Sadly, a poorly written book about an interesting person. One can derive similar lessons and insights with greater ease and clarity - and with less of the random useless biographical minutiae - from The Snowball, Poor Charlie's Almanac and the Peter Bevelin books.

Gives a nice sneak peak into Charlie's life and his way of thinking. Although at some point I couldn't follow it well. Especially towards end which talks about his speech.

Always love reading more about Charlie Munger. What a delight he is. Some good history into Charlie and his background. A lot of insightful things to takeaway from this one.

The writing style of this book is different from a typical biography. It fills with the recounted stories and direct quotations from friends and family of Charlie Munger. It is not like the library is talking to you (which happens when someone writes about the eminent dead). The good thing is the book feels more candid. But certainly, it will not be able to explicitly go that deep into the personalities and motivations.

I don't mean that the book is superficial in any way. There are certain gems hidden which can be found by careful reading and interpret the sayings. I really feel like I know him more outside the investment sphere and it makes me admire him even more.

Munger deserves a great biography but this doesn't make the cut. However, there are some great stories interspersed.

A deep, profound and far-reaching insight into the incredible life of the Oracle of Omaha's right hand man, Charlie Munger. Before reading this book I had always been a close follower of Munger -- his investing advice, philosophy, jokes and stoic nature -- but little did I know just how much the man has done in his life; his (very significant) role in Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway's quite astonishing success over the years is something, but his contributions outside of that are equally, or perhaps even more admirable.

Because Charlie dislikes the limelight, avoids smalltalk and likes to keep himself to himself, interviews come once every blue moon. His only guaranteed appearance is at the Berkshire annual meeting, where Warren and Charlie sit down with all their shareholders and take questions -- sometimes for up to 6 hours. Whilst they address the odd personal question, give advice here and there, and share a few personal stories and anecdotes, the talking point rarely deviates from investing, the market and the economy -- and Warren does 90% of the talking; therefore rarely does the world hear about Charlie's life away from his involvement with Berkshire. Little do we know how ignorant we are.

Only when one takes the time to dive deep into his past; spends several days, doing interview after interview, holidaying, and bonding with him in his favourite activities such as hiking, boating and fishing; attends several Berkshire meetings; interviews almost 40 more people, including Otis Booth, Warren Buffet, and other friends and family members; analyses transcriptions of his speeches and lectures; and devotes more than 3 years of one's life in the process, can one start to fathom the magnitude of his contribution, and the profundity and erudition of our generations very own (and Charlie's hero) Ben Franklin. Well -- Janet Lowe did just that, and luckily for us, she documented every bit of it and made it into this darling of a book. Even more luckily for us, Janet's style is very readable -- precise, coherent, clear-cut and for those who like the details, very meticulous when called for.

There have been a few books written on Charlie, and no doubt there'll be many, many more written in the future; but in comparison to this, none come close to doing the man and his life story justice -- not in the faintest. This was published in 2000, and almost two decades later he and Warren are still both going strong; in fact, it seems they're actually getting smarter. Despite its age, this book is as relevant as it ever has been; and I suspect as the years roll on, it will become even more so. That said, since its publishing there has probably been enough happen in Charlie's life to warrant the writing of another book; and for that there can only be one author -- Janet Lowe.

There are only a couple of books on Charlie Munger, Poor Charlie's Almanack and this one. It's important to read these. Especially I liked this one better because it is the only one which gives the sequence of things that occured in Charlie's life.

Charlie is more realistic than Buffett and the statements he gives are much more direct than Buffett. I feel that due to this, we can learn a lot more from him than Buffett because Buffett will sugarcoat a few things.

Janet takes through life of Munger through different viewpoints of family and work and mentions how he went through his 70 years (book published in 2000). Firstly working in law, he understood cases and businesses, had some wins in real estate transactions followed by which he co-founded Munger, Tolles and Company in which he had an impressive 24.6% return over 20 years. He bought Blue Chip Stamps with Buffett, and faced a bit of downturn over a couple of years. He managed it well though and came out about even in the investment.

Some cases of Buffalo News, Blue Chip Stamps, Good Samaritan Hospital and Salomon are discussed in sufficient detail to give some insight into his actions. His interactions with family and friends is given in some cases which shows some of his principles in details.

I cannot recommend any books more than those on Charlie Munger. He's a rich man. I was talking about ideas in his brain.

Ch 20 bmark

Nothing about investing. Waste of time.

A great read

A wonderful book for anyone who wants to learn not just investments but also about life. A wonderful book on the life of Charlie Munger.

If you know who Charlie Munger is then it's a mandatory read. If you don't know who Charlie Munger is then find out :).

You'll find here lots of mungerisms, anecdotes from his personal life. There are some details of Buffet's and Munger's most famous business deals - Blue Chip Stamps, See's Candies, Salomon Brothers, Daily Journal.

This joke of his made me laugh:
Buffett was asked what he usually does all day and Buffett replied that he mostly reads and plays bridge. And he asked Charlie "And what do you do, Charlie?". To which Munger tells the following joke.
An officer leads a general to his commanding officer - captain Glotz. The general asks:
"Captain Glotz, whad do you do here?"
"Not a damn thing" answers captain Glotz.
The general gets mad and asks the other officer "And what do you do here?"
"I help captain Glotz, sir!"
And, according to Munger, this summarizes pretty well, what he does in relation to Buffett.

Funny to me ;).

Very disappointing. Had the potential to be an interesting background on Charlie M, but terribly written and a chore to read. Not worth the energy.