[reidman]

I read Investing for Dummies back in 2004. It taught me all the basics I needed to know -- mostly lingo, since I had no clue what all the TLAs meant.

I had just gotten my hands on a few thousand dollars that I knew would otherwise be wasted on an unnecessary purchase, so I signed up with Ameritrade (back in 2004 when it was much less user-friendly) and had to read the book before I felt confident enough to actually place an order.

The book advised me to buy what I knew, and to only buy something I planned on holding for a long time. Luckily I had just tried out a Powerbook for the first time and was blown away, so I bought a bunch of Apple stock.