Reading
I love reading. All the books I read nowadays is in English. It is hard to imagine that just merely 5 years ago, I wouldn’t touch an English book if I can choose to. I was content reading those Chinese martial art novels by Jin Yong. I tried, but I can’t remember how or why I started reading English books. I am a little ashamed to say that even reading Mandarin is getting hard for me. I need more concentration just to get the meaning out. As for writing in Mandarin… are you kidding me? Don’t even ask me about my Malay.
I’ve been thinking, what genre of books do I read more often? I can see that there’s a shift from Fiction to Non-fiction in the recent couple of years. I will list out the subjects of books I read, and which is the best or most important book I’ve read so far.
As for Physics, I have to say, the most important book I’ve read is Relativity by Albert Einstein. Of course, prior to that, I read General Relativity From A To B by Robert Geroch. Else I don’t think I could have understood as much from what I read of Einstein’s work. I consider this one of the most important work ever accomplished to the advancement of our understanding of the world around us. It is amazing how Einstein could produce such work from thought experiment alone. Perhaps, understanding relativity can encourage us to have an open mind to thing foreign, strange or even bizarre to us. Speed of light, anyone?
For Biology, I think one of the most important book ever written is The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. I have to admit, I am still on the process of reading this book, even though I bought this book 2 or 3 years ago. I attempted to read this book a couple of times before, but I thought that the way Darwin wrote is very long winded and somewhat confusing. I soon got bored of the book, and place it on my To-Read-In-Future list. Now I am glad that I have brought this book over here. I find the book quite interesting now. Indeed we have have progressed much after a mere 150 years since the publication of the book. One can only imagine how Darwin would feel if he were alive today.
For Mathematics, I think God Created The Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs that Changed History would be a good book to start with. To be fair, this books is not written by a any one mathematician, but is a compilations of pivoting mathematical works going as far back as Euclid and Archimedes, to as recent as Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing. I have yet to finish reading this book, but I did manage to finish the part on Euclid’s Elements. It was probable that Euclid was not the inventor of the mathematical result in Elements, but he was the first person to compile them together. Indeed, he deserves the honour to be called Father of Geometry. I shall attempt to finish this book…… some time in the future.
For Philosophy, I am sad to say I have only read one philosophical book. It is Republic by Plato. Captivating indeed was Plato’s idea on how an ideal city should be. I think Plato s was precise when he wrote this, “It’s true that if physical work is performed under compulsion, the body isn’t impaired, but compulsory intellectual work never remains in the mind.” Although I think a lot of Plato’s idea were impractical, some of his criticism were precise. Perhaps we have much to learn from the the ancient Greek on how to run our government, how to educate ourselves, and how to live our lives. I urge those who are interested to read plato’s allegory of the cave in Republic. Truth can be hard to accept, it seems.
For Literature, again, I must admit that I have only read a limited amount of great literature works. I nominate both The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer. The most important reason behind this would be because both of them are two of the oldest literature work in the world. I would have nominated Epic of Gilgamesh but unfortunately I have not read it and hence I cannot comment on it. I think The Iliad and The Odyssey should both be read. The Iliad talks about the war 10th and final year of the Trojan War, which is more complicated than the movie Troy. The Odyssey talks about the Oddyseus’s ten year journey home to Ithaca.
On Investment, I have to nominate The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. In the preface to the 4th Edition of this book, Warren Buffett wrote: “I read the first edition of this book early in 1950, when I was nineteen. I thought then that it was by far the best book about investment ever written. I still think it is.” Well, there’s something I can say I have in common to Warren Buffett. I read this book in 2007, when I was 19. I think it is a great book on investment, and I urge anybody who thinks, that investing in the share market is like gambling, to read the first chapter of this book! I will read this book again this year.
To finish off this post I am tempted to, and hence I shall, quote the most important concept of investment written by Benjamin Graham:
The true investor scarcely ever is forced to sell his shares, and at all other times, he is free to disregard the current price quotation. He needs pay attention to it and acts upon it only to the extent that it suits his book, and no more. Thus the investor who permits himself to be stampeded or unduly worried by unjustified market declines in his holdings is perversely transforming his basic advantage into a basic disadvantage. That man would be better off if his stocks had no market quotation at all, for he would then be spared the mental anguish caused him by other persons’ mistake of judgement.
