Summer books

Books I've read so far... 2 books on finance, 1 book on psychology and 1 novel.

<Thinking fast and slow> was slowww. It's a pretty insightful book, but there are too many insights... He talked about system 1 and 2. System 1's reaction is instantaneous while System 2 is more deliberate.  It kept on going on and on about the biases in human's judgement (mostly due to System 1) and how we can overcome them. In the end I was just reading for the sake of finishing it. However it's definitely a good book on psychology, it was helpful in letting me understand behavioral finance, an emerging field.

<A random walk down wall street> is a book to read if you want an introduction to the world of finance. Reading it made me feel like I was attending my FIN3102 (Investment Analysis) class again, so it was relatively easy to read. It was like a revision of the module I took last sem. He covered more ground as well, like how to allocate assets when you're old, and some other minor theories not covered.

<The Accidental Investment Banker> opens the black box to the world of investment banking. IB is the most lucrative area of finance. I've heard of the legendary salaries the people draw, but they only take in the top graduates. After reading this book, I'm sure I would not be interested in IB. I don't think I'm good enough for any bank to hire me anyway. However it was good to know how the industry works. Basically investment bankers are salesmen  selling advice to CEOs. The author also talks about how banks are becoming more greedy and bringing IPOs to the market even though they do not think it's a good issue and would not buy the issues themselves

Finally <Madame Bovary> is a book written in 1850s. It was quite difficult to read due to the tendency of the author to describe the a lot of the scenes in the book. As it was written very long ago, I find it hard to visualize the descriptions. However, I can really connect with Madame Bovary in some parts. She finds her life disappointing compared to the lives of the protagonists in the books that she read. I feel it all the time too and I'm glad that I'm not alone. And how sometimes, you yearn for something so much and after you obtain it, it becomes boring and you wish to break away, but you can't. Hmm I can't describe. Overall it was a good book.

Hoping to read another 2-3 books before school starts!