The Diamond Invention

An interesting look into the Diamond industry. The book starts out by examining the operating conditions and procedures of some of the world’s diamond mines. It also talks about the history of diamond mining and about wars that are financed and to a certain extent instigated by the diamond trade. The book finishes off by discussing some of the problems faced by the diamond industry, and how they plan to deal with some of those problems.

One of the most important things I took away from this book was how poor an investment diamonds really are. From the book:

Because of the steep markup on diamonds between the wholesale and retail levels, individuals who buy retail and, ;n[sic] effect, sell wholesale often suffer enormous losses on the transaction.

The Diamond Invention

Fooled by Randomness

Fooled by Randomness

A mildly short-ish book that really should have been 4 times shorter. The interesting idea that is central to this book is that almost no one is good at understanding probability. The book is essentially example after example illustrating this principle.

A Random Walk Down Wall Street

A Random Walk Down Wall Street
Quite possibly on of the greatest books on investing in stocks and bonds. The author, Burton Malkiel, is a legend – on the board of Vanguard. He generally comes out with a new version of the book every few years. If you only read one investment book ever, this is the one to read.