Out of fiction, and into finance

Over the last year, I've graduated from reading about finance online to real books. At a cousin's recommendation, I'm working through Ben Graham's The Intelligent Investor. It's superb. Graham's practical evaluation of investing is tremendous, and his handling of the underlying issues of risk and decision-making are masterful. For those who want to dig a little deeper into historical background and concepts of risk, I highly, highly recommend Peter Bernstein's Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk. It's on my re-reading list, and it may deserve its own dedicated post once I get back to it.

Graham's tome is really a long-term reading project. I can usually take about 1-2 chapters at a time, but I find it needs some time to soak in.

For reading on the lighter side, I borrowed a copy of Jeff Yeager's The Cheapskate Next Door. It's great. Yeager's humorous take on the stranger habits of cheapskates (or frugal folk, as I may choose to call them) balances a very pragmatic summary of frugal tips and tricks.

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A new NC find: Kaye Gibbons' Ellen Foster

This short gem tugs at the heart with a same gritty focus on the messed-up human condition, and it wasn't until I flipped through the author information at the end that I realized why it felt so familiar. Kaye Gibbons is from Chapel Hill, NC, and her writing shares regional similarities with some of my favorite modern Carolinian writers (for example, Clyde Edgerton).

Unlike some of my far less favorite Southern writers (William Faulkner), Gibbons' writing is infused with a sense of hope. It's also comprehensible. But the hope is what really stands out. Young Ellen Foster starts life with a dying mother, a deadbeat, abusive dad, a demented grandmother, and very little support of any type. She persistently solves problems, and each obstacle teaches her a little bit more.

There seems to be a new genre of Female Under the Odds. Way back when, there was a Rags to Riches genre of hardworking, morally straight young men who prospered despite all odds. The current genre is far more depressing, and often rather hopeless. Ellen Foster makes this group a little better, a little more positive, and definitely more defiant.

Worth a read. I will eventually grab more of Gibbons' books.