Benable — create shareable lists of things you recommend!
E.g., products you love, local businesses, travel recs - you can add anything to a Benable list!
Warren Buffett's Lesser-Known Book Picks: From His Letters, Forewords and Friends
18
items These are Warren Buffett recommendations that rarely make the usual lists: books he named in his Berkshire shareholder letters, wrote forewords for, or praised from friends and family. For his best-known investing picks, see my separate list of 18 bo...
Sections
5
Value, patience and the right pitch
Reading companies and Wall Street
Berkshire people and stories
Family, friends and giving
Learning for life
Value, patience and the right pitch
The ideas underneath Buffett's approach: what a business is worth, and waiting for the right moment to buy.
Howard Marks' book on risk, cycles and second-level thinking, in an edition with added commentary from four other investors and Marks himself. Buffett described the book as that rarity, a useful book.
The Most Important Thing Illuminated: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor|Hardcover
Philip Fisher's guide to finding outstanding growth companies, including his 15 points to check before buying a stock. Buffett has said he is an eager reader of whatever Fisher has to say and recommends him to others.
Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings|Paperback
Ted Williams explains his approach to batting, including dividing the strike zone into 77 cells and only swinging at pitches in his best ones. Buffett used it in his 1997 letter to explain why investors should wait for the right pitch.
The Science of Hitting|Paperback
John Burr Williams' 1938 book that set out the idea that a stock is worth the cash it will pay out over its life, discounted back to today. Buffett quoted its equation for value in his 1992 shareholder letter.
The Theory of Investment Value|Paperback
Reading companies and Wall Street
Picks from his shareholder letters on judging management, fees and market manias.
Laura Rittenhouse shows how to judge a company by how candid its CEO letters and annual reports are. Buffett recommended it in his 2012 shareholder letter.
Investing Between the Lines (PB)|Paperback
Former SEC chairman Arthur Levitt explains how Wall Street and corporate America work against small investors and how to protect yourself. Buffett called it excellent in his 2002 letter while describing the fight over expensing stock options.
Take on the Street: How to Fight for Your Financial Future
Maggie Mahar's history of the long stock market boom and the analysts and fund managers who fed it. Buffett wrote in his 2003 letter that investors can learn much from it.
Bull!: A History of the Boom and Bust, 1982-2004
Vanguard founder Jack Bogle's case against high fees and constant trading in mutual funds. Buffett called it a terrific discussion of the mutual fund business in his 2002 letter.
Common Sense on Mutual Funds, Updated 10th Anniversary Edition
Berkshire people and stories
Books by the people around Buffett and the stories he likes to pass on.
Peter Bevelin, a Swedish Berkshire shareholder, pulls ideas from biology, psychology and physics to explain why people make bad decisions and how to avoid the worst ones. Buffett added it to the Berkshire meeting bookstore in his 2006 letter.
Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger
Joseph Nocera tells how credit cards, money market funds and discount brokers brought ordinary Americans into finance. Buffett called it a terrific history of the credit card business.
A Piece of the Action: How the Middle Class Joined the Money Class|Paperback
Carol Loomis collects decades of Fortune articles by and about Buffett, with her own commentary. Buffett pointed shareholders to it in his 2012 letter, noting that Loomis had helped edit his letters since 1977.
Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practically Everything, 1966-2013
Former Coca-Cola president Don Keough lists the habits that sink companies, like refusing to take risks and putting all your faith in experts. Buffett, his friend for decades, wrote the foreword.
The Ten Commandments for Business Failure
Family, friends and giving
Books by people close to Buffett, about the causes his money now supports.
Howard G. Buffett, Warren's son, writes about fighting hunger through his foundation's work around the world. Warren wrote the foreword and said he could not be more proud of him.
40 Chances: Finding Hope in a Hungry World|Paperback
Bill Gates Sr. shares what he learned about family, work and public life. Buffett wrote that Gates Sr. is as wise as his son is brilliant and that everyone can benefit from his insights.
Showing Up for Life: Thoughts on the Gifts of a Lifetime
Melinda French Gates writes about how investing in women's health, education and work lifts whole communities. Buffett called it sensational and one of the best books he had read.
The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World
Learning for life
Books Buffett credits for his people skills and his curiosity outside investing.
Harvard's Graham Allison explains how terrorists could get a nuclear weapon and the steps that would stop them. Buffett asked the Berkshire meeting bookstore to stock it in 2004 and urged anyone concerned about national safety to read it.
Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe
Dale Carnegie's guide to getting along with people, from remembering names to avoiding arguments. Buffett read it as a boy and later took the Dale Carnegie public speaking course, which he says changed his life.
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Bill Bryson explains how scientists worked out the age of the Earth, the size of the universe and much more. Buffett told the 2004 Berkshire meeting that he was reading it and liked learning how people in the 1700s figured out the weight of the Earth...
A Short History of Nearly Everything