Great Ideas guys thank you very much. Please keep posting.
Here are great additions but some may be more suited to post-b school students (disclosure: poster is BBA accounting holder and CPA with interests in finance and IT management and returning to get MBA).
Books I loved with a lot of fresh ideas:
Lords of Finance, Interwar period history text mainly about central bankers and their effect on the depression and on both world wars.
Subprime Solution - Robert Schiller On the housing bubble and potential policy changes that would enhance stability in the mortgage market. Also I beg all of you to download Schillers Podcast of Yale Finance Course lectures circa 2008 available for free on Itunes. THis will give you a huge jump on your finance courses and he is a fantastic prof. (the students applaud his final lecture for the semester)
The Myth of the Rational Market - Mentioned before in forum, but honestly this is one of the best books listed on this forum imho. Will also give you a huge leg up in finance courses, including knowing which formulas you are taught may be totally irrelevant in modern times.
No one would listen - Financier turned forensic accountant who caught bernie madhoff, but who could not convince the SEC. Fantastic story which reads like fiction, but purportedly true. Ecxellent way to learn some law and accounting in addition to tons about finance Especially broker-dealers.
The Lords of Strategy - History of strategy consulting a la Boston consulting group interesting but somewhat technical read which is more in the style of myth of the rational market than lords of finance.
The big short - great inside story of the mortgage market and MBS industry proir to and during financial collapse. You will learn lots here about birth of new derivatives.
Basic Economics - Thomas sowell its all in the title, but this is really good
BTW ALL THESE available on audiobook or cd and many available at the overdrive library catalog
OTHERS books MENTIONED BUT WHICH ARE TRULY GREAT IMHO:
The Black Swan and
Fooled by randomness - Taleb is awesome. True there is not a ton of application potential here, but the threat of Blowing up from fooled is an important one. See also his "barbells" investment strategy and the rise of "Tail Risk Hedge Funds"
The world is flat - boring and less than earth shattering, but your profs will mention the cliches and buzzwords here countless times.
Empire & The ascent of money Nials Ferguson, Fantastic world economic history books
OTHER BOOKS I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO:
More money than god - hedge fund related
Fault LinesNever eat aloneThe Halo effectAtlas shrugged
THe Fortune at the bottom of the pyramidHigher Aims to Hired HandsEducation of a SpeculatorAnimal spirits - George Akerlof
The innovators dilemmaA random walk down wall street - totally dated but in its upteenth edition and really influential
PLEASE POST MORE DEEP READS -