Buffett and Munger recommended books in shareholder meeting

Buffett and Munger recommended book

Since Buffett and Munger have chaired Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholders meetings for many decades, they have recommended quite a lot books. Therefore, I have divided Buffett and Munger recommended books into several categories for readers’ reference.

Investment Books

Investment Books Recommended by Warren Buffett

  • “The Intelligent Investor“: Graham’s most famous work, with Buffett specifically highlighting Chapters 8 and 20 as key points. This book covers all essential investment concepts because investing relates to only three things: first, treating investments as ownership of businesses, not buying and selling constantly fluctuating assets; second, your attitude towards the market, echoing earlier points, discussed in Chapter 8. A proper attitude towards market fluctuations greatly benefits securities investment. The final chapter discusses the margin of safety.
  • “The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money“: Buffett considers Keynes’ book on par with Graham’s.
  • “Security Analysis“: “The Intelligent Investor” is a simple concise version for ordinary investors. “Security Analysis” is more suitable for professional investors.
  • “Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits“: A book by Philip A. Fisher, which profoundly influenced Buffett.
  • “Paths to Wealth Through Common Stocks“: Philip A. Fisher’s book. Another book by Philip A. Fisher, which Buffett said was excellent.
  • “The Money Masters“: A book by John Train, which Buffett found very interesting.
  • “Common Sense on Mutual Funds“: Written by Jack Bogle. Bogle is a very honest person, and he understands investing very well. If mutual fund investors followed his advice, they could save billions of dollars every year.
  • “The Essays of Warren Buffett“: Buffett himself believes that the most representative book about his investment views is perhaps this book compiled by Lawrence Cunningham, because it is basically a rearrangement of Buffett’s own words. His compilation best represents Buffett’s views. We put about twenty years of annual reports online, as well as articles published in Fortune magazine, and so on. Buffett believes his own writings are far superior to others’ rewrites, but he leaves the judgment to the readers. I do think Cunningham did a great job; he reorganized multiple reports by topic, making them easier to read and eliminating the need for year-by-year reviews.
  • “Where Ar he Customers’ Yachts?“: Also known as “Unveiling the True Face of Wall Street,” this century-old work by Fred Schwed Jr. offers much wisdom… The latter part of the book is packed with insightful observations every few pages and is quite entertaining.
  • “The Wealth of Nations“: Adam Smith’s classic masterpiece. Buffett believes that if you want to gain more knowledge beyond just wisdom, you should read The Wealth of Nations. Munger stated that Adam Smith belongs to the group of people who have stood the test of time. I mean, calling him one of the smartest people in history is well-deserved. The productivity of the capitalist system is so incredible, and he fully understood it very early on.
  • “When Genius Failed“: Through the story of the rise and fall of Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM), the plot is tightly woven, and the author’s writing is elegant. Readers can gain much financial knowledge and thought-provoking lessons. At the end of the book, Buffett and Munger devote considerable space to discussing the reasons for the collapse of LTCM at the end of the 20th century, a collapse that nearly triggered a financial crisis. However, no lesson was learned, as a similar event occurred about ten years later.
  • “The Great Crash 1929“: This small book is a financial masterpiece describing the stock market crash, and I personally believe that all stock market investors should read it.
  • “Poor Charlie’s Almanack“: A compilation of Munger’s speeches and mental models; Buffett says anybody that reads it will learn a whole lot. I also wrote a detailed introduction to this book: “Munger’s most important work “Poor Charlie’s Almanack”“.

Investment books recommended by Munger

  • “The Warren Buffet Way“: A renowned classic investment book by Robert Hagstrom.
  • “The Buffett Portfolio“: A new book by Robert Hagstrom focusing on Warren Buffett. This book greatly surprised Munger; not only is it well-written, but it also makes significant contributions to integrating investment thinking. Munger recommends everyone buy a copy.

Business with great performance

Business with great performance book by Buffett

  • “The Outsiders“: Buffett highly admires the business managers discussed in the book for their practice of prioritizing shareholder interests in running their businesses and the results they have achieved. I wrote a post “Outsiders, one of the greatest investment books for management team” for this book in my blog.
  • “Only the Paranoid Survive“: When I worked at Intel, this was the company’s designated reading for global executives. As executives, we were required to read it regularly and exchange our insights. The book is not thick, but Andy Grove, one of Intel’s three founders, not only talks about Intel but also discusses how to break many internal corporate conventions, providing numerous practical case studies and practices. The most noteworthy part is how to deal with corporate crises. As far as I know, this book is still recommended reading for managers by many globally renowned companies.
  • “Pride in Performance – Keep it Going“: Buffett and Munger believe Les Schwab’s ideas on corporate management and employee performance evaluation are unparalleled. Unfortunately, this book on corporate management and employee performance evaluation, recommended by the two, is not available in Chinese.
  • “The Warren Buffett CEO”: Secrets from the Berkshire Hathaway Managers tells the stories of those who manage Berkshire Hathaway’s funds, and Buffett encourages everyone to read it. Buffett believes that after reading these managers’ stories, readers will have a better understanding and appreciation of their investments.

