Amazon.com
Though Anthony Perkins played roles as diverse as a lawman of the old West in The Tin Star and Eugene Grant in the play Look Homeward Angel, he is best remembered for his performance as the maniacal son of a monstrous mother in Psycho. In Split Image, Charles Winecoff explains how Psycho pigeon-holed Perkins into similar roles and stagnated his professional life. His private life was equally vexatious--his father died when he was 5 and his mother controlled his finances until she died. He was married for 19 years but remained an active homosexual, engaging in a lifestyle that ultimately led to his death from AIDS in 1992.
Book Description
He was being groomed to replace the late James Dean. Then, in 1960, his portrayal of the murderous Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho destroyed Anthony Perkins' burgeoning career as a romantic leading man. His performance became a landmark in motion picture history—creating an image that eerily paralleled an offscreen life equally as secretive, conflicted, and fractured.
The son of a legendary stage actor, Perkins showed great promise as a Broadway star. But his constant struggle with his homosexuality resulted in a desperate search for acceptance that led from New York to Hollywood to Europe. His later attempts to create a new image for himself as a conventional family man were tragically cut short by his death from AIDS in 1992. Including interviews with more than 300 of Perkins' friends, co-stars, relatives, and lovers, filled with revealing anecdotes about Orson Welles, Audrey Hepburn, Rock Hudson, and many others, this intimate biography separates fact from fiction as it explores the complex life of this enigmatic, tortured man. Meticulously researched, written with rare candor and compassion, Split Image is both a harrowing look at life in the Hollywood closet and a poignant human drama that will change your vision of Anthony Perkins forever.
Customer Reviews:
This is NOT the latest edition of this book!.......2006-05-31
I don't know why Amazon has not corrected this - when you type in "ANTHONY PERKINS" you get "SPLIT IMAGE" - not "ANTHONY PERKINS." I don't get it.
Plus this edition is out of print - and out-of-date.
There is a NEW 10th ANNIVERSARY EDITION, revised and updated, that just came out in May 2006 - titled "ANTHONY PERKINS: SPLIT IMAGE."
That is the best edition of this book.
Do not buy this old edition.
Sincerely,
Charles Winecoff, the author
Great book!.......2005-11-26
I truely enjoyed this book. It was well written and very informative! This author did Anthony Perkins justice!
Here we go again.......2005-05-29
Beginning to wonder if any 50s male icons happened to be hetero. The subject matter was so temptingly juicy that the author could not resist, no doubt in the pursuit of honesty, to shine his light on the sordid side of this life. But an objectively equal amount of time was devoted to explanations and Perkins' attempts to balance his frustrating existence. In short, the book probably is no different in outcome than the life it chronicles and as such is effective biography.
Too Much Special Pleading, Too Much Graphic Detail.......2004-11-17
This is a very readable biography, and focuses upon a very interesting (if sad) story of a great (but partially wasted) talent. With that said, however--
The author harps too much on how terrible and pernicious it was to live in the closet, and how awful and repressive America was in the 50s.
At times the author lets his distaste for the bad career and personal choices Perkins made seep through. (No biography is totally objective, of course, but still . . .)
The author goes into too much graphic detail about Perkins's somewhat kinky sexual life. Perhaps one or two details about this subject would have "spiced up" the biography, but honestly, we don't need to "get into bed" with Perkins even once, let alone multiple times.
And one gap that really isn't the author's fault--Perkins's widow and children didn't cooperate with him. As a result, there is a huge gap in the latter part of the book.
Not terrible, but no classic--perhaps even an object lesson in what not to do in a biography.
Tough love.......2004-05-18
Yes, this biography of a sometimes talented actor - limited by his own hand - is often hard to read, even harsh. But in the end, this reader anyway was left feeling strangely wistful, as if the time had come to say goodbye to an old, difficult, contentious friend. In that respect, I feel the book is quite honest and ultimately empathetic. Perkins' life was certainly controversial, and he clearly dropped friends along the way as it suited his changing needs. But the author conveys the goodness and strength of Perkins' final years with his family, despite his illness and his myriad secrets. I knew several people who knew Perkins, and this book comes about as close as their accounts while illuminating more. A very complex puzzle.
