia" (I wasn't born yet when they were acting, but caught re-runs of the show on TV).

Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia (co-starring Omar Sharif):

Embedded videos have been disabled.
Click to view video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=fGfAi7Jh2C4

[kennynah]

I thought O'Toole's performance as the ring leader in the original Oliver Twist was outstanding... but wait...i should be posting this in the "movie thread"....

[helios]

Book Title: The Undercover Economist
Author: Tim Harford

i personally like this chapter 3 - e part on perfectly competitive market. ie. e competition in today's world is ubiquitous; we can't avoid this in e real world, real truth.

if u r a businessman, or operator (in a startup business or SME), u've to first understand how economists think, extrapolate this thinking inside e business fundamentals to build growth drivers and drive successions.

i would like to illustrate this excerpt, which i find it relating to retail/ food industries:

imagine now that e coffee market is not only free, but extremely competitive, that entrepreneurs r always starting new firms w fresh ideas and entering e market in an attempt to undercut e incumbent companies. e competition will force e price of coffee down to e [i]marginal cost- e cost e coffee bar incurs when making 1 more cappauccino.

if e price were lower, firms would go out of business until it rose. if e price were higher, new firms would enter or old firms would expand their output until it fell.[/i]

think abt it.

[millionairemind]

San,

I read The Undercover Economist 2 yrs ago.. If you like Tim Hartford's work, you will enjoy his second book The Logic of Life... I read it last month.

A couple of good essays in it regarding Game Theory which I liked alot..

Cheers,
mm

[helios]

i spent 20mins scanning thro' this lovely pocket-sized book; someday, we'll have this question in our minds, till then, what'd u do to live thro' every moment? what would u do today & yesterday?

Book Title: An Hour to Live, an Hour to Love
Author: Richard Carlson & Kristine Carlson

On their 18th wedding anniversary, in 2003, Richard Carlson presented his wife, Kristine, with a short manuscript called An Hour to Live. He imagines he has an hour to live and poses questions originally asked by spiritual guide and author Stephen Levine: whom would you call? what would you say? and why are you waiting?

Uncannily, the text foreshadowed Carlson's death three years later, at age 45, of a pulmonary embolism. Though he had no chance to make that last phone call, his wife (and the reader) already knows his feelings for her and their children. We also know what was important to him, which boils down to the old chestnut: no one, on their deathbed, ever wishes they'd spent more time at the office. Included in the book is Kristine's tribute to Richard, called An Hour to Love. Both pieces (only 50 pages and padded with Richard's favorite poem and blank pages for the reader's own answer to the key question) are heartfelt—and oddly unengaging.

If You Had An Hour To Live, What Would You Do, Who Would You Call?

[millionairemind]

I just finished reading the book The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. It is just over 200pages long and was an easy read for 2hrs.

Reading the book written by some1 who just has a couple more months to live helps one put one's life in perspective.

- Will you tell your wife/husband you love her/him more if you were in the same situation?

- Will you still get stressed out if you just lose some money trading the mkt?

- Will you curse and swear when you get stuck in traffic or just because the elderly gentleman in front of you
was just a tad slower getting off the MRT escalator?

- Will you get hopping made at your 5-yr old son just because he spilled milk on the sofa? Would you rather spend more time with him than watching junk television shows?

- Will you still think that promotion that you have been eyeing for 2 yrs is all that important?

- Who loves you the most and misses you the most when you are gone? Your boss or your family?

Just some random tots for the day..

[helios]

Book Title: Never mind the Sizzle, where's the Sausage?
Author: David J.Taylor

generally, e book is abt branding on substance & not spin. Be inspired by how e author organised his thoughts (& 18 brand stories) in various calendar months, e.g.:

jan - e buzzword battle begins
feb - brand-led business
mar - elastic brands
apr - be e consumer
may - GPS for your brand
june - brand trampoline
july - show them e money
august - consumer test drive
sept - don't juz think different, do different
oct - rallying e troops
nov - making money, not movies
dec - e sausage has landed

e book is crafted w practical, action-oriented, bite-sized ideas on brand building written in an entertainment format. i think, most probably, u could be finishing this within a hour of mrt-ride or short-haul plane flight.

[helios]

some appetisers & excerpts:

Book Title: The Logic of Life
Author: Tim Harford

1. People make different choices depending on how e choices are framed.
2. Game theory: a special case of rational choice which practioners are sensitive to small human irrationalities, as and when players are anticipating and responding to one another's decisions. these game theorist practioners need to understand both rational behaviour and human perculiarities.

EG: in a 2-player poker game: is a "zero-sum" situation whereby one player's loss is e other player's game.

[lendevear]

1) Intelligent investor / Benjamin Graham, commentary by Jason Zweig

2) A random walk down wall street / Milkiel Burton

3) Show me the money. Volume 1, Practical readings for investors in Singapore / Teh Hooi Ling

4) Show me the money. Volume 2, Practical readings for investors in Singapore / Teh Hooi Ling

5) One up on wall street, how to use what you already know to make money in the market / Peter Lynch with John Rothchild. Peter Lynch

6) Your money and your brain: how the new science of neuroeconomics can help make you rich / Jason Zweig.

7) Technical analysis explained: the successful investor's guide to spotting investment trends and turning points / Martin J. Pring.

8) Secrets of millionare investors: how you can build a million-dollar net worth by investing in the stock markets / Adam Khoo & Conrad Alvin Lim.

9) Mind Set! / John Naisbitt.

10) The oil factor / Stephen Leeb

11) Who took my money / Kiyosaki, Robert T.

12) The essential Buffett / Robert G.Hagstrom

13) The prehistoric investor / Curtis J. Montgomery (on going)