That’s my paean to the book then … although having said all that, some of the books I get sent for review, and there’s the postman staggering up the garden path with another skipful of jiffy bags now, are staggeringly bloody awful. Don’t worry … I’ll be telling you what they are. We’re setting up a new book review section on Walletwatcher, where we’ll be recommending and dissing finance tomes old and new, with previews of some of the better new titles coming out.

In the meantime, and in no particular order, here’s a personal top ten of finance books.

1. The Naked Trader: How Anyone Can Make Money Trading Shares by Robbie Burns. Brilliant, irreverent and entirely free of bullshit. This guy did it himself and is heavy on the data and analysis … yet makes it all superbly readable. Essential reading for any wannabe trader.
2. The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. It’s been around for 60 years and it should be dated, but ace investor Graham’s take on value investing still holds good. Fashion be damned, it’s simple stuff (if not easy).
3. The Financial Times Guide to Investing by Glen Arnold. A relatively simple intro to the complexities of shares, funds, bonds, derivatives and the rest. Clear and unfussy language … very good.
4. Bets and the City by Sally Nicoll. It has been descibed as ‘Bridget Jones meets Wall Street’ and is the diary of a spread betting novice. If this makes your stomach tighten with fear, so it should. This is collected from Sally’s hugely popular column for Finspreads and manages to be both hilarious and educational … great fun, don’t try it at home.
5. Love Is Not Enough: A Smart Woman’s Guide to Making (and Keeping) Money by Merryn Somerset Webb. Not just for women in fact, because men are rubbish at finance too. Good commonsense wealth-improvement tips, clearly written. Somerset Webb is the editor of the very good Moneyweek magazine, which takes no prisoners where dodgy financial products are concerned.
6. Be Your Own Financial Adviser (Which? Guides) by Jonquil Lowe. Because it does exactly what it says on the cover. Marvellously written, plain English guide which outlines risks, legal issues and how to avoid the welter of rubbish products out there.
7. Personal Finance for Dummies by Eric Tyson. Does follow the annoying ‘Dummies’ template of being a US book rewritten for the UK market, but the sheer quality of the thing overcomes that. Not about wealth building but about managing what you have better. A good step by step approach from this reliable imprint.
8. Naked Economics – Undressing the Dismal Science by Charles Wheelan. One of the best of the new ‘economics is fun’ genre. Not a graph or equation in the thing, which may put off the hard core economics student … but a great read for the rest of us. A fine introduction to the subject. But why do so many econ books have ‘naked’ in the title?The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford. Again, one of the better of the popular economics books. Why are bookshops full of coffe and armchairs? Well you can probably figure that one for yourself, but loads of interesting examples of how economics work in everyday life.
9. The Teenager’s Guide to Money by Jonathan Self. No they WON’T want this as a present, but buy it anyway. And do yourself a favour … read it first yourself.