business and investing

Graham is without doubt an intelligent man whose insights into investing are worth reading. This book, while dated in its examples, is not dated where it counts - intelligent investing philosiphies. The essay written by Mr. Buffet at the end of the book is also very informative and also enjoyable to read.

However, as always with such books there comes a caveat. Mr. Zweig's commentary through the book is not of the continuously high standard with which Graham writes. It disrupts the flow of the book and detracts from the overall experience of reading Graham's fine work. My suggestion is to ignore Zweig's commentary and footnotes until you find there is something that you don't understand or want further thoughts on. Zweig provides a few cutting insights, but only a few.

Dispite this the books value is not diminished - it's well worth your time and your money.

If you have only time to read one book on investing, this classic should probably be it. But if you recently have read some of the popular get-rich-quick books, "The Intelligent Investor" is a necessary and powerful antidote.

The author has an extremely realistic view of the investment world. He sees the real risk where speculators may imagine there are instant riches. For Benjamin Graham, safety of capital comes first. But at the same time, he makes it clear that safety is not guaranteed, even if you do have a properly selected and well balanced portfolio of stocks and bonds.

On page 25, Mr. Graham warns the reader that: "There is no certainty that a stock component will insure adequately against 'large-inflation' but it should carry more protection than the bond component." The author does recognize that: "The outright ownership of real estate has long been considered as a sound long-term investment, carrying with it a goodly amount of protection against inflation." With this statement, he seems to recognize that inclusion of real estate could make an investment portfolio stronger. But he does not analyze real estate extensively as an investment in his book because he says that it is not his field.

Too bad he did not broaden his scope and also become an expert in real estate. If income-producing real estate had been looked at as thoroughly as stocks and bonds in "The Intelligent Investor," I believe many readers, with most of their equity in real estate, would be calling Amazon.com about giving this book a sixth star.

I was deciding between getting this edition or the more expensive hardbound edition (which does not contain the Jason Zweig commentaries). I naturally thought, why not go for the cheaper one and get the commentary for free? After all, I could just ignore the commentary if it doesn't help.

Bad bad choice. It was like choosing between a Beethoven CD and the same CD but with free shrieking commentary by a Damon Wayans movie character during and in between each symphony.

Zweig's writing when inserted between Graham's is like the annoying paperclip in MS Office, except there is no way to turn it off. He's in the footnotes (virtually every page!), he's in between every chapter. Open the book at a random page, and most likely you'll open it to a Zweig page.

The content and style of his writing feels condescending and contrasts so much with Graham's. When reading Graham you have elegant timeless prose by a humble, wise man who makes you feel he is sincerely interested in your well-being. By contrast, Zweig feels like someone who wants to impress you with his word plays, and puns. He really should have attempted to recede into the background and limited his voice.

I would recommend everyone to just buy the hardcover edition.

Buy Graham only. If you cannot read Graham, Zweig will only help marginally, and you still need to verify his comments against other contemporary Graham commentators. Get another book. If you *can* read Graham, then you do not need the commentaries in this book. Any questions you may have can be answered in thousands of sites on the net.