The Intelligent Investor

The Classic Best Seller on Value Investing

By: Benjamin Graham

Narrated by: Bill McGowan

Length: 2 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

The classic best seller by Benjamin Graham, perhaps the greatest investment advisor of the 20th century, The Intelligent Investor has taught and inspired hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. Since its original publication in 1949, Benjamin Graham's book has remained the most respected guide to investing, due to his timeless philosophy of "value investing", which helps protect investors against areas of (possible) substantial error and teaches them to develop long-term strategies which they will be comfortable with down the road.

Among this audiobook's special features are the use of numerous comparisons of pairs of common stocks to bring out their elements of strength and weakness and the construction of investment portfolios designed to meet specific requirements of quality and price attractiveness.

©1973, 1996, 2005 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. (P)1973, 1996, 2005 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Critic reviews

"By far the best book on investing ever written." (Warren E. Buffett)

Condensed classic

The Intelligent Investor is a mainstay of the finance literature. Warren Buffett -- one of the world's richest men and an acolyte of Graham -- is said to have read this book dozens of times until he could recite much of the book.

The original text edition is hundreds of pages long. The audiobook is just over two hours. How can a very fat book then lose so much weight in the audio version and remain healthy? I personally own and have read from cover to cover the full book. Comparing the full text with this audiobook, there is no doubt the abridgment takes away a lot of the flavor and substance. Many of Graham's lessons are lost. Plus, in my text edition every chapter has an additional commentary from Jason Zweig (a Graham disciple and author of "The Intelligent Investor" column in the Wall Street Journal). This edition does not have any commentary and only has the most basic of Graham's lessons.

Despite the drawbacks I would recommend this audiobook. As far as I know this is the best audio version of Graham's work. The audio includes Graham's most enduring lessons like the investor vs. speculator distinction, 'Mr. Market' metaphor, defensive vs. aggressive investors, and the basics of his enduring investing philosophy.

I also find this audio convenient for reference. Due to its brevity an intelligent investor can quickly review Graham's investing basics during a longer car ride and regain some comfort during bear markets (I recently re-listened to this. For reference: this review is being written 8/7/11). You cannot beat Graham for his erudition, clear writing style, and great recommendations. For those of you who have not yet read this book you will find that Graham's words are like mothers milk for your net-worth.

Goes up to 1972, otherwise a great audio

It assumes that listener already has some background and knows terms like stocks, bonds and their basic classification. What is bull or bear market, etc.

Quick and educational.,

Not a Pleasure Read; a Required Read.

If your looking for a book to relax, you can count on this book to put everyone to sleep that you read it to, so you can get some relaxation from that I suppose... I would not recommend this as an audiobook because it's hard to stay awake through. It is a reading book for those who have a genuine desire for information. Honestly, who cares about little ol' me's review, Warren Buffet said a single chapter from this book changed his life, if that's not enough of a review for you, then I don't know what could be.

Good read

Great wisdom but since the book was written in 1971 I think, the terminology was a little different than the financial language we use today. So it was a little hard for me to follow at times...

Time tested

How relevant are these theories today? Basic principles around active and passive investors still apply.

Great

Highly recommended book for all investors, beginning or veteran! Must read just read! Don’t miss out

The Graduate

Highly recommend! The author provides sound and practical advice that I will implement into my investment strategy.

for pro's

its great! but short. 100% useful if you're advanced in stock market already. like it

Worth the price

I was hesitant to buy this because it was unabridged, but after listening to it I was then very glad I had listened to the abridged copy. It is like reading a grandparent's diary which lacks relevance in a lot of areas, but has a few interesting nuggets. It is interesting to see that a lot of these strategies from so long ago can still hold up today- that average people like you and I should refrain from throwing ourselves into risky growth stocks that even the professionals have trouble profiting from. You can find certain parallells... how A&P was once up in the hundreds, and has since gone bankrupt in modern times. Will this be Apple in 40 years? Who knows? Either way, this book is grandfatherly in that it tells you how it was and what worked 5 or 6 decades ago. You choose what to do with the info. Just be glad its abridged!

Now I understand why so many people love this book

Would you consider the audio edition of The Intelligent Investor to be better than the print version?

Nothing ever really beats the original, but it is a close second.

What did you like best about this story?

The ideas are simply expressed, even if it was written so long ago, it still holds true today.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

This movie won't make you a millionaire overnight, but it will help prevent you from going broke!

Any additional comments?

People in the financial world have touted this book as being one of the best, and after listening to it, I can see why!