Montanaro’s Christmas Reading List 2023
Our Christmas Reading List has become something of a tradition. This year comes a list with a difference: a reading and listening list. The team has shared some of the best books they have read this year as well as the podcasts they have most enjoyed listening to.
Andrea recommends War Doctor: Surgery on the Front Line by David Nott and Chemistry by Weike Wang. She also likes The Rhodes Centre Podcast with Mark Blythe.
Yannis suggests The Flaw by Antonis Samarakis, a witty and light-hearted Greek 20th century thriller. He also recommends The Little Book of Behavioural Investing: How Not to Be Your Own Worst Enemy by James Montier and Howard Schilit’s Financial Shenanigans, How to Detect Accounting Gimmicks and Fraud in Financial Reports.
Ed has selected Tom Holland’s latest deep dive into antiquity Pax: War and Peace in Rome’s Golden Age. A favourite podcast is In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen, particularly the interview with Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. Finally, The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin is worth a read for those interested in how humanity might confront a truly existential threat.
Adam is a fan of the Acquired podcast: “Standard Oil is a fascinating one to start with”. Books Adam recommends include: Scary Smart: The Future of Artificial Intelligence by Mo Gawdat; Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: The Dark History of the Information Age by Scott Shapiro; and Godfather of the Kremlin: Boris Berezovsky and the Looting of Russia by Paul Klebnikov.
George has been listening to Will England’s primer on multi-strategy hedge funds. These are a growing force in markets given their rising size and extreme leverage. He also likes The Joe Walker podcast, with well researched questions posed to interesting people in a variety of fields, who are given time to speak and expand. A couple of book recommendations from George include The Road by Cormac McCarthy and Why Does E=mc2 by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw.
Other recommendations include The Coming Storm, which Cedric has been listening to; A Wood of One’s Own by Ruth Pavey, from our biodiversity expert Kate; Nere read Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken; and Hal, wise man that he is, poignantly suggests an old classic: Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger by Peter Bevelin. Stefan, meanwhile, was delving into Mindset Secrets for Winning by Mark Minervini, while Guido has been learning how companies actually work via the Business Breakdowns podcast. Hattie listened to Zero: The Climate Race.
And of course, no Montanaro list would be complete without a SmallCap classic so here is one from Mark: Zebra in Lion Country by Ralph Wanger.
As always, please do reply with your own recommendations.
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We wish you a very Happy Christmas!