Reading list · 11 books
Seth Klarman's reading list
President of the Baupost Group and author of the cult value-investing text "Margin of Safety," which out-of-print sells for thousands. Nicknamed "the Oracle of Boston," Klarman is intensely private but has periodically named the books he believes make a better investor — heavy on financial history.
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01
Benjamin Graham
Klarman edited and wrote commentary for the sixth edition; the Graham-Dodd foundation of his value philosophy.
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03
You Can Be a Stock Market Genius
Joel Greenblatt
Among Klarman's specific recommended titles for understanding special-situation value.
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04
The Aggressive Conservative Investor
Martin J. Whitman, Martin Shubik & Gene Isenberg
A specific Klarman recommendation in the deep-value tradition.
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05
Roger Lowenstein
Named among Klarman's favorite books; he says Lowenstein "has not written a bad book."
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06
Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist
Roger Lowenstein
One of the Lowenstein titles Klarman recommends.
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07
America's Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve
Roger Lowenstein
Listed among Klarman's favorite financial-history reads.
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08
Panic: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity
ed. Michael Lewis
A Klarman favorite; he praises Lewis broadly, saying he "hasn't written a bad book."
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09
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine
Michael Lewis
Recommended by Klarman as part of his praise for Lewis's body of work.
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10
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
Michael Lewis
Klarman specifically cites Moneyball among Lewis's books he recommends.
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11
Roger Lowenstein
Named among Klarman's favorite books on the financial crisis era.
More on Seth Klarman's picks
Klarman's recommendations come from interviews and talks (widely circulated via MarketFolly and GuruFocus) and from his work editing the sixth edition of "Security Analysis." His core advice is to read financial history "as much as possible," and he singles out authors wholesale — saying Roger Lowenstein, Jim Grant and Michael Lewis haven't written a bad book.
