The Snowball

The authorised biography of Warren Buffett, written by a former insurance analyst who got years of access and used it to trace the whole arc — the Omaha paper routes, Graham’s classroom, the partnership years, the textile mill that became a holding company, and the private costs of a life organised entirely around compounding. The title is Buffett’s own image for what he does: start with a small snowball and roll it down a long hill.

Why it’s on the list: The section opens with Graham’s Intelligent Investor and Security Analysis and then runs nine consecutive entries on Buffett and Munger — the lineage Li Lu belongs to himself — and this is the long-form biography inside that cluster.

Where I saw it: Li Lu’s Recommended Book List, entry 10 of section IV, cited as Bantam Books, 2008. This is the section the saved X posts photographed. Full transcription: Li Lu’s Recommended Book List.

Connections

• Li Lu’s Recommended Book List — the list this came from.
• Li Lu — the Himalaya Capital founder who assembled it, and the investor Munger entrusted with family money.
• Warren Buffett — the subject.
• Charlie Munger — the partner who runs through the book.
• Berkshire Hathaway — the vehicle.
• Poor Charlie’s Almanack — the Munger-side companion, four entries earlier in the same section.
• The Intelligent Investor — entry 1 of the section, and the classroom the book’s middle act runs through.
• Security Analysis — entry 2, the other half of the Graham inheritance.
• Compounding — the snowball itself.