Jay's Investing Reading List

TL;DR — A reading list someone named Jay shared with Kyle as a Google Sheet: 92 books across twelve disciplines (philosophy 21, biography 16, investing 12, economics 9, finance 9, business 8, math 7, accounting 3, and a few more), each with a one-line reason. The note at the top: “I went ahead and highlighted the 6 books I’d start with first. And if you had to pick one, get the ‘Essays of Warren Buffett’ by Lawrence Cunningham.”

How much weight it carries: one person’s curated list. Jay is identified only by that first name, and Kyle’s Roam notes don’t say who Jay is. Some author credits in the sheet are wrong (it credits The Everything Store to “J Bezos” and King Icahn to “C Icahn”); the cards use each book’s actual author.

Local copies: PDF export · CSV · XLSX — downloaded 2026-09-28. The six highlighted books were read from the yellow cell fill in the XLSX.

As Kyle captured it

• https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yNVTh8HWROJulykNIxh0X0MxRwP5pv_meOu2TjGhOlo/htmlview - books-to-read

The books (92)

Accounting

• ★ Accounting for Value — Accounting for Value (S Penman): “Understanding of accounting for value-oriented investing”
• Quality of Earnings (Thornton L. O’Glove) — Quality of Earnings (Thornton): “Understanding how financial statements can lie”
• The Interpretation of Financial Statements — The Interpretation of Financial Statements: The Classic 1937 Edition (B Graham): “Practical understanding of the different components of FA”

Biography

• Titan — Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (Ron Chernow): “Understanding the most successful capitalist of all time.”
• Soros on Soros — Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve (G Soros): “Interviews/case-knowledge from one of the most successful investors of all time”
• Money Talks, Bullsh*t Walks — Money Talks, Bullsht Walks: Inside the Contrarian Mind of Billionaire Mogul Sam Zell* (B Johnson): “Case-studies from one of the best investors of all time”
• Alibaba — The House That Jack Ma Built — read; recommendation note added — Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built (D Clark): “Understanding one of the most successful firms in China”
• The Wizard of Menlo Park — The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World (R Stross): “Understanding how technological advancement happens”
• Elon Musk — Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future — read; recommendation note added — Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our Future (A Vance): “Understanding tech advancement, firm building”
• Cable Cowboy — Cable Cowboy: John Malone and the Rise of the Modern Cable Business (M Robihaux): “One of the greatest capital allocators of all time”
• Sam Walton — Made in America — Sam Walton: Made In America (S Walton): “One of the best operators of all time”
• The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie — The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie (A Carnegie): “Understanding the foundations of capitalism in U.S.”
• King Icahn — King Icahn: The Biography of a Renegade Capitalist (C Icahn): “Understanding corporate governance / operators”
• The Everything Store — read; recommendation note added — The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon (J Bezos): “Understanding the transformation of commerce / a great entrepreneur”
• The Outsiders — The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success (Thorndike): “Understanding the impact of management / CEOs on a company”
• King of Capital — King of Capital: The Remarkable Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone (J Morris): “Understanding the rise of PE”
• The Snowball — The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life (A Schroeder): “Understanding one of the best value investors of all time”
• Fooling Some of the People All of the Time — Fooling some of the People all of the time: A long short story (D Einhorn): “Seeing the difference between perception and reality”
• Confidence Game — Confidence Game: How Hedge Fund Manager Bill Ackman Called Wall Street’s Bluff (C Ricahrd): “Seeing the difference between perception and reality”

Business

• Good to Great — read; recommendation note added — Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t (Collins): “Practical understanding of the different components of a great company”
• How to Win at the Sport of Business — How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It (M Cuban): “Practical lessons from a tech-entrepreneur”
• Business Adventures — Business Adventures (J Brooks): “Case-studies of various businesses in the U.S.”
• ★ Zero To One — read; recommendation note added — Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future (P Thiel): “Understanding the concept of uniqueness w/in investing and understanding the world”
• Shareholder Democracy — Shareholder Democracy: A Primer on Shareholder Activism and Participation (Fairfax): “Understanding corporate governance”
• Understanding Michael Porter (Joan Magretta) — Understanding Michael Porter: The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy (J Magretta): “Understanding competitive factors / impact on profitability”
• The Effective Executive — The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done (P Drucker): “Understanding principles of modern management theory”
• The Lean Startup — read; recommendation note added — The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses (E Ries): “Understanding business via thinking about business construction”

