Warren Buffett Books: Recommended Reading List

Over Warren Buffett’s lifetime, “The Oracle of Omaha” has suggested several books that he thinks is valuable to the investor. When the information is available we also note where, when and why Buffett recommended these books.

LAST UPDATED 04/28/2020

Below is a list of Warren Buffett’s recommended reading list:

• 1989 — Essays In Persuasion by John Maynard Keynes
• 1992 — The Theory of Investment Value by John Burr Williams
• 1994 — The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel by Benjamin Graham
• 1994 — The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money by John Maynard Keynes
• 1994 — The People v. Clarence Darrow: The Bribery Trial of America’s Greatest Lawyer by Geoffrey Cowan
• 1994 — The Warren Buffett Way by Robert Hagstrom
• 1995 — A Piece of the Action: How the Middle Class Joined the Money Class by Joseph Nocera
• 1996 — The Money Masters by John Train
• 1996 — Paths to Wealth Through Common Stocks by Philip Fisher
• 1997 — Science of Hitting by Ted Williams
• 1997 — Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company by by Andrew S. Grove (in OID)
• 1998 — The Expanded Quotable Einstein by Albert Einstein
• 2000 — The Farmer From Merna: by Karl Schriftgeisser
• 2000 — Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings by Philip Fisher
• 2000 — The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America, Second Edition by Lawrence A. Cunningham
• 2001 — The Warren Buffett CEO: Secrets from the Berkshire Hathaway Managers by Robert P Miles
• 2001 — Security Analysis by Ben Graham and Dave Dodd
• 2001 — Personal History by Katharine Graham
• 2002 — Take On the Street: What Wall Street and Corporate America Don’t Want You to Know by Arthur Levitt
• 2003 — First A Dream by Jim Clayton
• 2003 — Bull: A History of the Boom and Bust, 1982-2004 by Maggie Mahar
• 2003 — The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind
• 2003 — In an Uncertain World: Tough Choices from Wall Street to Washington by Bob Rubin
• 2003 — Sam Walton: Made In America by Sam Walton
• 2004 — Financial Times, American Edition Newspaper
• 2004 — The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money by John Maynard Keynes
• 2004 — A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
• 2004 — Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger by Charles T. Munger
• 2004 — Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe by Graham Allison
• 2005 — F.I.A.S.C.O.: Blood in the Water on Wall Street by Frank Partnoy
• 2005 — Travels with Barley: A Journey Through Beer Culture in America by Ken Wells
• 2006 — Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger by Peter Bevelin
• 2006 — Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Revised Edition by Robert B. Cialdini
• 2007 — Where Are the Customers’ Yachts: or A Good Hard Look at Wall Street by Fred Schwed, Jr
• 2007 — Supermoney by Adam Smith
• 2007 — The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama
• 2007 — Warren Buffett: An Illustrated Biography of the World’s Most Successful Investor by Ayano Morio
• 2008 — The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America, Second Edition by Lawrence Cunningham
• 2008 — Foods You Will Enjoy – The Story of Buffett’s Store by Bill Buffett
• 2008 — Pleased But Not Satisfied by David Sokol (Note: Warren Buffett did not recommend this book, but he has written its foreword!)
• 2008 — Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist by Roger Lowenstein
• 2009 — The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder
• 2020 – Margin of Trust by Larry Cunningham
• 2020 – Common Stocks as Long Term Investments by Edgar Lawrence Smith

The years above are WHEN Warren Buffett recommended these books.

More books recommended by Warren Buffett (Years Unkown):

• Benjamin Graham on Value Investing: Lessons from the Dean of Wall Street by Janet Lowe
• Do Business with People You Can Trust: Balancing Profits and Principles by L. J. Rittenhouse
• John Bogle on Investing: The First 50 Years by John C. Bogle
• Common Sense on Mutual Funds by John C. Bogle
• The Real Warren Buffett: Managing Capital, Leading People by James O’Loughlin
• Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett by Andrew Kilpatrick
• Will America Grow up Before it Grows Old by Peter G. Peterson
• Father, Son & Co.: My Life at IBM and Beyond by Thomas, Jr. Watson
• Memos from the Chairman by Alan “Ace” C. Greenberg
• Jack Welch Speaks: Wisdom from the World’s Greatest Business Leader by Janet Lowe
• Quality Financial Reporting by Paul B. W. Miller & Paul R. Bahnson
• Jack: Straight from the Gut by Jack Welch
• Epidemic of Care: A Call for Safer, Better, and More Accountable Health Care by George C. Halvorson
• Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It by Peter G. Peterson
• The Man Behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley by Leslie Berlin
• Speculative Contagion: An Antidote for Speculative Epidemics by Frank Martin
• The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns by John C. Bogle

Books recommended by Warren Buffett found at ‘Infinite Dream Publishing‘ Youtube channel:

• Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings 2nd Edition by Philip A. Fisher
• Where Are the Customers’ Yachts?: or A Good Hard Look at Wall Street by Fred Schwed Jr.
• Personal History by Katharine Graham
• Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street by John Brooks
• Essays In Persuasion by John Maynard Keynes
• The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success by William N. Thorndike
• The Gospel of Wealth by Andrew Carnegie
• The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
• The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel (Revised Edition) (Collins Business Essentials) by Benjamin Graham

Some other great books about Buffett include The Warren Buffett Way by Prem Jain and Buffettology by Mary Buffett.

