Whether we are pursuing wealth or worrying about investments, we continue to buy personal finance books in huge numbers.

During boom times, when the stock market seemed to be making everybody but you and your mama a millionaire, there was a plethora of books that promised to help you pick the right stocks.

And now that the market is in the dumps, experts want to show us how to prosper in any market.

Some of these personal finance books are well worth your hard-earned money. Others are mind-numbingly boring or make unrealistic pledges to make you rich in 10 easy steps.

Book recommendations

To help you choose which books are worth buying, I’ve decided to start the Color of Money Book Club.

I want to turn you on to books that have the potential to change your financial life or challenge conventional wisdom about the financial industry or the stock market in much the same way economist Burton Malkiel did in his 1973 book, “A Random Walk Down Wall Street.”

Malkiel wrote: “A blindfolded monkey throwing darts at a newspaper’s financial pages could select a portfolio that would do just as well as one carefully selected by the experts.”

Lately, when readers have asked me to recommend a book, one of the first ones I mention is “The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy.”

Authors Thomas Stanley and William Danko argue most people have it all wrong about how to become wealthy. It is seldom the result of luck, an inheritance or an advanced degree from an Ivy League university. “Wealth is not the same as income,” the authors write.

The average millionaire became wealthy through hard work, diligent savings and investing and here’s the surprise by living below their means.

For the book club, I’ll be selecting new and old personal finance books in hardcover and paperback.

How to get involved

To participate in the Color of Money Book Club, all you have to do is get the recommended book and read it. I also invite club members to join me in a regular online discussion about my book club choice or write or e-mail me a letter (100 words or less) about what you learned from the book. I may use some of your comments in a column.

When possible I’ll have the author of the selected book as a guest on the online chat to answer questions.

I’m launching the Color of Money Book Club in October, and the first selection is “The Richest Man in Babylon” by George S. Clason (Signet, $6.99).

There are several reasons why I chose this book. First, it’s cheap. Second, it’s a quick read.

But most of all I chose “The Richest Man in Babylon” to start because this is an old book with time-tested wisdom about building wealth. It started out in 1926 as a series of pamphlets on thriftiness and financial planning using parables set in ancient Babylon.

I’ll write more about the book in an upcoming column. The first online discussion of this book will be at 2 p.m. Oct. 23 on www.washingtonpost.com.

As a bonus, with each book club selection I’ll be giving out free copies to a dozen randomly selected readers, courtesy of the publishers.

For a chance to win a book, just send me your name, full address and daytime and evening phone numbers on a postcard or blank index card.

Send the card in care of the Color of Money Book Club and include the name of the current book selection. Entries for the “Richest Man in Babylon” must be postmarked by Oct. 7.