Saturday, February 16, 2013

Book Review: Tap Dancing to Work

Tap Dancing to Work (2012) by Carol J. Loomis

This book is a compilation of articles about Warren Buffett that were published in Fortune magazine from 1966 to 2012. Many of the articles are prefaced with introductions by Carol Loomis, a longtime writer for the magazine and a friend of Buffett. The articles are organized in chronological order and deal with a variety of topics, ranging from Buffett's views on the stock market to his experiences with companies such as Capital Cities/ABC, Salomon Brothers, and Coca-Cola. As someone who already knew a lot about Buffett from reading his annual shareholder letters and other material, I will confess that there was not much in this book that I did not already know, so it was boring at times. The main exceptions were the articles about Buffett's recent philanthropic efforts and his relationship with Bill Gates, which I thought were interesting. Overall, I did not get much out of this book, and I think it would have been better as a newly written narrative than as a somewhat disjoint compilation of magazine articles. Readers who are interested in learning more about Buffett might prefer the excellent biography from 1995 by Roger Lowenstein, Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist.

Note: I read this book in January 2013.

No comments:

Post a Comment