As an active investor and certified market analyst for over 20 years, I have significantly invested in my learning library. I have personally read all of the books on this list. I rank them in order of how valuable the content is to build a great portfolio of Warren Buffett-style value stocks.
The Best Investing Books of All Time
The best value investing books help you learn about company valuation, specifically intrinsic value, so you can effectively analyze a stock. You will learn the criteria of value stocks and about the margin of safety. Next, how to build a stock screener and finally understand the rules and strategies to select your investments.
The Best Investors of All Time
The best investors of all time are measured by their accumulation of wealth. Joel Greenblatt, John Bogle, Peter Lynch, and William O’Neil feature in this list. Add to this the legendary Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett, and Seth Klarman. Not only do great investors make money, but they also want to share their wisdom with the world so everyone benefits.
1. Margin of Safety by Seth A. Klarman
Risk-Averse Value Investing Strategies for the Thoughtful Investor
Klarman’s 1991 classic explains one of the essential concepts in value investing: The Margin of Safety.
Klarman uses the margin to explain the philosophy of value investing and the strategy behind it. In the book, Klarman offers a blueprint investors can use to give themselves a margin of safety.
The margin of safety protects investors from unexpected losses and Black Swan events. If you want to keep your money, Margin of Safety is the investing book for you.
Some investors hold Margin of Safety in such high regard that some of them will pay $3,000 for an original edition. If you want to learn how Klarman thinks and invests, Margin of Safety can show you.
[Related Article: Learn to invest like Warren Buffett With Our Buffett Stock Screener Guide]
2. The Most Important Thing Illuminated by Howard Marks
Marks, the chairman, and co-founder of Oak Tree Capital, is another investor whom Buffett admires. Buffett admired Marks’ client memos so much he offered to write a dust-jacket recommendation for a book of them.
In The Most Important Thing, Marks encourages investors to think for themselves by describing his mistakes and what he learned from those mistakes. Buffett describes The Most Important Thing as “a rarity, a useful book.”
Related Article: Howard Marks Recommended Reading
3. The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham
The classic book by Ben Graham, the father of Value Investing. Warren Buffet was also strongly influenced by Graham.
The greatest investment advisor of the twentieth century, Benjamin Graham, taught and inspired people worldwide. Graham’s philosophy of “value investing” shields investors from substantial error and teaches them to develop long-term strategies. It made The Intelligent Investor the stock market bible ever since its original publication in 1949.
Positives: A huge amount of valuable insight and knowledge. The revised version with comments from Jason Zweig brings the book up to date with new examples of how the book’s tenets still hold true.
Negatives: With an overwhelming 623 pages or nearly 18 hours of listening combined and a very dry writing style, you will need a lot of coffee to get you through it.
[Related Article: The Best Stock Screeners To Find Dividend & Value Stocks]
4. Value Investing: From Graham to Buffett and Beyond
Bruce C. N. Greenwald, Judd Kahn, and Michael van Biema
A history of value investing that introduces readers to the top minds in value investing and their theories. Lead author Greenwald teaches value investing at Columbia Business School in New York.
Greenblatt considers Value Investing a valuable resource because it contains case studies of the value investment masters’ techniques and strategy. This book is a must-read because it is an academic analysis of value investment and a great introduction to the markets for serious investors.
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5. The Little Book of Value Investing by Christopher H. Browne
The Little Book of Value Investing offers investors the necessary tools to follow a value-investment model that consistently beats the market.
Written in an easy-to-understand tone by Christopher H. Browne, the managing director of Tweedy, Browne Company, one of the most highly-regarded investment firms in the USA.
This audiobook discusses the most important methods, ideas, and approaches in value investing, including chapters on finding value, buying stocks when they are on sale, long-term investing, when to hold and when to let go, and how to be a knowledgeable investor.
It is a short audiobook at only 4 hours, 32 minutes, but I think you will find interesting concepts and tips.
[Related Article: The Liberated Stock Trader Ultimate Guide To Value Investing]
6. The New Buffettology by Mary Buffett
How Warren Buffett Got and Stayed Rich in Markets Like This and How You Can Too!
The New Buffettology is the first guide to Warren Buffett’s selective contrarian investment strategy for exploiting undervalued stocks – an approach that has made him the nation’s second-richest person.
Designed to teach investors how to decipher and use financial information the way Buffett himself does, this book guides investors through opportunity-rich bear markets, walking them step-by-step through the equations and formulas Buffett uses to determine what to buy, what to sell — and when.
