Book Review: How To Think Like Benjamin Graham and Invest like Warren Buffett

Having read free e-text of this book by Lawrence A. Cunningham, I now
feel that the author did deserve the royalty for it and would
recommend that you buy a print. I did upload it to the files/books
section and if you don't have any moralistic pretensions you can read
it from there.

Coming back to the business(review!), I would say that the book is
well written. Lawrence A. Cunningham is known for his compilation of
Buffett's letters in form of the book "The Essays of Warren Buffett :
Lessons for Corporate America"

He makes no bones about his expertise as an investment guru. He writes
"I condense these ideas and insights in the spirit of a teacher and
professor, not an investment adviser". However as you read the book
you would notice that he himself has become a more trustworthy advisor
than most wall street high flyers. Knowledge is contagious!

To the person who has never read Graham and Buffett, the prospects of
hitting two birds with one arrow may seem exciting. This book, however
does not contain much about the nuances of the investment philosophies
of these legendary investors. It does contain snippets and intersting
examples.

The value proposition of the book comes from very good exposition on
the efficient market theory. He debunks this theory, staple diet of
business graduates, in a systematic manner. He raises valid
questionmaks on other theories, like Capital Asset pricing model and
Mordern portfolio theories, which again make most of the texts of MBA
courses.

The other exciting parts are the chaptors on corporate governance. The
book contains examples from real life describing the policies of good
companies and showing the loop holes exploited by the bad managers.

Overall the book is exciting, relevant to the present context and an
eye opener in some chaptors.

Posted: Oct 23, 2004
http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/lawarrenbuffet/message/1019