Book Description
Paramount groomed him to replace the late James Dean and become Hollywood's hottest heartthrob. But his landmark performance as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho killed that-and spawned an image of Anthony Perkins that eerily paralleled his conflicted, fractured off-screen life.
Anthony Perkins: Split Image insightfully and comprehensively documents the life of this great actor, who was forced to act the part of ladies' man while privately struggling with his own homosexuality, and chronicles his complicated search for acceptance.
Newly revised and updated for this tenth anniversary edition, Anthony Perkins: Split Image is both a harrowing look at life in the Hollywood closet and a poignant human drama that will change your vision of Anthony Perkins forever.
"Riveting...With his laser-beam of an eye, Winecoff lights up the hidden corners of Hollywood's golden age, as well as a dark age of homosexuality that needs to be understood by anyone who didn't live through it.…It's a page-turner." -James Gavin, author of Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker
"Charles Winecoff is a clever biographer. With his inside, creepy examination of Anthony Perkins, I was mesmerized by a dude I never thought I'd be able to stomach for more than a paragraph. Well done." -E!'s Ted Casablanca
"Anthony Perkins: Split Image is one of the deepest, darkest Hollywood stories ever told." -Robert Hofler, author of The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson
"Told with empathy and a sagacious eye for detail, Winecoff's lively chronicle of one of the screen's more formidable, if underrated, leading men perhaps should have been called Brokeback Hollywood Hills."-Stephen M. Silverman, author of David Lean and Dancing on the Ceiling: Stanley Donen and His Movies
"An important chronicle of a time when gay was still the ultimate taboo, one that Hollywood had especially little use for as it aggressively sold illusion and lies."-Michael Musto, from his Foreword
Customer Reviews:
The Essential Anthony Perkins.......2007-04-20
As an actor, Anthony Perkins has always fascinated me. In every role that I ever saw him play, he had this quality about him that made you feel that if you didn't listen to every word he said and watch every movement that he made, you were going to miss something of major importance. It's called stage presence and he had it by the bucketfuls. He was of course most noted for his portrayal of Norman Bates in PSYCHO and he captured that character so well that it was both the blessing and the curse of his career. Already, before Hitchcock's masterpiece, the powers that be behind Perkins' acting career saw him as a replacement for James Dean or as the new Gary Cooper or someone like him. They wrongly saw him as a macho romantic lead but after PSYCHO, they and the movie public only wanted him to play variations of the Norman Bates character. Charles Winecoff, in his revised tenth anniversary edition of his Perkins biography, ANTHONY PERKINS: SPLIT IMAGE captures valiantly both the personal and professional life of a Hollywood icon.
Perkins' acting career didn't begin on the movie screen; it began on the stage. His father was the famed actor, Osgood Perkins, who died during a perfomance at the age of thirty-seven when Anthony was only five. His mother was connected to theater people and saw that he learned his craft as a teenager in summer stock productions. Before his appearance in the movie PSYCHO, he had played the lead in at least two Broadway shows, one of which was as Eugene Gant in Ketti Frings' play LOOK HOMEWARD ANGEL based on the Thomas Wolfe novel of the same name. Eugene Gant's sensitive character was one that would have suited Perkins' personality well and if the movie mobuls could have seen that these kinds of roles rather than the romantic lead roles were who Anthony should play, his film career might have taken a happier, more successful turn.
Anthony hadn't been in Hollywood long when he met Tab Hunter and the tongues began to wag concerning both men's sexual preference. Homosexuality in the 1950's and 1960's was not something to be tolerated in an actor's personal life and Anthony was quickly persuaded to not be seen with Tab in public too frequently. (Tab's autobiography indicated as well that he too was told to avoid too much contact with Anthony.) At the time, to make your homosexuality too public would have been a sure-fire way to kill a career before it even got started. Before, and after Tab Hunter, Perkins was linked with other (secretly) gay men, but psycho-analysis was revered at the time, and Anthony yearned to be as straight as so many people wished him to be. Why wouldn't he in the poisonous atmosphere of the time. At around forty, he met and married Berry Berenson and fathered two sons and I think for the rest of his life was convinced that his newly found heterosexuality and his role as husband and father was his salvation; at least that is what he told people.
