The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham
Warren Buffett called this “By far the best book on investing ever written”. Buffett credits this as the book that got him started on his long and very successful career as an investor.
The original edition of this book was published in 1949. The revised edition was published by Graham in 1973, and this current edition added comments for each chapter by Jason Zweig and was published in 2006.
So what can a book that dates back to 1949 teach us in today’s economy? Quite a bit! The advice that Graham gives is timeless and applies equally well today as it did 71 years ago. This revised edition gives examples from the early 70s which was a time when stocks had just gone through a downturn. And the commentary by Zweig gives plenty of examples from the dot com boom and bust of the late 90s/early 2000s. All relevant to where we are today.
In any case the advice on value investing applies to all time periods and this is definitely a book that everyone should read before investing (versus speculating) in individual stocks and bonds.
You may notice from the picture that this is not a library book. I am very selective when it comes to buying books but this one is absolutely worth owning.