Warren Buffett Speaks by Janet Lowe

An excellent read, fully of witty quotations is: Warren Buffett Speaks by Janet Lowe.

As far as your author can tell, Janet Lowe has trawled the many annual reports, speaking arrangements and interviews given by Warren Buffett to find some of his many gems.

For example:

'If we are to have a 15% gain, we have to make $400 million (a year) before tax, or $300 million net, which is about a million a day - and I'm spending today here.'

and

'Charlie and I never have an opinion on the market because it wouldn't be any good and it might interfere with the opinions we have that are good.'

To be clear, this book will not teach you to invest, but Warren Buffett Speaks by Janet Lowe is often funny, informative and profound. It is well worth a read - and if you want to see some of Buffett's pearls of wisdom, it is a much quicker read than his many annual reports at Berkshire Hathaway.

It will also give you an insight into how Buffett lives. In some ways, he is extraordinary and in others, very normal. As with everyone on earth, he has his little habits and preferences and many of these are explored - for example, his love of Cherry Coke.

And yet, the book also discusses some of the less normal aspects of his life: his relationship with Charlie Munger, his private jet, his role on Wall Street and many other billionaire only experiences.

The book was first published in 1997 so there are clearly many more gems and quotes that could be included, but as a nice and fun book with a potentially useful theme, it is worth the price of purchase.

It is worth noting that at the time of publication, there were very few books about Buffett - these days it is practically an industry in itself. This means that his thinking is explained in much greater detail elsewhere in newer publications.