The many miscastings and the perception of those who handed out the movie roles to Anthony Perkins that America couldn't handle an alternate lifestyle, hurt Perkins' acting career and he tried his hand at directing both plays and films with limited success. One of the reasons pointed out in the book for that limited success was Anthony's lack of confidence in himself. I tend to agree because when you are told constantly that the core of who and what you are is insufficient, that would make you lack confidence in yourself. But, in spite of that, there are enough gems in the theater and film work of Anthony Perkins that has to apoligize to no one and I for one salute him as one of my Hollywood heros.
Sensitive, layered portrait of a complicated man.......2006-05-31
This is one of the best Hollywood bios around. While numerous authors rehash the tired stories of Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, and others (for the 10th or 11th time - and who cares) this book opens new, original territory by looking at the life and times of Tony Perkins. The author first published the book ten years ago and this is a great update - no one else has come along to do a better job either. Tony Perkins lived on the cusp of the social revolution, balancing between the uptight propriety of the 50s with the psycho/sexual upheaval of the 60s and 70s. Winecoff meticulously lays out this world, and Perkins difficult and often troubled, sometimes comical, walk through it. Tons of interviews and vivid descriptions of people and places makes Tony pop off the page in this "true Hollywood story" that is hard to out down. Winecoff's timing is impeccable - the book is a fast, fun read as well as an informative one. The reissue is more tightly woven (I read the first version when it came out ten years ago). The author has grown more sophisticated and observant with passing years, as all good writers should. The final scene, September 11th and all, is a fitting tribute to changing times and the end of an era.
Average customer rating:
- Chock full of inaccurate information.
- Unbalanced in focus, but it's difficult not to be changed
- junk rock history
- The book rocks, but...
- Rock And Roll Written As Rock And Roll
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Sonic Cool: The Life and Death of Rock'N'Roll
Joe Harrington
Manufacturer: Hal Leonard
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0634028618 |
Book Description
In the tradition of Nick Tosches, Tom Wolfe and Lester Bangs comes an epic and riveting history of rock and roll that reads like a novel. Sonic Cool presents the saga of rock and roll as the closest thing we have to genuine "myth" in the modern world, and it is the first book about rock to be written in the spirit of rock. Immense, fierce, opinionated and hilarious, Joe Harrington masterfully presents rock as a movement of near-religious proportions, against a backdrop of social factors and important events such as the invention of the guitar, the jukebox, LSD, the 12-inch phonograph record, the '70s recession, the Reagan Revolution, and the Internet. This is the history of rock as it's never been told, as the legend of a massive cultural movement, one that had meaning, but ultimately failed because it sold its soul. Radically egalitarian in its assessments - towering figures such as Lennon, Dylan and Cobain stand along side lesser-known but equally influential artists like the MC5, the Misfits and Joy Division - Sonic Cool is gripping reading for anyone who ever believed in the music. Includes a 16-page black-and-white photo insert. Joe S. Harrington began writing at the age of 10, an act that provoked a rejection slip from Mad magazine. He has written about music for the Boston Globe, Boston Phoenix, New York Press, Seattle Stranger, Lowell Sun, Wired, Reflex, Raygun, High Times, Seconds, Rollerderby and numerous fanzines. He is currently employed as an on-line jazz critic at Amazon, and lives in Portland, Maine. Softcover.
Customer Reviews:
Chock full of inaccurate information........2005-03-11
This was a frustrating book to read. Poorly researched and poorly written. See if your library has it before you spend the $20.
Unbalanced in focus, but it's difficult not to be changed.......2004-07-10
Joe S. Harrington's Top 100 albums (though I am obliged to state I never intended it to be so) has certainly changed the way I view music forever. No other writer is so able to convince me (admittedly nobody would ever claim I am by nature sceptical) that what he says about music is true.
