Top 10 Books for Long-Term Investing

There are many other great books on trading, economics, the psychology of investing,
the history of finance, etc. that I haven't included in this list, but that contain
valuable insights for investors. This list strictly deals with how-to books for successful
long-term investing.

If you read these 10 books (one isn't even a book, it's an essay) and you follow the
basic precepts (buy value, buy safety, buy businesses with a durable competitive
advantage, allow your investments to compound over many years), I have no doubt
you can easily earn 15%-30% per year, after tax. My only other assumptions are that
you're capable of reading English on a 10th-grade level and that you can handle basic
math with the help of a calculator.

Your investing shouldn't require more than 10 hours per week. If you make more than
two to three investments per year, you're working way too hard.

You can buy all of the books on this list easily and cheaply (except for Seth Klarman's
book, which is out of print). If you study them all carefully, it might take you six
months. Your total tuition wouldn't equal $1,000 – and you'd know far more about
how to be a successful investor than 99% of the world's top MBA graduates.

Being a successful investor takes a little bit more than just knowledge. You've also got
to master the traits listed in the very first "book" on my list. It's an essay written by
Richard Russell. It contains the only real secret to becoming wealthy: the power of
compound interest. It also demonstrates the key emotional distinction between
wealthy people and everyone else:

"...The wealthy investor tends to be an expert on values. And if no outstanding values

are available, the wealthy investor waits... But what about the little guy? This fellow
always feels pressured to 'make money.' And in return he's always pressuring the
market to 'do something' for him. But sadly, the market isn't interested... And
because the little guy is trying to force the market to do something for him, he's a
guaranteed loser. The little guy doesn't understand values so he constantly overpays.
He doesn't comprehend the power of compounding, and he doesn't understand money.
He's never heard the adage,

'He who understands interest – earns it. He who doesn't understand interest –
pays it.'"

With this emphasis and my earlier caveats, here are my personal top 10 books on
common stock investing.
 1. Richard Russell, "Rich Man, Poor Man" (available free at
http://www.dowtheoryletters.com/DTLOL.nsf)
2. Ben Graham, The Intelligent Investor (especially chapters 8 and 20)
3. Warren Buffett, the letters of Warren Buffett (available free
http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/)
4. Mohnish Pabrai, The Dhandho Investor
5. Tweedy, Browne, "What Has Worked in Investing" (available free at
http://tweedy.com/content.asp?pageref=reports)
6. David Dreman, Contrarian Investment Strategies
7. Joel Greenblatt, You Can Be a Stock Market Genius
8. Martin J. Whitman, the letters of Marty Whitman (available free at
http://www.thirdavenuefunds.com/taf/aboutus-shareholder-letters.html)
9. Martin J. Whitman, Value Investing
10. Seth Klarman, Margin of Safety