We have also based our article on How To Build A Great Buffett Stock Screener on this book.
Authors Mary Buffett and David Clark explore Buffett’s recent investments in detail, proving time and again that his strategy has earned enormous profits at a time no one expects them to, and with almost zero risks to his capital.
[Related Article: The Best Stock Screeners To Find Dividend & Value Stocks]
7. The Aggressive Conservative Investor by Martin J. Whitman
Klarman recommends The Aggressive Conservative Investor because it is a good introduction to value investment.
In The Aggressive Conservative Investor, Whitman introduces important concepts value investment concepts, including stock analysis, risk minimization, and stock valuation.
If you want to learn what value investing is and how it works, The Aggressive Conservative Investor is the book for you.
8. The Warren Buffett Way by Robert G. Hagstrom
The Warren Buffett Way offers investors an in-depth look at the Oracle of Omaha’s business and investment strategies.
Hagstrom argues that Buffett built his fortune and Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B) by looking at stocks and companies as businesses rather than investments. Investors who want to imitate Buffett need to assume a similar mindset.
In the latest edition, Hagstrom argues investors need to think long-term and not obsess on loss aversion. Buffett’s greatest strength is his ability to think rationally about a changing market, Hagstrom writes.
Hagstrom analyzes Buffett’s investing strategies by examining his acquisition of H.J. Heinz, now Kraft Heinz Co (NASDAQ: KHC), and Berkshire Hathaway’s investment in IBM (NYSE: IBM). Those who want an in-depth study of Buffett’s methods need to read The Warren Buffett Way.
[Related Article: Learn to invest like Warren Buffett With Our Buffett Stock Screener Guide]
9. The Education of a Value Investor by Guy Spier
My Transformative Quest for Wealth, Wisdom, and EnlightenmentGuy Spier shares his philosophy on value investing. Light on actual strategies and more focused on how to develop your mindset to become a successful value investor. He discusses how having an elite education does not guarantee any investing success; in fact, it may hinder it.
If you are in need of some investing soul food laced with positive anecdotes about the author’s life, then this is the book for you. This book is extremely highly rated by Amazon buyers, who mostly attribute this book’s greatness to being able to relate to the authors investing journey.
However, if you are looking for a solid education or strategies, this book only contains a lot of fluff about becoming more positive in your life and how being a good value investor makes you a better person.
10. Mastering the Market Cycle by Howard S. Marks
Getting the Odds on Your Side
Marks based this investment strategy book on insights from decades of his Oaktree memos. In Mastering the Market Cycle, Marks identifies market cycles as one of the most important concepts investors need to master.
Marks believes that the market cycle determines investment prices and creates demand. Marks writing about Cycles is refreshing because he admits fear and greed distort people’s views of the market and blind them to problems.
Marks believes that accurate information about market outcomes will not guarantee investment success. Instead, Marks thinks making the correct assumptions about price and having the discipline to act on the assumptions is the key to making money in the markets.
Suppose you want to understand the relationship between human psychology and market cycles; Mastering the Market Cycle is a must-read.
Get it on:
11. Security Analysis by Benjamin Graham & David Dodd
Dodd and Graham’s classic is still the best in-depth on value investing around. In Security Analysis, Graham and Dodd first identified and introduced several principal value investing concepts.
Klarman regards Security Analysis as the “bible of value investing” and recommends you read it before you enter the markets.
All serious value investors need to read and reread Security Analysis.
12. The Little Book that Still Beats the Market by Joel Greenblatt
The legendary investor Joel Greenblatt does not need to sell books to make money. He is primarily concerned about helping ordinary people make great investing decisions with their hard-earned money.
This is a short but fascinating book looking at his specific system that the author declares and proves makes a regular profit.
I have back-tested this system personally, and it works very well, it is a little high maintenance, but the lessons contained within are vital.
It is also quite humorous, which is welcome in the dry world of investing.
This is a great book to read, which provides real value to the investor; you have to read this book.
13. Mr. Market Miscalculates: The Bubble Years and Beyond by James Grant
Grant, the publisher of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, is one of Klarman’s favorite writers.
Mr. Market Miscalculates is a collection of essays from Grant’s Interest Rate Observer that contains Grant’s opinions on the Bubble Years of 2000-2008. Grant’s observations expose many of the problems with the economy and explain why the market failed in the early 21st Century.
Mr. Market Miscalculates is a must-read for anybody who wants to understand the roots of the modern American economy and its failures.
14. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John C. Bogle
The creator of the world’s first Index Tracking fund shares the critically important reasons you should not be actively trading stock, commodities, and ETFs but investing long term.
The key messages are apparent and passionately explained in the book. Essentially, using any stock advisors, stock pickers, or mutual funds is going to work out negatively for your investments over the long term.
The book contains incredibly essential information that everyone needs to understand.
“Taxes, Broker Costs, Mutual Fund Manager Costs, and Financial Advisor costs will severely eat away at the long-term compounding power of your investments.” John Bogle
This book is short and sweet and supported with plenty of proof to back up the assertions he makes.
15. How to Make Money in Stocks by William O’Neil
Combining Technical & Fundamental Analysis, this best-selling book gives you a good framework for building your own stock market investing approach. One of the best-investing books ever written.
The book is packed full of clear examples with a very structured approach. The approach called CANSLIM is easy to remember as a Stock Screening approach to finding good stocks and shares to invest in.
These ideas are integrated into our training courses and also outlined in the Stock Market Strategy Blueprint. The book heavily promotes using Investors.com as a tool. In reality, you do not need to purchase this service as you can create your own stock screeners to achieve the same goal for free.
[Related Article: The Best Stock Screeners To Find Dividend & Value Stocks]
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16. University of Berkshire Hathaway
30 Years of Lessons Learned from Warren Buffett & Charlie Munger at the Annual Shareholders Meeting
This book reprints and retells many of Buffett’s classic writings, including some of his famous letters to Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B) shareholders.
In the essays, Buffett offers investment advice in plain English on such subjects as regulated industries, investing opportunities, market valuation, popular opinion of the market, financial crises, housing bubbles, acquisitions, and corporate governance.
Greenblatt admires this book because it offers a deep insight into Buffett’s thoughts, philosophy, and methodology. Those who want to learn Buffett thinks and invests can learn a great deal from this book.
17. One Up On Wall Street by Peter Lynch
A great book for beginner investors, with an excellent, down-to-earth approach, ideal for the beginner to show you how to apply your local knowledge to find winning companies. Great stories, great anecdotes:
“The old Wall Street adage “never invest in anything that eats or needs repairs” may apply to racehorses, but it’s malarkey when it comes to houses.” Peter Lynch
“Know what you own, and know why you own it,” Peter Lynch.
A straightforward and entertaining read authored by one of Wall Streets’ great stock pickers.
18. The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing by Taylor Larimore
The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing is a DIY handbook that espouses the sage investment wisdom of John C. Bogle.
This witty book offers contrarian advice that provides the first step on the road to investment success, illustrating how relying on typical ‘common sense’ promoted by Wall Street is destined to leave you poorer.
This updated edition includes new information on backdoor Roth IRAs and ETFs as mainstream buy-and-hold investments, estate taxes, and gifting, plus changes to the laws regarding Traditional and Roth IRAs and 401k and 403b retirement plans.
With warnings and principles, both precisely accurate and grandly counterintuitive, the Boglehead authors show how beating the market is a zero-sum game.
[Related Article: The Top 10 Best Stock Trading Platforms – Trade From Charts]
19. Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing by Robert T. Kiyosaki
What the Rich Invest in, That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!
This book is absolutely loved by its readers. Kiyosaki focuses on the mental shift needed to take you from how the school system and your parents educated you to adopting a rich investor’s mindset.
Covering the difference between running your own business and being an employee is incredibly insightful. How being an investor is a lot less risky than being an investor.
The book covers investing in your business and truly understanding the difference between assets and liabilities.
According to the author, “If you do not understand that your house is actually a liability, not an asset, then you need to invest in your financial education.”
Overall the focus here is about starting and building up a business to get rich and structure your business spending to maximize your wealth.
20. A Wealth of Common Sense by Ben Carlson
Why Simplicity Trumps Complexity in Any Investment PlanAn interesting look at how remaining level-headed and balanced in your approach to value investing could be the defining factor in how successful you are.
Insightful research into how the best-performing value portfolios are often forgotten about and not meddled with by portfolio managers.
Also, a discussion about maintaining your calmness during stock market crashes and not selling your stocks at firesale prices will benefit you hugely in the long term.
Light on strategy and more focusing on mentality, this book is worth reading.
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![Top 20 Best Stock Market Investing Audio Books [All Time] A review the very best of Stock Market Investing Audiobooks & Finance Audio Books.](https://www.liberatedstocktrader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/stock-market-audio-books-review-218x150.jpg "21 Best Stock Market Investing & Finance Audiobooks Ever")