The key to "Sonic Cool", no doubt, comes from the manner in which it shows how the origin of almost all the major threads operating in rock'n'roll today are much older than one's everyday guidebook to the topic makes you believe. "Sonic Cool" suggests that by and large, most of these trends originated from two or three great flowerings, the most important of which date from the late 1960s and the "punk revolution" of the late 1970s. It argues that ever since disco emerged at the same time as the "punk revolution," almost all of what has charted has been manufactured, extremely derivative, totally soulless and passionless music that imitates in a highly synthesised and pre-planned style the rock of the 1960s and early 1970s. Harrington says this with language that can only be described as intense and emotional, even extreme, especially when it comes to describing the commercial music of the eighties (which I grew up with for more than twenty years).
However, his almost apocalyptic tone about the death of rock'n'roll, whilst argued with an intelligence that is extraordinarily rare among rock critics, does unnaturally split the book into a pre-"punk revolution" period where "art" and "commerce" seemed to merge reasonably well, and a post-"punk revolution" period where they were so far apart as not only not to merge, but also to create a vast space between them. Harrington clearly has not only no use (and vast scorn) for anyone who charted in the eighties or the 1990s, but also for many quite well known artists after the "punk revolution" who never had any mainstream success.
Among pre-"punk revolution" artists he offers an excellent, balanced focus that perhaps is much closer to the opinions of mainstream critics. In this period, he willingly praises artists who were and remain popular, and looks very closely at how rock and roll evolved when it (as he sees it) was "living" among the masses. The information about both major and minor artists is very good and worth reading, and we see that many of the well-known artists of the era were, like independent rockers of the eighties and nineties, part of large movements, which Harrington pieces together in a very logical and easy-to-understand manner that shows each movement (as he indeed does with everything about pre-"punk revolution" music) in a very precise, highly historical context that shows very clearly why everything that occurred happened as it did.
Nevertheless, as another reviewer has said, Harrington (unlike his contemporary David Keenan) does not think highly of any artist who "thinks outside the box" ie. has an attitude or philosophy different from the attitudes of 1960s rockers. This might be why his focus in more modern times is so limited: electronica, trip-hop, post-rock, and death metal are completely excluded, the first three genres undoubtedly because their quiet, yet original, sophistication does not blend well with his train of thought. His focus from this period on riot grrl and obscure indie rock does strike one as being unbalanced, especially given that writers like Pierro Scaruffi question seriously the originality of modern garage rockers. More detail on the eighties and nineties would indeed be good even if Harrington does not want it.
On the whole, an unbalanced book that still manages to make a na?ve reader think many times more about what music they ought to be listening to.
junk rock history.......2004-01-30
While he may have a great record collection, he's no historian nor a great writer of prose. I reject the claims that the errors are an attempt at a "style" and the prose gets boring fast. Not recommended at all.
The book rocks, but..........2003-09-04
I just finished Sonic Cool and as a music history junkie it was probably the most important book I've ever read. For years I have been searching for a comprehensive history of rock, and this fit the bill nicely. Funny how it seems to be the only one of its kind. You think other writers would have tackled the subject before.
So yes, the book is engaging and will increase your knowledge of music, let alone rock music, immensely. Anyone who follows music should read it. But before I say anything else, I just have to get a few negative points off my chest:
1) As a journalism student, I was shocked by all the typos. We're not talking three or four, but one every few pages. I'm confused - I thought there were people called copy editors who checked this stuff before a book goes to print? Sure, you could say it's not a big deal, but all I know is, if I made these kind of errors (he mispells people's NAMES, for crying out loud) I'd fail my assignment. I would also be embarassed to have my name on a piece that makes me look so careless. Apparently Joe employs false bits of information as well - shameless. How do I know what else is untrue in this book?
2) Too much of the time I think he is being obscure just for the sake of being obscure. I consider myself pretty well versed in music, and a very large portion of the bands mentioned meant nothing to me. This kind of bored me at points because I had no frame of reference for the bands he was droning on about. You really have to motivate yourself to keep reading. He seems to think the band AntiSeen is the most significant band in the world, up there with Elvis and Nirvana, and I've never heard of them.
