Another Six Books Added To Next Prize Pool

I haven’t updated this list in a while but today I’m adding another six books to the next prize pool. This brings the next prize pool up to 14 total books to giveaway so far when the blog reaches 500 subscribers. Or more than $250 worth of books already.

First, I’ll tell you which books added today. And then at the end of this I’ll list all the books in the next prize pool so far.

Steve Jobs By Walter Isaacson

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Even though I haven’t read this book yet I’ve heard nothing but great things about it. And I’ve already got a copy of this book so when I came across another like new hardcover copy of the book I had to get it to give away to subscribers.

Below is a description of the book from Amazon.

Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.
At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, and when societies around the world are trying to build digital-age economies, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.
Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written nor even the right to read it before it was published. He put nothing off-limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. And Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against. His friends, foes, and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted.
Driven by demons, Jobs could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple’s hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system. His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values.

The House Of Gucci

I saw the subtitle above for the House of Gucci and thought it was hyperbole. After all this isn’t a fiction book about the mafia. It’s a business book about how Gucci was started and built.

But the subtitle doesn’t go far enough.

The book starts off with the stunning assassination of Maurizio Gucci. The third generation of the Gucci family to run the company. And then falls back telling the story of how the company began.

From here for the rest of the book there are two stories within the book told at the same time. How Gucci was built and run. And the infighting within the Gucci family.

Including the assassination mentioned above. Family members sending each other to jail. Alliances and then backstabbing between family members. Nephews and sons fighting uncles and fathers for control of the company and almost destroying the company in the process.

If this sounds a bit like Game of Thrones that’s because it is.

I won’t ruin any of the twists for you. But this is a great business and family biography book.

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I would give it a 4.5/5.

The Prize: The Epic Quest For Oil, Money, And Power

I’ve not read this book yet either. But have heard great things about it too. And since I’ve already got a copy I had to get this for you when I came across another like new copy of the book.

Below is a description of the book from Amazon.

Deemed “the best history of oil ever written” by Business Week and with more than 300,000 copies in print, Daniel Yergin’s Pulitzer Prize–winning account of the global pursuit of oil, money, and power has been extensively updated to address the current energy crisis.

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

I read this book years ago but came across another copy to give away.

Honestly I don’t remember much about the book other than the underlying premise that in most cases the first thought coming to your mind when making a decision is the correct one.

Below are more detailed reviews and descriptions from Amazon.

Blink is about the first two seconds of looking–the decisive glance that knows in an instant. Gladwell, the best-selling author of The Tipping Point, campaigns for snap judgments and mind reading with a gift for translating research into splendid storytelling. Building his case with scenes from a marriage, heart attack triage, speed dating, choking on the golf course, selling cars, and military maneuvers, he persuades readers to think small and focus on the meaning of “thin slices” of behavior. The key is to rely on our “adaptive unconscious”–a 24/7 mental valet–that provides us with instant and sophisticated information to warn of danger, read a stranger, or react to a new idea.
Gladwell includes caveats about leaping to conclusions: marketers can manipulate our first impressions, high arousal moments make us “mind blind,” focusing on the wrong cue leaves us vulnerable to “the Warren Harding Effect” (i.e., voting for a handsome but hapless president). In a provocative chapter that exposes the “dark side of blink,” he illuminates the failure of rapid cognition in the tragic stakeout and murder of Amadou Diallo in the Bronx. He underlines studies about autism, facial reading and cardio uptick to urge training that enhances high-stakes decision-making. In this brilliant, cage-rattling book, one can only wish for a thicker slice of Gladwell’s ideas about what Blink Camp might look like. –Barbara Mackoff –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Barbarians At The Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco

I’ve not read this book yet either. But have heard great things about it as well. And since I’ve already got a copy I had to get this for you when I came across another like new copy of the book.

Below are reviews and descriptions of the book from Amazon.

“One of the finest, most compelling accounts of what happened to corporate America and Wall Street in the 1980’s.”
—New York Times Book Review
A #1 New York Times bestseller and arguably the best business narrative ever written, Barbarians at the Gate is the classic account of the fall of RJR Nabisco. An enduring masterpiece of investigative journalism by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar, it includes a new afterword by the authors that brings this remarkable story of greed and double-dealings up to date twenty years after the famed deal. The Los Angeles Times calls Barbarians at the Gate, “Superlative.” TheChicago Tribune raves, “It’s hard to imagine a better story…and it’s hard to imagine a better account.” And in an era of spectacular business crashes and federal bailouts, it still stands as a valuable cautionary tale that must be heeded.

The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science

I’ve talked about neuroplasticity several times on this blog so far. But until reading this book most of the things I’ve read have been short articles. Not entire books including real life stories and examples.

This is a fantastic book. So great in fact that I’m working on a post specific about some of the stories and examples in this book of the amazing things we can do with our brains.

This book is a 5/5 and has been added to the Recommended Reading and Viewing Page as a MUST READ!!! It’s so good that if I were to write another post about the things that changed my life. This book would be on it.

More detailed review and information to come about this book soon.

Full list of books in the next prize pool given away when this blog reaches 500 subscribers. As of now between Press On Research and Value Investing Journey we’re at 278 subscribers.

So far this makes 14 great books – worth more than $250 – in the next prize pool. The winner will get all books and future books added to this prize pool sent to them. Anywhere in the world at my cost.

All you have to do to get a chance to win all these great books is subscribe for free to the Value Investing Journey mailing list. Or be a Press On Research subscriber.

But this isn’t all you’ll get with your free subscription. You’ll also get three free gifts that will help you analyze companies faster. Some of my exclusive notes. And a 50% discount on a Press On Research subscription.

To get all these great subscription benefits subscribe here.