January 2018 Book Reading List

Part of my 2018 resolutions and goals this year was to read more books. So far, I think I’ve done okay. I only finished three books in the last month. That’s actually pretty good, considering I finished only five books in 2017.

All three books I read this month were nonfiction. I need to get some fiction reading in sometime this year, I’m just unsure as to what. Classic fiction? Not sure. I prefer sci-fi (or its supergenre speculative fiction, which includes fantasy and alternative history as well), but I’m not afraid to venture out of my comfort zone.

Here’s a quick rundown of the books I read, what they were about, and what I thought of them:

The Simple Path to Wealth (audiobook) by JL Collins

This book is one of those “instant classics” in the personal finance world. I actually won the audiobook by entering a contest on Femme Frugality’s blog. It’s not the first audiobook I’ve listened to, but it is the first via Audible. The other audiobooks I listened to were books-on-tape (or, more accurately, books-on-CD) my wife and I checked out at the local library.

The book’s main theme is that it doesn’t have to be complex to acquire wealth. In fact, the simpler the path, the more wealth you are likely to accumulate. I suggest you check it out - the audiobook, ebook, or hard copy.

Multiple Streams of Income by Robert Allen

This book was somewhat of a disappointment. I was hoping for many different ideas, but it heavily leaned towards investing in real estate. The way this book talked about real estate and how to get financing made me keep glancing at the book’s copyright date. 2005, a few years before the real estate bubble burst.

That said, this book did inform me of a couple ideas I was unaware of. These ideas were financial options and tax lien certificates. I haven’t done either of these (yet) but they do present interesting ideas.

The Everything Father-To-Be Book 1st edition by Kevin Nelson

If you’ve kept up with my past few blog posts, you’ll know that my wife is expecting our first child soon (a son, due early April!) We’re both heavily into learning (we both joined Toastmaster’s and gave our icebreaker speech last month) and have already taken a few classes about childbirth, so it’s no surprise we’re reading books on the subject as well.

The Everything Father-To-Be Book is okay on the subject. Just okay. I feel as if it’s more geared towards unexpected fathers and more stereotypical, beer-drinking, football-watching men. As I don’t enjoy drinking beer (or any alcohol for that matter) and I’m not that into sports, it felt as if I was not the target audience for this book.

How are your goals going so far this year? Read any good books yet this year?