Clark, The Tao of Charlie Munger

David Clark, who has written eight books on Warren Buffett, has moved on to Charlie Munger. The Tao of Charlie Munger (Scribner) is, in the words of the subtitle, A Compilation of Quotes from Berkshire Hathaway’s Vice Chairman on Life, Business, and the Pursuit of Wealth. Clark provides commentary.

Clark divided the 138 quotations he selected for this book into four categories: Charlie’s thoughts on successful investing; Charlie on business, banking, and the economy; Charlie’s philosophy applied to business and investing; and Charlie’s advice on life, education, and the pursuit of happiness.

Here are a couple of my favorites:

“It’s been my experience in life, if you just keep thinking and reading, you don’t have to work.”

“Any year that passes in which you don’t destroy one of your best loved ideas is a wasted year.”

There’s already a substantial body of literature about the ideas of Charlie Munger. And, of course, we have Poor Charlie’s Almanack. Do we need yet another book? Probably not. But even when I’m reading a quotation for the umpteenth time—for instance, that his children think he’s “a book with a couple of legs sticking out”—I still smile. And, by the way, he really is a reader. “It’s said that Charlie reads up to six hundred pages a day—which includes three newspapers a day and a weekly diet of several books.”

If you want to up your own personal daily page count, you might consider adding this book to your list.