Thursday, May 08, 2008

Analysis on my reading pace

Grey remarked that I am a very fast reader. Let's see if I really am (I thought I'm pretty normal, since compared to my gf, my speed is like a toddler learning how to read).

From this financial year starting 1st Jan 2008, I managed to read:

A total of 21 books,excluding 4 books that I'm currently reading (semi concurrently). This also includes 2 books that have little relation to investing but have profound effect on my philosophy. This leaves a total of 19 financial books which I've read so far. I exclude the tonnes of annual reports and announcements, and any other thing that is found online.

Since 19 weeks have passed as of today (we're going through the 19th week now), and I've already read 19 financial books, that means I'm reading at a rate of 1 book per week on average. The average book thickness range from 1.5 to 2cm thick, with an estimated pages of say 200 (conservative).

This means that on average,

1. I read around 2.1 to 2.9 mm thickness of books per day

2. That means around 30 pages per day

Where to find the time to read?

1. Before I sleep, I always allocate 30 mins to 60 mins to read

2. I always carry the book that I'm reading at the moment wherever I go and will read it while waiting

3. Nowadays, I squeeze in some time while transiting on MRT standing and reading. I used to read only when I get a seats, but since the probability of getting a seat on MRT is pretty low, I can feel time sliding past my palm if I just stand there and watch the crowd pass by.

Conclusion: I think I must be a reading machine. It didn't dawn on me that I read at a pretty fast pace until I started to analyse it. Even so, I found that I'm still lagging behind in my reading, so that I have to selectively read books which are of priority first. Books which are interesting but not of greatest priority will be reserved later.

Oh my god, I'm such a bookworm, hoho!

4 comments :

Paul said...

Hi there. :)

reading your post reminds me of myself. But you read really fast i must agree. I try to cover a book a week too though my reading themes are more varied. I keep a blog on the books i read here. http://readingmaterials.blogspot.com/.

Good that you are focused on financials. Love your analysis and i took hongguo into a huge consideration when u wrote about it.

Keep it up and u will make it big and most of all, thanks for sharing. :)

PS: I walk home from work just to make sure i keep up with my reading as well. ;p

la papillion said...

Hi Pau,

I saw your site before :)

If I have the time, I do wish that I can read other books. Perhaps during a bull market, I'll do my 'other' readings. But as it is now, time is too short to stand and stare, hoho!

This is actually the full list of readings that I did, ever since I started on my reading programme last year. See if you've read it before :)

1.five point something – Chetan Bhagat
2.How to become stupid – Martin Page
3.The curious incident of the dog in night-time – Mark Haddon
4.The stupidest angel – Christopher Moore
5.The way of the cockroach – Craig Hovey
6.Legally correct fairy tales – David Fisher
7.It’s kind of a funny story – Ned Vizzini
8.Jacob’s ladder – Brian Keaney
9.Politically correct bedtime stories: Modern tales for our life & times – James Finn Garner
10.Cathy’s book – Cathy
11.Metamorphosis – Franz Kafka
12.Label – Louis de Bernieres

Investment books read:

1.The successful investor – what 80 million people need to know to invest profitably and avoid big losses – William J. O’Neil
2.Rich dad poor dad – guide to investing – Robert Kiyosaki
3.Do you want to make money or would you rather fool around – John D Spooner
4.Vault career guide to investment banking
5.Financial Statements: A step by step guide to understanding and creating financial reports - Thomas R. Ittelson
6.The four pillars of investing: lessons for building a winning portfolio – Dr William Bernstein
7.Accounting Demystified: A self teaching guide – Loita A.Hart
8.Five rules for successful stock investing: Morningstar’s guide to building wealth and winning in the market – J Wiley, Joe Mansueto, Pat Dorsey
9.The little book of value investing – Christopher H. Browne
10.The little book that beats the market – Joel Greenblatt
11.The unwritten law of business – J.W. King, revised by James.G.Skakoon
12.Stone age company – Sally Bibb
13.The rules of wealth – Richard Templar
14.The laws of simplicity – John Maeda
15.The 5 keys to value investing - Jean Jacques


Hoho, thks for reading my pretty long winded articles on hongguo. There's more coming up as I'm comparing the different competitors and their ratios with hongguo :)

Musicwhiz said...

Hi LP,

Wow you read really fast. I am somewhat slower but then, I focus on just one or two books and prefer to re-read them. When I was younger, I gobbled up many fantasy books....but that was in the past. :)

Regards,
Musicwhiz

la papillion said...

Hi mw,

Hoho, let me guess - dragonlance and D&D?

I used to read Lonewolf series of gamebooks and eventually the novels. I don't read dragonlance nor the usual D&D ones though, dunno why :)

I'd eventually slow down and re-read books which I think are worth re-reading, like you do now. As for now, you can consider this phase as being a literature review - to have an overview of what's available so as to form a philosophy in investing.

Mw, a sidenote, do you know that nuffnangs have global ads - those CTR ads? I'm getting like 40 cts from my other blogs, hoho :)