Books I Bought Online Because These were on Sale

in Hive Book Club2 years ago

I took advantage of an online sale to shop for some books. I had no specific topic in mind but browsed some shops for something that may get me interested.

TL:DR Just a post about the books I bought and some scribbles of why I bothered with them.


Is it important?

This simple three word question usually blocks 9/10 of the possible options that are going to waste your time. The end goal of reading is to obtain information or be entertained by something that caught your interest. If you live a busy life, having quality time with your book can be a luxury.

Everyone has 24 hours on their day but only few can remain consistently productive with their time. The content should contain something that has practical use or at least something that helps me broaden my perspective in the narrow vision I have about life. No matter how much I tell myself I figured out my life goals, I know this is just one of those instances where I exemplify being at the top of my hubris. I know nothing.


Does it have practical use?

Finance and Investing:


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  • The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham
  • The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
  • The Business Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained
  • Trading Code by Jason Cam

Probably top priority or the main motivator why I browsed for some books in the first place. Now that I got some extra cash to spend for investing, I like to do learn the stuff that would not set me up for a pitfall before I hop in the next craze. I've been trying to expand my what I know about economics and share this to some of my webinars on HivePH discord sometimes.

I used to spend more time reading fantasy novels and stuff that generally doesn't have any practical application to my immediate circumstance. It wasn't that bad if I looked at it as my time spent on entertainment but then future me just does a facepalm and says I could've used the time to learn some marketable skill and generate me more value. For now, I have more favor on books that solve real world solutions.


Is it readable?

Social Studies, Psychology and Management:


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  • What You Got Here Won't Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith
  • The Psychology Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained

These subjects have a special place considering they talk about areas that are beyond my conscious understanding : people, social structures, and social systems. I had to read a few more books about social communication to have some flashes of hindsight where I fucked up talking to people.

It's kind of dumb to phrase the question like that but this is what comes to mind when scan the contents of a particular book I like. I learned to ask this question when I read a book about neuroplasticity and then further reinforced by a book talking about temporal changes and perception in the workplace.

The gist is, no matter how much I find the topic interesting, if it's told in a matter where there's too many jargons and terms I have to Google up, it just ruins the reading experience.


Can I afford it?

No matter how great the book is, if it's not an absolute important (or I can torrent it somewhere), I'm all for delayed gratification. I would usually ask this question when I lean on the book being a want rather than a need (because I'll work more to get the book if it's a need).

Science, Philosophy and Self Improvement:


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  • The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect
  • 12 Rules for Life, An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan Peterson
  • Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson
  • Never Split the Difference, Negotiating as if Your life dependend on it by Chris Voss with Tahl Raz
  • The Decision Book: 50 Models of Strategies Thinking by Mikael Krogerus & Roman Tschäppeler

Topics that expand my perspective of the world. I have the digital copies of Jordan Peterson's books but the strain from reading in a monitor makes my reading time even more limited. Other topics on the list are expected to help me be better at decision making cause why not?

Art Stuff:


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  • Japanese Honojiro Towoji Illustration Works Anime Painting Collection Game Characters Drawing Book
  • 100 Hand-painted Cards of Costume Design to Practice Human posture Poses for Fashion Illustration

I have other titles on the list but these ones are the strong contenders. I know some of these can be accessible as soft copies from yarrgggg~!

If I want to play thrifty/cheap but it hits different when you got a physical copy and doing some hobby reading outside the screen. I'm already past my book budget of 120$ just from the titles above.

The Art Stuff are just books that could help me improve on my @artofadamada account. Even if that account isn't actively posting, I'm just stacking up tutorials and sketches offline.

Before I buy anything, there's a checklist to distinguish whether I'm satisfying a need vs a want. If you buy a textbook for a class, that's an obvious need but if you're buying for hobby reading, there's more room to negotiate.

Just my opinion, but I think a lot of times people aren't consciously thinking about how much resources they are going to spend just by reading a book. You spend time and effort to understand what you're reading plus other costs like obtaining the book in the first place. All of those versus the resources you could be spending on doing something else equally productive.

I got a budget under the category of investment but it's a loose category since money spent can either go to traditional investment vehicles, crypto or just assets for self improvement. On this case, it wouldn't hurt to acquire more knowledge about stuff I don't know but are interested in.

If you made it this far reading, thank you for your time.

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The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham is a book I wanna buy; It's quite pricey and still waiting for that miracle discount 😂. 12 rules of life should be an easy read for you and pretty interesting too, I had them as E-book but keep wanting to get the paperback version. My only problem when buying book is that though I have a list, sometimes I am tempted to get another one and going way over my book budget. Also is there a chance you'd ever review the one from Marshall Goldsmith I've seen it at the bookstore but not sure if that's worth it.

The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham is a book I wanna buy; It's quite pricey and still waiting for that miracle discount

There's always the yarrggg~ way if you're not bothered with reading on screen too long. I have its soft copy but had a difficult time absorbing the concepts because it wasn't reader friendly for someone less familiar with stocks.

12 rules took some adjustment as I initially thought Jordan would write it in a matter of how he talks during his classes but this one had a lot of layers. I have the soft copies on some titles mentioned above and only read chapters 1-3 most of them until I decided to consider just buying a hard copy.

I am tempted to get another one and going way over my book budget.

Nice to know I'm not the only one having these types of problems. I sometimes make up excuses to overbuy books like if I buy this now, I'm buying time it takes to source the book at a later date which may or may no longer be available physically. If I buy this now, the money and time spent to read will prevent me from spending the same resources for other things that may just be depreciating assets like gadgets or excursions. There's always a mini economics behind every purchase I make.

Also is there a chance you'd ever review the one from Marshall Goldsmith I've seen it at the bookstore but not sure if that's worth it.

I finished the first two chapters of that one, it's the first book I read from the list above and so far it looks promising. It's a bit of self reflection (for the current chapters I read).

Thanks for stopping by~ :>

I definitely hate reading something that I take very seriously on screen. Like for example, I used to have the habit of printing whitepaper just to understand the projects and what they're all about. But now, to supplement my screen reading, I have a small notebook filled with summaries and important notes; I am pretty old school when it comes to that.

There's actually another good thing about overbuying. Apart from knowledge value, since book can be resold, it's actually a good investment. I did this in the past 😂. Although profit isn't really there but for old books I don't read anymore and those I don't really like {textbooks, some novels}, they gave me extra money to buy newer ones.

Looking forward to you making more book post!

I definitely hate reading something that I take very seriously on screen. Like for example, I used to have the habit of printing whitepaper just to understand the projects and what they're all about.

I wish I started a habit of printing instead of being happy with just screen reading. It's those papers used that gets me environmentally conscious then toss the papers aside once content is consumed.

There's actually another good thing about overbuying. Apart from knowledge value, since book can be resold, it's actually a good investment.

I have never sold my old books nor have I ever considered them as an investment. I'd probably slash down the price more than half if I did try it as that's the usual practice when I buy anything secondhand from peers.

I got side track with another book so finishing one from the list above will take a while. OwO

I've been a book lover/ bibliophile for a long time but for now I'm reading academic books only

Nice, what academic books do you read?

The real question should be whether you will actually spend the time reading them.

Asking the difficult questions I see. I started with Poor economics and probably move to Trading Code by Jason Cam vs Honoroji's Art Book. I'll just put 15 min of reading time on those per day as a more realistic goal than sit down and leisure read for hours which is unrealistic right now.

Sounds like a good goal.

The grading of things between needs and wants is always 👍

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Seen the book of why around but I judged it by it's name and cover and didn't read it, maybe ill go back for it because of you 😊