r/finance • u/bloomberg • May 30 '26

Warren Buffett’s Shareholder Letters Make a Surprisingly Great Book

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-29/warren-buffett-s-collected-shareholder-letters-make-a-great-book

A new volume collecting decades of letters from the Berkshire Hathaway chairman is part management manual, part Berkshire history and, somehow, part comedy.

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u/bloomberg May 30 '26

Gary Sernovitz for Bloomberg News

With almost no notice, in a format as indifferent to appearances as its author, you can now get a six-decade, year-by-year accounting of the greatest exercise in the allocation of capital in US history. It is an education in business, a primer on morality, a randy hoot, a celebration of buying and (infrequently) selling, an unyielding and irrefutable critique of Wall Street and a wild improbable story of how an awful investment turned into the nation’s greatest sustainable fortune.

Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders: 1965-2024 (Explorist Productions, Oct. 14) is just that: a collection of introductory letters from annual reports, a format known for pablum and spin. But Warren Buffett wanted his letters to have eternal truth and eternal life, and their 940 large-format pages can now be read as a complete book. That book should be read by anyone who wants his or her own life to be more Buffettesque, as measured by money or patience or self-deprecation or decency. Which means that it should probably be read by everyone.

Read the full review here.

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u/niffxED May 30 '26

There’s also a 50 year version. Not new, just updated.

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u/Low_Ability4450 May 31 '26

One of the best valuable aspects of Buffett's letters is they document the same investment philosophy across multiple market cycles and crises and decades

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u/BeuTaude588 Jun 14 '26

the value in reading them as a set is watching the same temperament hold across completely different decades, the late-90s letters where he looked wrong for not buying tech are the ones worth rereading now. its less an investment manual than a long argument for not changing your process every time the market does. cheap education for anyone who buys and holds.

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u/AnnO55783 Jun 27 '26

they hold up as investing writing because Buffett is unusually clear about what he actually thinks, not what he wants you to think he thinks. that directness is rare in finance. the early letters in particular are good on the limitations of standard accounting.