Economics

• Economics and Reality — Economics and Reality (T Lawson): “Understanding how the assumptions in economics might be wrong”
• The Empire of Value — The Empire of Value: A New Foundation for Economics (Andrae Orlaean): “Understanding the philosophical nature of valuation/economics”
• The Theory of Money and Credit — The Theory of Money and Credit (Mises): “Understanding what underpins global economy”
• The Alchemists — The Alchemists: Three Central Bankers and a World on Fire (N Irwin): “Understanding global economy / fin markets via perspective of 3 CBs”
• The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis — The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis (B Bernanke): “Understanding fin crisis via Bernanke”
• Human Action — Human Action: A Treatise on Economics (Mises): “Ontology-based understanding of social sciences / economic factors”
• Capitalism and Freedom — Capitalism and Freedom (Friedman): “Understanding free-market econ”
• Basic Economics — Basic Economics (T Sowell): “Clear overview of econ”
• The Road to Serfdom — The Road to Serfdom: Text and Documents (F Hayek): “Understanding of Austrian-econ”

Essays

• Poor Charlie’s Almanack — read; recommendation note added — Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger, Expanded Third Edition (C Munger): “Practical wisdom via many different Munger essays / thoughts”
• ★ The Essays of Warren Buffett — The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America (Buffett): “Systematic overview of important business/investing concepts”

Finance

• The Dark Side of Valuation — The Dark Side of Valuation: Valuing Old Tech, New Tech, and New Economy Companies (A Damodaran): “Understanding of how the unknowable factors in valuation can impact valuation”
• The Physics of Finance — The Physics of Finance: Predicting the Unpredictable: How Science Has Taken Over Wall Street (JO Weatherall): “Understanding how physics-methodology has influence finance”
• Debt — The First 5000 Years — Debt: The First 5,000 Years (Graeber): “Alternative methodology for understanding the nature of money/credit”
• Value (McKinsey & Company) — Value: The Four Cornerstones of Corporate Finance (McKinsey & Co): “Understanding what drives corp value”
• Security Analysis — Security Analysis (B Graham): “Classic text on v-investing, understanding of equity / debt value investing”
• Theory of Investment Value — Theory of Investment Value (Williams): “Dividend investment valuation model, understanding foundations of DCF”
• Damodaran on Valuation — Damodaran on Valuation: Security Analysis for Investment and Corporate Finance (A Damodaran): “Understaning what drives various types of value assessment - DCF, comps, m&a”
• ★ The Little Book of Valuation — The Little Book of Valuation: How to Value a Company, Pick a Stock and Profit (A Damodaran): “Simple understanding of Damadoran’s work on valuation”
• Valuation (Tim Koller et al.) — Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies (T Koller): “Overview of corp value / finance”

General

• The Checklist Manifesto — The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right (A Gawande): “Very repetitive book on why checklists are important, chapter on investing”
• The Medici Effect — The Medici Effect: What Elephants and Epidemics Can Teach Us about Innovation (Johansson): “Understanding of why seemingly disparate areas of knowledge can be helpful - recommended to me by C Christensen”

Investing

• Value Investing (Bruce C. N. Greenwald et al.) — Value Investing: From Graham to Buffett and Beyond (B Greenwald): “Solid overview of value investing methodology”
• The Most Important Thing — The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor (H Marks): “Clever books by Marks on various business/investing principles”
• The Little Book That Still Beats the Market — The Little Book That Still Beats the Market (J Greenblatt): “Interesting book that highlights ROIC”
• The Aggressive Conservative Investor — The Aggressive Conservative Investor (Whitman): “Interesting book about value/distressed value investing”
• You Can Be a Stock Market Genius — You Can Be a Stock Market Genius: Uncover the Secret Hiding Places of Stock Market Profits (J Greenblatt): “Terrific book on event-driven investing”
• Margin of Safety (Klarman) — Margin of Safety: Risk-Averse Value Investing Strategies for the Thoughtful Investor (S Klarman): “Obviously a famous book on value-investing methodology - read a PDF online”
• One Up on Wall Street — One Up On Wall Street: How To Use What You Already Know To Make Money In The Market (P Lynch): “Interesting book on how practical case-studies can influence investment methodology”
• The Intelligent Investor — The Intelligent Investor (B Graham): “Obviously the most famous book on investing - helpful Mr Market / margin of safety insights”
• The Alchemy of Finance — The Alchemy of Finance (G Soros): “Love the reflexivity model”
• Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings — Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings (P Fischer): “Scuttlebutt / persistence on the ground research”
• The Investment Checklist (Michael Shearn) — The Investment Checklist: The Art of In-Depth Research (Shearn): “Interesting book sort of like the Checklist Manifesto”
• Extreme Value Hedging — Extreme Value Hedging: How Activist Hedge Fund Managers Are Taking on the World (R Orol): “Interesting book on activist managers / corp governance”

