An interesting article about Mansion by Michael Lewis

Today, I asked Abe to read ten pages of a chess book, since the book is an advanced book, I supposed him to finish the reading no less than half an hour.

He started to read the chess book, at the same time, I started to read an article from another book, minutes later, he said to me,
“I am done.”
“You must have not read it carefully, it is supposed to be a difficult book,” I replied, “I have not finished reading this interesting story yet.”
“Which story? Let me see how soon I can finish it.” Abe must think he is a super-reader, he will surely finish reading an article or whatever much faster than his dad.

“Sure, you can. But after you finish reading the article, I will test you some questions to see if you really read the article.” I guess it is not a bad idea to teach him some lessons.

“I may not remember every detail.”

“OK.”

I showed the story to Abe, it’s named The Mansion: A Subprime Parable written by Michael Lewis.

After Abe finished reading the article, I asked him the following questions:

What is the story about?
Do the kids like the house when they first see it? Why?
What are the names of the three kids?
Do the author think he has privacy living in the house, why?
Why do they move out of the house?
How much is the utility bill for the first month?
How much is the water bill for the first month? Is it for drinking water?
What is Quinn’s response when visiting William Randolph Hearst’s house?

See if you can answer them all and let me know if I missed some of important questions.

Abe answered most of my questions correctly or almost correct. So I thought the lesson he could learn was not about his reading, the lesson was about managing money: Spend only if you can afford.

By the way, Abe said he used ten minutes reading it (The Mansion: A Subprime Parable). How about you?