Poor Charlie's Almanack
Poor Charlie's Almanack is a thick, physically gorgeous compendium of the speeches, talks, and aphorisms of Charles T. Munger, the late vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffett's longtime intellectual partner. Edited by his colleague Peter Kaufman and first published privately in 2005, the book takes its title from Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack and is consciously modeled on it, mixing Munger's commencement addresses, the famous Lollapalooza speech on the psychology of human misjudgment, and his collected investing letters with Franklinesque illustrated commentary. The throughline is what Munger called the latticework of mental models, the discipline of holding the major ideas of physics, biology, psychology, and economics in your head at once and reaching for whichever one fits the actual problem. The book has been a shadow bible of the value-investing world for two decades, and Stripe Press reissued an expanded edition in 2023.
What you might want to know about Poor Charlie's Almanack
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
An anthology of Charlie Munger's speeches, talks, and writings on investing, decision-making, and worldly wisdom, with notes on his latticework of mental models drawn from many disciplines.
Poor Charlie's Almanack is a collection of speeches, talks, and writings by Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett's longtime business partner at Berkshire Hathaway. It was edited by Peter Kaufman and first published in 2005, with a free updated edition released in 2023.
Yes. Poor Charlie's Almanack is widely cited as one of the most important books on mental models, multidisciplinary thinking, and value investing. It is required reading at many investment firms and business schools.
Poor Charlie's Almanack is 512 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Poor Charlie's Almanack takes most readers 8 to 11 hours to finish.
Poor Charlie's Almanack is a standalone novel by Charles T. Munger, not part of a series.
Poor Charlie's Almanack is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
