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Libraries of Leaders: How Warren Buffett, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, and Samir Arora Learned to Invest

Which books do investors like Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Warren Buffett, and Samir Arora like to read? 

Santa Clara Public Library, California (Photographer: Patrick T Fallon/Bloomberg)
Santa Clara Public Library, California (Photographer: Patrick T Fallon/Bloomberg)

Google ‘successful investing,’ and you’ll find a host of articles that tell you how to invest your money right and be the next investment guru. But where and how did investment gurus learn their investing strategies? Here are books which top investors attribute much of their learning to.

Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc (Photographer: Kevin Lee/Bloomberg)
Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc (Photographer: Kevin Lee/Bloomberg)

Billionaire investor, Warren Buffett, is an avid reader, who often recommends several books in his company Berkshire Hathaway’s annual letter to shareholders.

According to an article in the Omaha World Herald, a Columbia University student once asked Buffet how to prepare for an investing career, and Buffett reached for a stack of papers and publications, and told him to read ‘at least 500 pages like this a day.’

In an interview with The Week, Buffett has said, ‘I just sit in my office and read all day.’ Here are a few of the books that have had an impact on him:

1. The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham
Buffett counts the day he picked up a copy of this book as one of the luckiest in his life. He was 19, and he says the book changed his whole life.

The book provided him with a bedrock of investment philosophy that hasn’t changed, he says.

Here is a video sourced from youtube, in which Buffett talks about how the book and author influenced him.

2. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by Jack Bogle

Most advisors, however, are far better at generating high fees than they are at generating high returns. In truth, their core competence is salesmanship. Rather than listen to their siren songs, investors – large and small – should instead read Jack Bogle’s The Little Book of Common Sense Investing.
Warren Buffett in the 2014 Berkshire Hathway letter to shareholders

3. The Outsiders by William Thorndike, Jr.

“[This] is an outstanding book about CEOs who excelled at capital allocation,” says Buffett in his shareholder letter. He also mentions that the book has an insightful chapter on one of Berkshire Hathaway’s directors, Tom Murphy, who he counts as one of the best business managers he has come across.

4. Security Analysis by Benjamin Graham and David L. Dodd

Another book by Buffet’s most valuable teacher, Benjamin Graham.

A road map for investing that I have now been following for 57 years.
Warren Buffett’s foreword in the sixth edition of Security Analysis

5. Where are the Customers’ Yachts? by Fred Schwed

In one of his shareholder letters, Buffett says that his experience in business has helped him with investing, and his experience with investing has helped him in business. This book he says , teaches how some truths can only be fully learned through experience. He also calls its wisdom and humour, priceless.

Samir Arora

Samir Arora of Helios Capital, at his home (Photographer: Amit Bhargava/Bloomberg)
Samir Arora of Helios Capital, at his home (Photographer: Amit Bhargava/Bloomberg)

In an interview with BloombergQuint, Founder and Fund Manager of Helios Capital, Samir Arora, said that he reads a lot of books, and they’ve taught him much. “If someone asks me who is my investment guru, I would say investment books.”

He often tweets his book reviews. Here are some of the recent ones:

1. Full Circle by Erin Callan

Erin Callan, the ex-CFO of Lehman Brothers, before it collapsed, writes a memoir in which she details the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis on her life.

2. Sapiens: A Brief History of Human Kind by Yuval Noah Harari

The book is also a favourite with Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.

3. The Halo Effect by Phil Rosenzweig

The author shows how business managers often pick the wrong theories behind why a company fails or succeeds, and he seeks to break these delusions.

4. And Then All Hell Broke Loose by Richard Engel

The book chronicles two decades of a journalist’s adventures in the Middle East.

5.The Snowden Files by Luke Harding.

6. Rise of Robots by Martin Ford

Silicon Valley entrepreneur Martin Ford writes about the future of jobs and the jobs of the future.

Arora oftens posts pictures of his book purchases.

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala at his residence in Mumbai (Photographer: Santosh Verma/Bloomberg)
Rakesh Jhunjhunwala at his residence in Mumbai (Photographer: Santosh Verma/Bloomberg)

Billionaire investor, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala recommends these two books to BloombergQuint.

1. Buffet: The Making of an American Capitalist by Roger Lowenstein

This book is an inside account of how Warren Buffett started from scratch and amassed a net worth exceeding$10 billion.

2. The Alchemy of Finance by George Soros

George Soros is one of the most powerful, and profitable investors in the world today. He is the Chairman of Soros Fund Management, which has $2.9 billion in assets, according to a Nasdaq filing. The highlight of the book is Soros’ theory of reflexivity.