Math

• A Treatise on Probability — A Treatise on Probability (JM Keynes): “Understanding the nature of probability”
• Probability (John Haigh) — Probability: An Introduction (J Haigh): “Simple overview of major probability concepts”
• The Black Swan — read; recommendation note added — The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (NN Taleb): “Interesting alternative social science views on probability / non-linear math”
• The Principles of Mathematics — The Principles of Mathematics (B Russell): “Understanding mathematics as logic / denoting”
• The Foundations of Arithmetic — The Foundations of Arithmetic: A Logico-Mathematical Enquiry into the Concept of Number (Frege): “Understanding mathematics as logic / denoting”
• Science Without Numbers — Science Without Numbers: A Defence Of Nominalism (H Field): “Understanding mathematics as a dependent variable - rebutting empiricism”
• Philosophies of Mathematics — Philosophies of Mathematics (George & Velleman): “Overview of phil of math”

Philosophy

• Causation (L. A. Paul and Ned Hall) — Causation: A User’s Guide (L.A. Paul): “Understanding of one of the most fundamental things in prediction: the nature of causation”
• How the Laws of Physics Lie — How the Laws of Physics Lie (N Cartwright): “Anti-realist view of mathematical / scientific models”
• The Logic of Scientific Discovery — The Logic of Scientific Discovery (K Popper): “Falsification / corroboration”
• Nichomachean Ethics — Nichomachean Ethics (Aristotle): “Telos / function most helpful for investing here”
• Metaphysics (Peter van Inwagen) — Metaphysics (V Inwagen): “Understanding non-empirical aspects of the world that influence every other area of thought”
• Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World — Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World (Girard): “Mimetic theory”
• Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus — Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (Wittgenstein): “Logical atomism is the most important concept from this book for me”
• Four Decades of Scientific Explanation — Four Decades of Scientific Explanation (Salmon): “Understanding how people explain things via scientific modeling - v important for investing”
• ★ The Construction of Social Reality — The Construction of Social Reality (Searle): “Understanding how the social world (therefore econ/finance/etc) is mind dependent”
• Making the Social World — Making the Social World: The Structure of Human Civilization (Searle): “understanding how the social world (therefore econ/finance/etc) is mind dependent”
• Philosophy of Natural Science — Philosophy of Natural Science (Hempel): “D-N model - fundamental concept”
• Philosophy of Science (Swinburne) — Philosophy of Science (Bird): “solid overview of phil of science”
• Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge — Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge (Lakatos): “RP methodology”
• Philosophy of Economics — Philosophy of Economics: A Contemporary Introduction (Reiss): “overview of why the most important concepts in econ might be wrong”
• ★ The Structure of Scientific Revolutions — The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Kuhn): “Maybe top 5 most important book on this list - understanding how theories change”
• After Virtue — After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory (MacIntyre): “Follow-on from Kuhn, w/ some Wittgenstein + Aristotle thrown in”
• Language, Proof and Logic — Language, Proof and Logic (Barwise): “Overview of first order logic and set theory - read this for a course at Baylor, actually”
• Language, Truth, and Logic — Language, Truth, and Logic (A.J. Ayer): “Overview of much of what has impacted modern social / natural science methodology - vienna circle”
• Philosophy of Science (Swinburne) — Philosophy of Science (Swinburne): “Sensible theism-based philosophy of science overview”
• Against Method — Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge (Feyerabend): “anti-realist view of mathematical / scientific models”
• The Nature of Necessity — The Nature of Necessity (Plantinga): “This book has impacted my thinking more than any other book”

Politics

• Financial Turmoil in Europe and the United States — Financial Turmoil in Europe and the United States: Essays (G Soros): “Overview of financial markets / EU / Eurozone, etc….”

Social Science

• The Methodology of the Social Sciences — The Methodology of the Social Sciences (Weber): “Title makes it obvious why it’s important”
• The Idea of a Social Science — The Idea of a Social Science: And Its Relation to Philosophy (Winch): “Same as above”

More books on this list

1 books; ✓ marks the ones Kyle has read.

• Philosophy of Science (Bird) — Bird