Sunday, May 3, 2009

Warren Buffett's book recommendations


Over this weekend, I attended the annual shareholders' meeting of Berkshire Hathaway. The 'woodstock of capitalists' had its regular share of investment talk, folksy witticisms and feel-good bonhomie. As part of the five hour question and answer session during the day, Warren Buffett made a strong book recommendation. Which is what got me thinking - over the last ten years, what books has Warren Buffett recommended in these meetings?

Based on my reading of the annual reports of different years, here is a list I came up with -

2001: Jack - Straight from the gut; by Jack Welch
2002: Take on the street; by Arthur Levitt (then chairman of the SEC)
2003: Bull!; by Maggie Mahar
2003: The smartest guys in the room; by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind
2003: In an uncertain world - Tough choices from Wall Street to Washington; by Peter Rubin
2003: (And in many other years' letters) The intelligent investor; by Benjamin Graham
This is a book that Buffett has variously called "my favorite investment book" and "the most important investment book ever written".
2004: Nuclear Terrorism - The ultimate preventable catastrophe; by Graham Allison
2005: Where are the customers' yachts?; by Fred Schwed
(which Buffett called "the funniest book ever written about investing")
At other times: (I couldn't find the specific years) Books by John Bogle, and those by Philip Fisher
2009: The great crash - 1929; by John Kenneth Galbraith

In the past, I have taken the Oracle's recommendations and have been richer for it (I mean intellectually). This year, it was The Great Crash. Stay tuned to see how that turns out.

1 comment:

  1. so how many shares of berkshire have you accumulated now?

    ReplyDelete