Warren Buffett

"Not long after I first met Warren Buffett back in 1991, I asked him to recommend his favorite book about business. He didn’t miss a beat: “It’s Business Adventures, by John Brooks,” he said. “I’ll send you my copy.” I was intrigued: I had never heard of Business Adventures or John Brooks." - Bill Gates mentioning Warren Buffett's recommendation.

"I especially recommend Keynes' essays on persuasion. Reading Keynes will make you smarter about securities and markets. I'm not sure reading most economist would do the same." (OID June 23, 1989).

..aside from Ben Graham’s two chapters, eight and 20, in “The Intelligent Investor” — I think you’ll find you’ll get as much wisdom from reading that as anything written in investments..

"During my lifetime, the small investor has never had a better friend than SEC chairman Arthur Levitt. His goal was unwavering: To have markets that served the interests of investors, both large and small.."- (from the back cover of the book)

The woman who wrote it, I believe, is in the audience and it’s Ben Graham’s biography, which will be available in September, by Janet Lowe. And I’ve read it and I think those of you who are interested in investments, for sure, will enjoy it. She’s done a good job of capturing Ben.

One of the books I enjoyed a lot was written also by a shareholder who is not here because he’s being sworn in, I believe today or tomorrow, maybe tomorrow, as head of the Voice of America.

And that’s Geoff Cowan’s book, which is on “The People v. Clarence Darrow.” It’s the story of the Clarence Darrow trial for, essentially, jury bribery in Los Angeles back around 1912, when the McNamara brothers had bombed the LA Times.

It’s a fascinating book. Geoff uncovered a lot of information that the previous biographies of Darrow didn’t have. I think you’d enjoy that.

On investment books, if you’re asking about that, I would recommend the first two books that Phil Fisher wrote back around 1960, “Common Sense [Stocks] and Uncommon Profits” and the second one [“Paths to Wealth Through Common Stocks”]. They’re very good books.

There’s one chapter in “The General Theory” that relates to markets, and the psychology of markets, and the behavior of market participants and so on, that probably is, aside from Ben Graham’s two chapters, eight and 20, in “The Intelligent Investor” — I think you’ll find you’ll get as much wisdom from reading that as anything written in investments. And you’ll know it when you see it in “The General Theory.”

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It’s a chapter that jumps out to you about securities and so on. And I — could be chapter eight, but I may be wrong on that. But I would recommend reading that.

On investment books, if you’re asking about that, I would recommend the first two books that Phil Fisher wrote back around 1960, “Common Sense [Stocks] and Uncommon Profits” and the second one [“Paths to Wealth Through Common Stocks”]. They’re very good books.

Actually, I think John Train’s “Money Masters” is an interesting book.

There’s going to be — I think there’s going to be an article in the Wall Street Journal about Phil on May 28th, and I advise you all to read it. And you’ll probably learn a lot more than by coming to this meeting..

"Today, too many of our country's key economic decisions are being made with an eye to the next election rather than to the next generation. This book explains in simple but powerful terms why it's imperative that our attention must be refocused now." (from the frontcover).