"In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn't read all the time — none, zero."
- Charlie Munger
1994 Annual Meeting
"I am rereading a book I really like, which is Van Doren’s biography of Benjamin Franklin, which came out in 1952, and I’d almost forgotten how good a book it was. And that’s available in paperback everywhere. We’ve never had anybody quite like Franklin in this country. Never again."
"I very much enjoyed Connie Bruck’s biography Master of the Game, which was a biography of Steve Ross, who headed Warner and later was, what, co-chairman of Time Warner…. she’s a very insightful writer and it’s a very interesting story."
1995 Annual Meeting
"That is a fabulous book. Most of the people who are here will not be able to put it down. I mean, for a book about an economic development, it captures the human background in a very interesting way."
"There’s a textbook which is called, I think, Judgment in Managerial Decision Making. And it’s used in some of the business schools, and it’s actually quite a good book. It’s not spritely — it’s not written in a spritely way that makes it fun to read, but there’s a lot of wisdom in it. It’s something like [Max Bazerman]. But it’s Judgment in Managerial Decision Making."
1996 Annual Meeting
"If you take [evolutionary biologist Richard] Dawkins, The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker, I mean, these are marvelous books. And there are words in those books that are entering the English language that are going to be in the next Oxford Dictionary. I mean, these are powerful books. And they’re a lot of fun. I had to read The Selfish Gene twice before I fully understood it. And there were things I believed all my life that weren’t so, and I think it’s just wonderful, when you have those experiences. We always say, “It isn’t the learning that’s so hard. It’s the unlearning.“"
"If you take [evolutionary biologist Richard] Dawkins, The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker, I mean, these are marvelous books. And there are words in those books that are entering the English language that are going to be in the next Oxford Dictionary. I mean, these are powerful books. And they’re a lot of fun. I had to read The Selfish Gene twice before I fully understood it. And there were things I believed all my life that weren’t so, and I think it’s just wonderful, when you have those experiences. We always say, “It isn’t the learning that’s so hard. It’s the unlearning.“"
1998 Annual Meeting
"I have recently read a new book twice, which I very seldom do. And that book is Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. And it’s a marvelous book. And the way the guy’s mind works would be useful in business. He’s got a mind that is always asking why. Why, why, why. And he’s very good at coming up with answers. I would say it’s the best work of its kind I have ever read."
1999 Annual Meeting
"Robert Hagstrom sent me chapters of his latest book on Warren Buffett called, The Buffett Portfolio. And I didn’t read them because I thought his first book was a respectable book, but didn’t contribute too much to human knowledge, and — (Inaudible) sent me the second book, a full version, and I read it and I was flabbergasted to find it not only very well written, but a considerable contribution to the synthesis of human thought on the investment process. And I would recommend that all of you buy a copy of Hagstrom’s second Buffett book. I notice the airport was heavily promoting it. It’s called, The Warren Buffett Portfolio. It doesn’t pick any stocks for you, but it does illuminate how the investment process really works, if you think about it rationally."
"The third book is sort of a revisitation of the subject matter of the book I recommended a year or two ago called Guns, Germs, and Steel, which was a physiologist’s view of the economic history of man. And it was a wonderful book. And much of that same territory has now been covered by an emeritus history professor from Harvard, who just knows way more economics and science than is common for a history professor. And that gives him better insight. And his book is a takeoff in title on Adam Smith, and the title is, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations. And the guy’s name is David Landes. So I would heartily recommend [these] books."
"Another book that I liked very much this year was Titan, the biography of the original John D. Rockefeller [by Ron Chernow]. That’s one of the best business biographies I have ever read. And it’s a very interesting family story, too. That is was just a wonderful, wonderful book. And I don’t know anybody who’s read it who hasn’t enjoyed it. So I would certainly recommend that latest biography of John D. Rockefeller the first."
2001 Annual Meeting
"That Janet Lowe book about me I find has had a very interesting sub-chapter, so to speak, in its distribution. I notice a considerable number of people buying that book and sending one copy to each descendant. They believe that if they just do that, the descendants will behave more like the parents. It’ll be interesting to see if that works. If it does, it’s going to outsell the Bible."