2020 Buffett-Approved Book List

These books were approved by Warren Buffett for sale at the 2020 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting.

New Books For 2020

• Margin of Trust: The Berkshire Business Model by Larry Cunningham and Stephanie Cuba
• My New Berkshire ABC by Nancy Rips
• Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett‐ 2020 Elephant Edition by Andrew Kilpatrick
• The Club: Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age by Leo Damrosch

Berkshire 50th Anniversary

• The Berkshire Hathaway 50th Anniversary Celebration Book

About Warren Buffett

• Berkshire Beyond Buffett: The Enduring Value of Values by Lawrence Cunningham
• Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders: 1965‐2014, collected by Max Olson
• Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist by Roger Lowenstein
• Buffett’s Bites: The Essential Investor’s Guide to Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letters by Laura Rittenhouse
• The Essays of Warren Buffett, Lessons for Corporate America, 5th Edition, collected by Lawrence Cunningham
• A Few Lessons for Investors and Managers from Warren E. Buffett by Peter Bevelin ($12.50, 2012).
• My Warren Buffett Bible: A Short and Simple Guide to Rational Investing: 284 Quotes from the World’s Most Successful Investor by Robert Bloch
• The Oracle & Omaha: How Warren Buffett and His Hometown Shaped Each Other by Steve Jordan
• Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practically Everything by Carol Loomis
• Warren Buffett on Business: Principles from the Sage of Omaha by Richard Connors
• Warren Buffett’s Ground Rules: Words of Wisdom from the Partnership Letters of the World’s Greatest Investor by Jeremy C. Miller
• Warren Buffett Speaks: Wit and Wisdom from the World’s Greatest Investor, 2nd Edition, by Janet Lowe, with Warren Buffett

About Charlie Munger

• Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor by Tren Griffin
• Damn Right!: Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger by Janet Lowe, forward by Warren Buffett
• Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger, Third Edition, edited by Peter Kaufman

On Investing

• Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street by John Brooks
• Common Sense on Mutual Funds ‐ Updated, 10th Anniversary Edition by John Bogle
• The Great Crash: 1929 by John Kenneth Galbraith
• The Intelligent Investor: The Classic Text on Value Investing by Benjamin Graham
• The Intelligent Investor (Revised Edition) by Benjamin Graham, revised by Jason Zweig
• Investing Between the Lines: How to Make Smarter Decisions by Decoding CEO Communications by Laura Rittenhouse
• The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock by John Bogle
• The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success by William Thorndike
• Strategic Value Investing: Practical Techniques of Leading Value Investors by Stephen Horan, Robert Johnson and Thomas Robinson
• The Ten Commandments for Business Failure by Donald R. Keough
• Where Are the Customers’ Yachts? Or a Good Hard Look at Wall Street by Fred Schwed, Jr.

General Interest

• All I Want to Know is Where I’m Going to Die so I’ll Never go There: Buffett and Munger—A Study in Simplicity and Uncommon, Common Sense by Peter Bevelin
• Dear Chairman: Boardroom Battles and the Rise of Shareholder Activism by Jeff Gramm
• Dream Big by Cris Correa
• Forty Chances: Finding Hope in a Hungry World by Howard G. Buffett
• Getting There: A Book of Mentors by Gillian Zoe Segal
• Giving It All Away: The Doris Buffett Story by Michael Zitz
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini
• Letters to Doris ‐ One Woman’s Quest to Help Those with Nowhere Else to Turn by Stuart Horwitz
• Life Is What You Make It: Find Your Own Path to Fulfillment by Peter Buffett
• Limping on Water: My 40‐year Adventure with One of America’s Outstanding Communications Companies by Phil Beuth
• The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World by Melinda Gates
• The Oracle’s Fables: Life Lessons for Children Inspired by the Oracle of Omaha by John Prescott
• Our 50‐State Border Crisis: How the Mexican Border Fuels the Drug Epidemic Across America by Howard Buffett
• Personal History by Katharine Graham
• Pre‐Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade by Robert Cialdini
• Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger by Peter Bevelin
• Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight

Big H/T to WarrenBuffettResource for putting together this fabulous, and lengthy list.