Way back when I first started blogging one of things I wanted to do was book reviews. At the time I felt there was dearth of content on new (and old) finance, economics and investing books. Guess what? Writing book reviews is really difficult.
Not only do you have to ‘read the entire book’ with a recommendation in mind. The other, often unsaid, aspect is that most new books on these topics are just not that great. As a reviewer you are put in the unenviable position of either writing a less than glowing review or tossing the book aside to look for the next opportunity.
That is why I always appreciated the work of Brenda Jubin at Reading the Markets. Since 2009 she has done the heavy lifting in this space by reading the new books writing helpful reviews.* She recently noted on her blog that she was stopping her efforts. She writes:
It was ten years ago that I launched this blog. Nearly 1400 posts (and I can’t fathom how many pages of reading) later, I am calling it a day. The problem is that new books on the financial markets are increasingly rare. Would-be authors have moved to other forms of communication such as podcasts, and publishers have slashed their lists.
I agree that the torrent of investment-related books has turned into a mere trickle. I, for one, will miss Brenda’s work and extend her my best wishes going forward.
*Back in 2012, Brenda was nice enough to review my book.