Business with great performance book by Munger

  • “In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives“, Munger admits he’s reluctant to admit it because he’s ignored high technology his entire life, but he is indeed reading Steven Levy’s book on Google, which he finds very interesting. At his age, Munger finds the way these people build their engineering culture fascinating and quite unique.

Biographies

Buffett’s Recommended Biographies

  • “Personal History: Katharine Graham, One of America’s Most Influential Women Journalists“: Warren Buffett says if you haven’t read Katharine Graham’s autobiography, this book is excellent and he highly recommends it. It’s an extremely frank book and a fascinating story. Her life encompasses politics, business, and government. It’s a very good read.

Munger’s Recommended Biographies

  • “The Rockefeller: Titan”: A biography of the Rockefeller family’s founder, written by Ron Chernow. This is one of the best business biographies Munger has ever read, and a very interesting family story. This book is excellent, truly excellent. Munger says he has never met anyone who read it and didn’t like it. I wrote a blog post for this book “Tools of Titans”
  • “Master of the Game: The Making of Time Warner”: The biography focuses on Steve Ross, the leader of Warner and later CEO of Time Warner.
  • “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin”: By Benjamin Franklin.

Other Fields

Books Recommended by Buffett in Other Fields

  • “The Quotable Einstein“: Compiled by Alice Calaprice. This book collects his sayings over the years and is excellent reading.
  • “Fermat’s Last Theorem“: Written by Simon Sing, this is also a very interesting book.
  • “A Short History of Nearly Everything” by Bill Bryson, is truly impressive when you read about how people in the 18th century were thinking about calculating the weight of the Earth. You might think that a mind capable of such things would excel in finance. But if you recall, Isaac Newton spent a great deal of time trying to turn lead into gold; he might have been a great stockbroker, but it didn’t help his wealth. Munger points out: Newton lost most of his net worth in the South Sea Bubble, a complete and insane scam, yet he was one of the smartest people in the world. Intelligence alone doesn’t guarantee investment success.

Books Recommended by Munger in Other Fields

  • “Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies“: A very good book by Jared Diamond. The author’s mental model is extremely useful in the business world. His mind is always asking “why, why, why, why,” and he’s very good at finding the answers. Diamond said, “This is the best book of its kind I’ve ever read.”
  • “The Wealth and Poverty of Nations“: The content of this book is largely the same as the research field of David Landes, Professor Emeritus of History at Harvard University; Professor Landes understands human economics and science better than the average history professor, which gives him deeper insights.
  • “The Selfish Gene“: A superb work by Richard Dawkins.
  • The Blind Watchmaker: Unraveling the Mysteries of Life: Richard Dawkins… Richard Dawkins’s masterpiece.
  • “Ice Age“: Co-authored by John and Mary Gribbin, this book describes the history of the Ice Age over the past hundreds of thousands of years and how they uncovered what happened and why. Munger considers it the best popular science book he’s ever read.
  • “How the Scots Invented the Modern“: This book by Arthur Herman is about how the Celtic people rose from poverty to have a profoundly positive impact on the world.
  • “Deep Simplicity“: Munger says John Gribbin’s book is excellent, and of course, the title is great too—”Deep Simplicity”—that’s what we’ve been looking for.
  • “Influence: The Art of Persuasion“: Munger says he would tell young people to avoid being manipulated by the usual tricks of businesses and lenders. Reading Robert B. Cialdini’s book is a great starting point. Cialdini is also a shareholder and is present today.
  • “Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive“: Robert Cialdini has released a new book, co-authored with Noah J. Goldstein and Steve J. Martin. Munger recommends investors add both books to their reading list.

Closing words

Because I am a huge fan of Buffett and Munger, and have followed their shareholder letters, shareholder meetings, media statements and interviews, and other books about them for many years, I have almost always kept a record of the lists they have recommended in various places, and have read them at least once.

I have carefully reviewed all the books by Buffett and Munger listed in this article, except for three. My personal opinion is that the books recommended by Buffett and Munger are indeed excellent, and most of them have not disappointed me. Frankly, there are a few books that are not related to investment or finance, as they are outside my circle of competence, and my understanding of their content is limited.

In short, I strongly recommend that investors read these books; they will be helpful to you.

Buffett and Munger recommended book

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Author: Andy Lin

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