Chris’s Notes on The Motley Fool Investment Guide: How The Fool Beats Wall Streets Wise Men And How You Can Too, David Gardner, Tom Gardner, Fireside, 1997. I don’t recommend this book for anything but an example of the hubris that was rampant during the Internet bubble and a few chapters that hold the reader’s hand making the markets seem approachable.

In general, I recommend Peter Lynch’s Learn to Earn for the hand holding instead.

Chris’s Notes on The Instant Millionaire: A Tale of Wisdom and Wealth, Mark Fisher, New World Library, 1991. I recommend this book for folks that are willing to believe that the act of willing something to happen hard enough will make it happen.

On the one hand, I’ve solved many an engineering problem by simply letting my subconscious know that it needed solving. On the other hand, I’ve never been able to successfully wish for something to happen. The question is whether you view this book as channeling your subconscious energies into finding ways of making your dreams of financial independence come true or whether you view it as a fairy tale.

Chris’s Notes on Stock Options For Dummies, Alan R. Simon, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2001. I recommend this book for folks that need to know the details of their company’s stock options, although the details aren’t interesting enough or important enough to warrant a book of this size, especially given how worthless most company’s stock options are these days.

I bought this book when I was too stupid to recognize it as a book about a company’s stock options instead of about publicly traded options. In general, the strategy that I’ve developed if I ever get the opportunity to exercise company stock options is as follows:

1. Exercise stock options as soon as possible, paying taxes as appropriate
2. Hold stocks for at least one year to reduce taxes on gains from normal income tax rates, e.g. ~30%, to the long-term capital gain tax rate, 15%, using 0 as the basis and subtracting the taxes already paid in step 1

Doesn’t seem like enough for an entire book…

Chris’s Notes on All the Math You Need to Get Rich: Thinking with Numbers for Financial Success, Robert L. Hershey, Open Court Pub Co, 2001. I recommend this book for the basics it covers, the slim size, the exercises and the approachable text.

I graduated from high school with all kinds of wonderful math grades (I finished all of my high school math a year early and had to attend a calculus course at a nearby college in my senior year), but managed to get out without a firm grasp of some simple ideas. Specifically, I never learned why it is that when I make a fixed house payment, the actual amount that goes to the interest and to the principle varies each month. The reason this is (as I’m sure all of my readers already know) is because the interest is only paid against the outstanding principle that remains on the total loan each month. It’s just like compound interest in reverse (an idea that I always did understand).

I haven’t been reading this book cover to cover (I already know how fractions, scientific notation and fractions work), but this one fact alone makes this book worth the price. Plus, it makes a wonderful reference (this is where I got F=P(1+R)^N used in The “Average Return” Myth). The world needs more short, focused, well-written books.

Here. If you're waiting 'til the last minute to register for the Applied XML Developer's Conference, you'll want to lock in soon. There's less than 10 seats available, so registering now would be good.

Here. "PDC is a critical event for any developer who wants to see the debut of next-generation technology. Look into the future of Microsoft® Platform Software—Windows® 'Longhorn,' SQL Server 'Yukon,' Visual Studio® 'Whidbey,' and others—with the developers who wrote the code. Register today."

Here. I was hanging out with Eric Promislow from ActiveState this week and he pointed me at his "Baconizer" web site, which will connect a path between any two books (or CDs or DVDs). For example, from "The Best of Martha Stewart Living : Weddings" to "Mastering Visual Studio .NET" is only 11 hops (and some time in prison). Hours of fun for the whole family.

Here. The message board for the Applied XML Developer's Conference is heating up a bit. I set it up for the audience to be able to communicate during the presentations, but folks are already using it to coordinate Dev.Conf.-related activites. Enjoy.