A Book?

As a gift-giving season approaches, the possibility of giving a book (or asking someone else to give you a book) arises.

There are a lot of books; here are a few that may be of interest. They are not real estate investment books, but sometimes real estate investment doesn’t seem to be a lot about real estate, or, indeed, investment.

Bad arguments - “The literature on logic and logical fallacies is wide and exhaustive…but reading about things that one should not do is also a useful learning experience.” Ali Almossawi presents 19 of the most common errors in reasoning.

Predictable Surprises - “We often...find that most [executives] can rattle off a list of predictable surprises that exist in their organisation...but, amazingly, they routinely leave predictable surprises to develop and fester”. As we contemplate, and then ignore, the next predictable surprise, Bazerman and Watkins help us understand why.

Narrative Economics - “A key proposition of this book is that economic fluctuations are substantially driven by contagion of oversimplified and easily transmitted variants of economic narratives”. Nobel prize winning Robert Shiller explores the role of infectious stories in economics. There is even a chapter on real estate.

Private Equity Laid Bare - “Home to a stockpile of mythologies, war stories and fantasies, the private equity industry is indeed private and shrouded in complex jargon…this myth-debunking book attempts to assist you…” Oxford University’s Ludovic Phalippou exposes the inner workings of an asset class, some of which have been, perhaps unhelpfully, transported into real estate.

On Truth - “While no one has any trouble recognizing that there is plenty of bullshit around, quite a few people remain stubbornly unwilling to acknowledge that there might be - even in principle - such a thing as truth”. Harry Frankfurt’s sequel to On Bullshit.