3) His structure got on my nerves. You would think he was done talking about a particular style, such as Folk or Punk, and then he would launch into it all over again. I personally would have liked to have heard more about Electronic Music, which I think also had an effect on the death of rock (thus contributing to his premise). He blathered on about Punk way longer than I was interested. Too repetitive, maybe he should have stuck to a more chronological style.
4) A more minor point: I did like how he wrote in a conversational tone, but some of his phrases were just stupid and juvenile i.e. "smelled the farts", "sniffed the butts". Considering most of the writing was pretty sophisticated, stuff like this broke the tone.
Ahhhh....it felt good to get that all out. Of course, I'm sure Joe would just tell me to "write my own damn book", anyway.
Rock And Roll Written As Rock And Roll.......2003-05-22
This is a treat of a book. It's as long and unwieldy as "In a Godadivida" and at times you may get sick of it, but it always picks back up again. This is not an unbiased book. If you're happy with what you hear on your pre-programmed FM station, prepare to be insulted. Harrington has no use for Madonna, REM, U2, the hacks the Stones became or pretty much anyone who's charted in the past 30yrs. The Sixties were the last time Art and Commerce merged in his opinion.
The only drawback (aside from factual errors noted in other reviews) comes from some repetition. The way book is structured, though, makes it impossible to avoid. Harrington is more concerned with the progress of music rather than time.
Still, I spent far too many nights looking up at the clock flashing 1AM, which is always the mark of a good read.
Average customer rating:
- This is a paper doll book - not stickers
- great stocking stuffers/goody bag fillers
- great stocking stuffers/goody bag fillers
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Little Chinese Girl Paper Doll (Dover Little Activity Books)
Tom Tierney
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
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Jin-Ju from Korea Sticker Paper Doll
ASIN: 0486274322 |
Book Description
Dress this little miss from the Far East in 8 traditional full-color costumes, among them an unusual straw raincoat and hat; a long cheongsam, or Hong Kong sheath; a floor-length Tibetan bridal dress; a multi-layered garment worn by a cast member of the Peking opera, and 4 others.
Customer Reviews:
This is a paper doll book - not stickers.......2007-09-02
I ordered this because I thought this was a sticker book as stated by the one woman who has 2 of the same reviews on this item. But this book is not a sticker book but a paper doll book. The draws of the outfits are beautifully detailed and would be great for a Lifebook page on China or traditions because of the Chinese outfits. The paper doll is named ChenChen is on the back cover of a thin page. The outfits are printed on a very thin sheet of paper.
I really don't think a child would be able to cut these paper outfits out because there is a lot of detail, so this is definately an adult only cutting the outfits and I could see adults getting frustrated cutting.
Here are the outfits:
Traditional day dress w/ parasol
Cheongsam or Hong Kong Sheath dress w/ green fan & matching material hat
Peking Opera costume w/ hat and fancy fan
Work clothes
Straw raincoat & hat
Traditional Court Costume
Tibetan Bride's dress
Quilted cottom costume and butterfly kite ( you mostly see the butterfly kite)
I gave this book a 5 stars because of the illustrations, I'd give it a 3 stars for how hard it will be to cut the costumes for children and possibly the adults that will have to cut this for them. I am disappointed that this is not a sticker book like the review said, but it might have been a sticker book at one time... just not now.
great stocking stuffers/goody bag fillers.......2000-08-02
These pocket sticker books are excellent stocking stuffers or goody bag treats. The stickers are used to "dress" the doll and then stored on the inside front or back cover. They are resusable for a time (until all of the glue is stuck on little fingers). ... They are cheaper than a lot of package stickers and more interesting, although a little stereotypical. Kids love them. There is no story line to the books, only stickers and background.
great stocking stuffers/goody bag fillers.......2000-08-02
These pocket sticker books are excellent stocking stuffers or goody bag treats. The stickers are used to "dress" the doll and then stored on the inside front or back cover. They are resusable for a time (until all of the glue is stuck on little fingers). At 80 or so cents, they are cheaper than a lot of package stickers and more interesting, although a little stereotypical. Kids love them. There is no story line to the books, only stickers and background.
