Dear Dagen: Financial Firms' Reading Lists Heavy on Boss' Books, Backswings

You might've thought the folks at your mutual fund company or brokerage were sitting around reading Graham and Dodd.

Try Grisham and Clancy.

Amazon.com (AMZN Quote) has started publishing lists of best-selling books by company. These "Purchase Circles," as Amazon.com calls them, are based on the domain name (i.e., thestreet.com, for example) of customers as well as zip codes that books are shipped to. With a few clicks of the mouse, you can browse the top-10 books at Merrill Lynch (MER Quote) or Vanguard -- or many other companies, for that matter. (Sorry, Amazon.com hasn't compiled a Purchase Circle list for TheStreet.com.) ...