Invest Like a Shark: How a Deaf Guy with No Job and Limited Capital Made a Fortune Investing in the Stock Market by James "RevShark" DePorre (2007)

I was expecting to see lots of hype from this book, as the author is a known associate of "Mad Money" Jim Cramer. The author does develop a sensible idea: the whales of the markets are so big, that it is not possible for them to cover their own tracks and by looking for those tracks, you might be able to join in into smart market action. List of rules and behaviors of the sharks are offered, together with little jabs towards hedge funds and the "Mad Money" Jim Cramer himself, discussion on why the traditional Wall Street advice on investing for the long run and the like are bad for small investors, with cutesy classification of investor shark styles. Unfortunately, little detail and examples are provided on how to identify those whales of the market, basically turning a second half into an infomercial of the author's site. (Unless you count those references to 30 and 50 day moving averages, support and resistance areas and the like, which I certainly hope for his subscriber's sake does not constitute the whole approach ...) One certainly wonders, why somebody who as per his own admission is (or maybe just was??) able to make several million dollars of profit a year in the markets, would bother with running a subscription based website, but again the good explanation is that it is nice to receive income with minimal investment (for running a site) and not risking one's own funds in the market. At least the small print on the site spells it out clearly: "Shark Investing, Inc., which owns and operates www.sharkinvesting.com and the Sharkfolio for James and Jeanette DePorre, is an affiliate of Shark Asset Management, LLC ("SAM"). SAM is managed by a SEC registered investment adviser that provides individual investment advice to clients in a managed fund. As such, SAM has a fiduciary obligation to its clients, but not to the subscribers of sharkinvesting.com. The information presented in Shark Alerts is general information for educational purposes for active traders. The information provided should not be considered investment advice. In addition, the advice that is provided to clients of SAM is different from the information discussed on the site." Maybe one would want to become a real client instead of subscribing there ...

Robert Ludlum's The Altman Code: A Covert-One Novel by Robert Ludlum (2003)

Another ghostwritten Ludlum novel, which shows on both language and plot. Factions in the Chinese Central Committee, Hong Kong shippers, an international investment (and covertly arms-dealer), Chinese and American reconnaissance organizations fighting over the documentation of a secret Chinese shipment of weapon chemicals to Saddam Hussein's Iraq (of course the storyline lost it's relevance to real events ...). On the sideline, there is the story of an American MIA, kept prisoner by the Chinese for the last 50 years, who happens to be the father of the sitting US president. With some luck here, there and everywhere, the Jon Smith, the good agent completes his job, and peace reins over the earth. An OK listening standing in traffic.

Social/Business Networking sites

LinkedIn

Xing

(Used) book/CD/DVD swapping/exchange sites

TitleTrader (Over 70,000 Swaps pay shipping when sending books)
BookCrossing (leave your books in public places and see who gets them)
PaperbackSwap (780 thousand books free pay shipping when sending books)
BookMooch (free pay shipping when sending books)
FrugalReader (free pay shipping when sending books)
WhatIsOnMyBookShelf (free pay shipping when sending books)
ReadItSwapIt (U.K.)
BookIns pay $3.99 for each book received (site is the middleman)
BookSwap for trading textbooks

Sci-fi Book Swapping

Text book exchange
Also
Debbie's Idea (helps to figure out which book to read from an unfamiliar author)
Swap Simple (fees waved for cheaper items, fee $2.00 per trade, books, DVD, video games)
LibraryThing (catalog your books online)
PeerFlix pay $0.99+postal fee for each DVD received 200 thousand titles (PeerBux ~$5.00 or receive for each DVD sent)
SwapACD
LendMonkey (fee $1.00/trade, books, music, DVD, 1346 items)
SwapShop (books, music, DVD, video games)
Swaptree (founded in 2004, books music, DVD, video games)
Cell Trade USA (sell/buy cell phone contracts)
RESELLULAR (sell/buy cell phone contracts)
SwapThing (swap anything)
Lala (CD exchange ~$2/per CD)

SwitchPlanet (DVD/CD/Games/Books)

bookins (pay 4.49 shipping on books received)

Playing For Pizza by John Grisham (2007)

It seems that Mr. Grisham finally lost its touch. A disgraced NFL player finds a low paying job in Italy? The story line is a good way off from legal thrillers and it shows (in particular in the boring writing). Spend your money on something better (like his earlier legal thrillers).

Book "rentals"

Considering the availability and good to excellent selection of public libraries in the USA, this might be a strange business model. While one could make a preference for reading brand new books purchased, I'm not sure what differentitation these services can offer.
booksfree
Bookswim

High Probability Trading by Marcel Link (2003)

Lots of pages, little (if any) original content, which would not be that surprising as the author is an (ex?)brokerage owner and current proprietary trader(read that he couldn't make a living trading ...). While I liked spme features of the book, including the listings of "dos-and-don'ts" and questions-to-ask from self after each chapter, considering the lack of originality, you would be better off reading Magee's Technical Analysis of Stock Trends to learn more about technical analysis and the some of the other personal finance books recommended in this blog.