Book Description
From America's liveliest writer on mathematics, a witty and insightful book on the stock market and the irrepressibility of our dreams of wealth.
In A Mathematician Plays the Stock Market best-selling author John Allen Paulos demonstrates what the tools of mathematics can tell us about the vagaries of the stock market. Employing his trademark stories, vignettes, paradoxes, and puzzles (and even a film treatment), Paulos addresses every thinking reader's curiosity about the market: Is it efficient? Is it rational? Is there anything to technical analysis, fundamental analysis, and other supposedly time-tested methods of picking stocks? How can one quantify risk? What are the most common scams? What light do fractals, network theory, and common psychological foibles shed on investor behavior? Are there any approaches to investing that truly outperform the major indexes? Can a deeper knowledge of mathematics help beat the odds?
All of these questions are explored with the engaging erudition that made Paulos's A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper and Innumeracy favorites with both armchair mathematicians and readers who want to think like them. Paulos also shares the cautionary tale of his own long and disastrous love affair with WorldCom. In the tradition of Burton Malkiel's A Random Walk Down Wall Street and Jeremy Siegel's Stocks for the Long Run, this wry and illuminating book is for anyone, investor or not, who follows the markets-or knows someone who does.
Customer Reviews:
Unsatisfying melange.......2007-05-28
An odd book. Jaunty style, framed by (a) the author's investment experience, contains (b) a variety of math topics related to the stock market, mixed with (c) brief accounts of classic (prisoners dilemma, regression effect) and recently fashionable (power laws, Parrondo's rachet) topics in mathematical probability. Perhaps a decent read if you haven't read anything else, but this material is covered much better by (a) Taleb Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets, (b) Malkiel A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing, Ninth Editionand (c) Peterson The Jungles of Randomness: A Mathematical Safari.
Gets a Lot of the Stuff Right.......2007-04-09
First off, you would be disappointed if you think this is a book about investing in stocks. This books presents an analysis by the author on several of the more common issues surround investments. Looking at the big picture, the author discusses Technical Analysis, Fundamental Analysis, Neoclassical Finance and Behavioral Finance. Most, if not all the topics would fall under one of these categories.
Important things that I feel you can take away from this book: 1) People should not be too awed when "superstar" investors are featured in the media because the likelihood of these things occurring are not small; 2) Even an excellent understanding of how finance/investment theory (or being extremely smart, in general) does not mean you can make money off the market; 3) Some mathematical tricks that can be used to con people (e.g. (a) card trick involving a black-black card, red-red card, and red-black card and (b) investment mail scam).
Unfortunately, I think for some parts of the book the reader should have a good understanding of finance and math. If not, some may get lost in some of the jargon and computations. I found most of the book fairly enteratining except probably for the last two chapters. It's also a short read - I bought the book so that I can do something on my way to and back from a short trip.
The stock market plays with a mathematician.......2007-02-12
Before buying this book, I wished I had read the review below that says, "For every winner there is at least one loser. For every big winner generally there are a few losers. The successful ones do study the stock market in detail and they depend upon substantial understanding of the share market system but knowledge is not enough, you need something else as well. If it was simply knowledge and easy, then arrogant inexperienced fools like this writer who are obviously extremely intelligent would have made money instead of losing it."
For one thing if the author knew at least a little bit about stop loss techniques before entering the stock market, he would not have lost so much money with his stock purchases. Maybe he is just so frustated and wants to show how smart he is and that only a random market could beat him as it did. Maybe he just wants to show that with the mathematics he had all he needed to enter the market, that no additional domain knowledge would be needed.
But then he goes on to show how technical analysis is flawed and how smart he is to see this so clearly. As the other reviewer noticed, he quickly jumps to conclusion whenever things don't follow his logic. I could list many cases in this book where his very own analysis is flawed, where his arguments are not well constructed, where the next step is avoided whenever the path could lead to a different conclusion.
