Geeks like to read – and not only programming books. Most of us read incessantly. Whether it’s popular science, sci-fi or fantasy, a good thriller or an occasional popular history book or biography, it’s a rare geek who isn’t in love with books. And I am no exception, although I have to confess I am rather an extreme case since my love of books and eclectic tastes borders on the “gentle madness” aka “bibliomania.”

What I am going to do in this regular column is feed my habit by highlighting some of the books I am reading, and (mostly) enjoying. (I will only rarely write negative reviews; it’s a rare book that I “do not put down gently but throw across the room with great force” after all.)

Finally, since I remain involved with Apress (www.apress.com), the publishing company for IT professionals I helped found, is there any potential for a conflict of interest? I don’t think so nor do the kind people at SYS-CON; the type of books I will be reviewing are the books I read “non-professionally” –for fun – in my spare time. It is only these books, rather than professional books, that I will review.

Title: Value Averaging: The Safe and Easy Strategy for Higher Investment Returns
Author: Michael E. Edleson
Publisher: Wiley Investment Classics; Rev Ed edition,(October 27, 2006),ISBN: 0470049774
Price: $19.95

There are 8,909 books listed on Amazon.com with the word “Investing” in the title; there are(!) 27,146 books with the word investment in the title. Without having looked at a representative sample, I can be confident that Sturgeon’s Law applies – I suspect if I sampled enough of them I would find that 90% greatly underestimates the amount of junk in this particular area.