15 Books Everyone Should Read According to Warren Buffett
If you want to be successful these are the 15 books everyone should read according to Warren Buffett.
Let’s say you somehow manage to start a business without reading these books, but you won’t be able to last without knowing what you are doing, hence reading these books.
Warren Buffett is one of the richest men in the world and has a net worth estimated by Forbes at $66.7 billion so let’s assume he knows what he is doing.
In fact, when he started his investing career, he used to read 600,750, or 1,000 pages a day.
Now, that’s how you stay in business! And even after all those years, he still spends about 80% of his day reading.
“Look, my job is essentially just corralling more and more and more facts and information, and occasionally seeing whether that leads to some action,” he once said in an interview.
“We don’t read other people’s opinions,” he said. “We want to get the facts, and then think.”
Which is why he is the right man to give career advice. We’ve gathered 15 books he has recommended over 20 years of interviews and shareholder letters.
1.‘Jack: Straight from the Gut’ by Jack Welch
This book was recommended by Buffett in his 2001 shareholder letter. It is a business memoir of a long-time GE executive Jack Welch, whom Buffett describes as “smart, energetic, hands-on.”
In commenting on the book, Bloomberg Businessweek wrote that “Welch has had such an impact on modern business that a tour of his personal history offers all managers valuable lessons.”
“Get a copy!” is the strong advice given by the billionaire.
2.‘The Intelligent Investor’ by Benjamin Graham
Warren Buffet was 19-years-old when he picked up a copy of legendary Wall Streeter Benjamin Graham’s book.
He admitted that was one of the luckiest moments in his life, because it gave him the intellectual framework for investing.
“To invest successfully over a lifetime does not require a stratospheric IQ, unusual business insights, or inside information,” Buffett said.
“What’s needed is a sound intellectual framework for making decisions and the ability to keep emotions from corroding that framework. This book precisely and clearly prescribes the proper framework. You must provide the emotional discipline.”
3.‘Security Analysis’ by Benjamin Graham and David L. Dodd
He said that this book has given him “a road map for investing that I have now been following for 57 years.”
Buffett has said that Graham was the second most influential figure in his life, after only his father.
“Ben was this incredible teacher; I mean he was a natural,” he said.
4.‘Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits’ by Philip Fisher
Philip Fisher, a specialist in investing in innovative companies, didn’t shape Buffett like Graham did, but he still holds onto that book.
“I am an eager reader of whatever Phil has to say, and I recommend him to you,” Buffett said.
5.‘Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises’ by Tim Geithner
Buffett recommends this book about the financial crisis to any manager saying that is a must-read.
“This wasn’t just a little problem on the fringes of the U.S. mortgage market,” Geithner writes. “I had a sick feeling in my stomach. I knew what financial crises felt like, and they felt like this.”
6.‘The Essays of Warren Buffett’ by Warren Buffett
Of course Warren recommends his book. But is not that bad; actually it is a must read if you want to know how he thinks.
“What could be more advantageous in an intellectual contest — whether it be chess, bridge, or stock selection — than to have opponents who have been taught that thinking is a waste of energy?” he asks.
7.‘Essays in Persuasion’ by John Maynard Keynes
Buffett thinks that this book is a must-read.
“Reading Keynes will make you smarter about securities and markets,” he told Outstanding Investor Digest in 1989. “I’m not sure reading most economists would do the same.”
The collection includes the famous essay “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren,” in which Keynes predicted that today’s generation would only work 15 hours a week.
8.‘Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street’ by John Brooks
When Bill Gates asked Warren Buffett about his favorite book in 1991, Warren replied with this one.
He sent to the Microsoft founder his personal copy of the book, and Gates said that the book served as a reminder that the principles for building a winning business should stay constant.
9.‘Take on the Street’ by Arthur Levitt
In a 2002 shareholder letter, Warren explains “how accounting standards and audit quality have eroded in recent years.” Specifically, he cites the downfall of Arthur Andersen accounting.
“The details of this sordid affair are related in Levitt’s excellent book, Take on the Street,” Buffett writes.
10.‘Nuclear Terrorism’ by Graham Allison
In his 2004 shareholder letter, Buffett called it a “must-read for those concerned with the safety of our country.”
In this book, Allison claims a nuclear attack on the US is inevitable, “unless we change our political strategy.”
He argues that the new international security order must be built upon “three No’s”: no loose nukes, no new nascent nukes, and no new nuclear states.
11.‘Where Are the Customers’ Yachts?’ by Fred Schwed
“The funniest book ever written about investing,” Warren Buffett proclaimed in his 2006 shareholder letter, “it lightly delivers many truly important messages on the subject.”
The book, which was published in 1940, takes its title from a story about a visitor to New York who saw the bankers’ yachts and asked where the customers’ were.
The book is filled with irreverent wisdom and colorful anecdotes about Wall Street, and remains compelling even today.
12.‘The Clash of the Cultures’ by John Bogle
This was is, as well, a recommendation from the 2012 shareholder letter.
The book argues that long-term investing has been crowded out by short-term speculations.
However, at the end of the book are some practical tips, like this one:
“Time is your friend, impulse is your enemy. Take advantage of compound interest and don’t be captivated by the siren song of the market. That only seduces you into buying after stocks have soared and selling after they plunge.”
13.‘First a Dream’ by Jim Clayton and Bill Retherford
In his 2003 shareholder letter, Warren wrote that this book was a gift from his students at the University of Tennessee.
Buffett told the students how much he liked the book, and they called Kevin Clayton, Jim’s son to deliver the news.
“Soon thereafter, I made an offer for the business based solely on Jim’s book, my evaluation of Kevin, the public financials of Clayton,” and his experience buying “distressed junk” from Oakwood Homes, a retailer of manufactured homes that he later purchased after it filed for bankruptcy.
14.‘Poor Charlie’s Almanack’ edited by Peter Kaufman
This collection of advice from Charlie Munger, was featured by Warren Buffett in his 2004 shareholder letter.
“Scholars have for too long debated whether Charlie is the reincarnation of Ben Franklin,” Buffett wrote. “This book should settle the question.”
15.‘The Most Important Thing Illuminated’ by Howard Marks
Howard Marks, who was chairman and co-founder of Oak Tree Capital, wanted to wait until he retired to publish his book, as noted in a 2011 Barron’s review.
But Buffett was so eager to read the book that he offered to write a dust-jacket blurb is Marks publishes the book sooner.
The result is “a rarity, a useful book,” Buffett reportedly said.
At the end, to keep you motivated and ready to work we’ve chosen some of Warren Buffett’s best quotes. Here’s one.
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