I have a Theoretical Physics background and the I-know-it-best position that the author shows does not appeal to me either. Most of his humor seems to be based on a deep-seated sense of arrogance.
Yet, he is an intelligent man. One can hardly believe that this is the same person who wrote his other good books, especially the excellent "Innumeracy". Well, they were more in his domain of knowledge.
But he thinks that knowing Mathematics he knows a lot more than he knows, and a lot more than the average Joe. And the market is unforgiving to people who behave like fools and without proper domain knowledge.
I have given two stars to this book because it happens to be an interesting book for people who works with technical analysis. To find the errors and flawed arguments of an intelligent man trying to beat technical analysis is intellectually gratifying.
It may also turn out to be very enlightening to see how the market turns an intelligent man into a fool if proper domain knowledge is missing. It is a lesson that many learn the hard way.
This book probably has a typo in its title.
Makes great connections and surveys ideas explaining market mechanics.......2006-10-10
John Allen Paulos presents an incredibly readable and interesting account of the mathematical aspect of financial markets. If you are looking for a book which tells you specificics such as how to calculate P/E or screen stocks, pick another 'how to' book such as Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham and Jason Zweig. What this book gives you is a great synopsis of the philosophies which attempt to explain the markets' movements.
Depending on your point of view, the author either entertains you with personal stories or infuses too much personal information, but it was easy to quickly read the personal stories. There are several sections which I had to slow way down to think about. Several of the most interesting sections covered the efficient market hypothesis and how current theoretical math research contributes to the debate. I found his arguments to give both sides a fair shake, while still showing us his opinion. A very interesting consequence of the efficient market hypothesis is that it will not work unless almost noone believes it -- which is probably the case as most of the trading done is accomplished by folks who believe they can beat the market.
In all, a very entertaining read that doesn't get bogged down in the details. By no means a classic or a presentation of new information, but the author provides exactly what the title and cover information promise: a nicely packaged view and story of a well-read mathematician interacting with the markets. In so doing, he ties together many ideas and touches lots of authors.
Set the record straight.......2006-09-07
I have read a number of the reviews of this book, and I feel that some of them give a bit of a mis-impression about what this book is about. It is not about picking stocks, it is first and foremost an overview of various theories of behavioral finance/investment psychology. In particular, it focuses on how human psychological foibles may preclude individuals (individually and in the aggregate) from acting in their own best interests. The book no more supports efficient market theory than it supports technical analysis (e.g., the book takes shots at both).
The book does a good job of reviewing various human psychological foibles and how they may affect stock market investing, including "anchoring effect," "availability error," "confirmation bias," "status quo bias," and "endowment effect." I found the overview of these issues to be quite useful, and since reading the book 5 months ago, have tried to review them periodically to (hopefully) minimize their effect on my own investment decision making.
Paulos does a great job of debunking the notion that a particular formula may lead to stock market success. One quote stands out: "If you look hard enough, you can always find some seemingly effective rule that resulted in large gains over a certain time frame or within a certain sector."
In sum, Paulos' conclusion is that humans are overly-fixated on short-term results, and that people do not have a set of fixed preferences upon which they cooly and rationally base their investment decisions. Rather, because of the prevalence of fads, fashions, imitative behavior, etc., humans often act irrationally. His book provides a nice framework for investors to analyze their own decision-making process to (hopefully) improve their results.
There are a number of other books that readers might find interesting/helpful, including:
Belksy - "Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes and How to Correct Them" (more behavioral finance discussion)
Dreman - "Contrarian Investment Strategies: the Next Generation" (author uses behavioral finance theories, including those referenced by Paulos, to improve returns)
Whitman - "Value Investing" and "The Aggressive Conservative Investor" (author supports a fundamental analysis that avoids a focus on short-term earnings)
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Top Producer, published by Farm Journal Media on January 1, 2004. The length of the article is 556 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Why can't farmers sell at a profit? John Allen Paulos, author of the best seller, a mathematician plays the stock market.
Author: Linda Smith
Publication:
Top Producer (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2004
Publisher: Farm Journal Media
Page: 19
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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