"Yeah. I have a book recommendation which will be very helpful to all shareholders that worry about Warren’s health and longevity. And that’s this book called Genome by Matt Ridley, who was, for years, the science editor of the Economist magazine. And if Ridley is right, Warren has a very long life expectancy. There are very interesting correlations between people who cause stress to others instead of suffering it themselves. And Warren has been in that position ever since I’ve known him. And the figures that Ridley quotes are awesomely interesting. It is a fabulous book. Of course, I’m recommending a bestseller, but they’re selling it in the airport. It’s called Genome, and you’ll feel very good about Warren’s future if you agree with the science of the book… that is a marvelous book… "
"And some shareholder sent me a book that not many of you will like, by Herb Simon I think, Models of My Life. sAnd it’s a very interesting book for a certain academic type."
"It is a good book."
2002 Annual Meeting
"The other book [I recommend this year] was How the Scots Have Helped Create the Modern World [by Arthur Herman]. That’s a subject that’s always interested me, how a tiny, poor, little population of Celtic people had such a huge favorable impact on the world, starting from poverty. And, of course, it’s related to the Irish, who were a similar ethnic strain with a different religion. And, it was a marvelous book. And I forget the author’s name, but I recommend both of those books to all of you."
"The first [book I’ll recommend this year] is called Ice Age [by John Gribbin], which is a description of the past history of glaciation in the last few hundred-thousand years and how they figured out what had happened and why it had happened. And I think it’s the best book of scientific explanation I have ever read. It’s been published in England and it’s going to be published in the United States this fall. And the airport has like 20 copies — PD Waterhouse — which they did by scrounging all of Canada. And so, I recommend that book to you."
2004 Annual Meeting
"Well, one book I really like I couldn’t buy because it’s published only in England. But it’ll get here in due course. And that’s called Deep Simplicity by John Gribbin. It’s a perfectly marvelous book. And of course, that’s a great title: “Deep Simplicity.” That’s what we’re all looking for."
"If you want to read one book that will demonstrate really shrewd compensation systems in a whole chain of small businesses, read the autobiography of Les Schwab, who had a bunch of tire shops — has a bunch of tire shops — all over the Northwest. And he made a huge fortune in one of the world’s really difficult businesses by having shrewd systems. And he can tell you a lot better than we can."
2008 Annual Meeting
"Well, I’ve got a specific suggestion that answers your specific question. I would add to that extensive repertoire of yours by teaching [your class of young people] to avoid being manipulated to their disadvantage by vendors and by lenders using the standard tricks of the vendor and lender trade. And you couldn’t start with a better book than Cialdini’s Influence, and I think Bob Cialdini, who is a shareholder, is here somewhere in this audience. And so I have a new textbook to — I suggest you add to your class — which is Cialdini’s Influence. And he’s just got a new book that’s coming out and for sale in Omaha today, I think, for the first time, and that’s called Yes! So here’s two books that I suggest you add to your class."
"And he’s just got a new book that’s coming out and for sale in Omaha today, I think, for the first time, and that’s called Yes! So here’s two books that I suggest you add to your class."
2011 Annual Meeting
"Well, I hate to admit this because I’ve ignored high-tech all my life, but I actually read that book In the Plex [by Stephen Levy] about Google, and I found it a very interesting book. And so here I am at my advanced age, and I find it interesting the way people have created these engineering cultures, which are quite peculiar and different from most of what we have at Berkshire. And will I ever make any use of this? I doubt it. But I certainly enjoyed learning it. And if I enjoy learning it, I regard it as important, because I think that’s what you’re here for, is to go to bed every night a little wiser than you were when you got up."
2015 Annual Meeting
"Adam Smith is one of those guys that has really worn well. I mean, he is rightly recognized as one of the wisest people that ever came along. And, of course, the lessons that he taught way back then were taught again when communism failed so terribly, and places like Singapore and Taiwan and China, and so forth, came up so fast. The productive power of the capitalist system is simply unbelievable, and he understood that fully and early, and he’s done a lot of good."