At a glance
Pages960
First published2008
Setting20th-century Omaha and American finance
Reading time~32h
AudienceAdult
ISBN0553805096
About the Author
Alice Schroeder1 book reviewed
The Snowball
Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
by Alice Schroeder
LuvemBooks Verdict
Best for: Investors, students of business history, and Buffett followers who want the complete, access-driven portrait — built on 2,000+ hours in his personal files and his sole full cooperation with a biographer — rather than a highlight reel or a how-to manual.
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The Snowball is Alice Schroeder's landmark biography of Warren Buffett — the first written with his full cooperation, built on six years of access and over 2,000 hours in his personal files. LuvemBooks' verdict: this is the deepest and best-sourced account of Buffett's life ever produced, essential for investors, students of business history, and anyone who wants the complete portrait rather than the highlight reel. The key caveat is scale and form: at 960 pages it is a serious commitment, and its lessons arrive embedded in narrative rather than as a step-by-step investing manual.
- Is it worth reading?
- Yes, with one condition: a reader must be willing to commit to its full 960 pages. The book's authority is unmatched — it rests on six years of singular access and over 2,000 hours in Buffett's personal files, access that is unlikely ever to be repeated. Recognition was immediate: it was shortlisted for the 2008 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Prize, named to Amazon's Best Business and Investing Books of 2008, and praised by critics as 'a bible for capitalists' and the most detailed glimpse inside Buffett's world readers are likely to get. Casual readers after a brisk summary of Buffett's principles, however, may find the granular detail more than they bargained for.
- Similar books
- Readers drawn to deeply reported lives of business titans have strong options. Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs is the natural companion — another landmark biography built on extraordinary access to a complicated American business genius. For heavyweight historical biography, Ron Chernow's Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. and Robert A. Caro's The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York set the standard for scale and depth. On the business-narrative side, Brad Stone's The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon and Bryan Burrough and John Helyar's Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco capture modern American finance at its most dramatic.
- Who should read this?
- The ideal reader is an investor, a student of business history, or anyone who wants the complete portrait of Warren Buffett rather than the highlight reel. It also suits general biography readers, since Schroeder gives substantial space to Buffett's personal life — a more complicated private story than his financial genius usually lets on. It is a poor fit for casual readers wanting a brisk overview of Buffett's principles, and for anyone seeking a structured how-to guide to value investing, whose method here arrives only indirectly through narrative.
- How long does it take to read?
- The hardcover runs about 960 pages, which translates to roughly 30 hours or more at an average reading pace — LuvemBooks flags the scale as the book's one honest caveat. The detail is granular on deals, friendships, and family dynamics alike, so this is a weeks-long read rather than a weekend one. Readers short on time who mainly want Buffett's core principles may be better served by a shorter summary-style book.
- Is it an authorized biography?
- Yes — the publisher bills it as the first and only biography of Buffett written with his full cooperation and collaboration, after he had refused numerous other approaches. That cooperation is the source of the book's authority, but the review notes that some readers weigh it against fully independent biographies as a matter of principle. The reported result, however, is described as unsparing — a portrait that goes well beyond the polished public persona.
- Do I need investing knowledge?
- No specialist background is required. The Snowball is a biography, not an investing manual — its lessons about value investing and compounding arrive through the story of Buffett's decisions, relationships, and career rather than through technical instruction. Readers who want to understand how Buffett actually thought and operated will find exactly that, whether or not they have ever read a balance sheet.
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Summarize this book
Alice Schroeder's The Snowball is the first biography of Warren Buffett written with his full cooperation — an exception he made after years of rejecting other biographers, prompted by Schroeder's Berkshire Hathaway research as a Morgan Stanley insurance analyst. Published by Bantam in September 2008, it draws on over 2,000 hours in Buffett's personal files plus interviews with Buffett, his family, and his colleagues. It covers both the investing career and the private life in unusual depth, framed by the title metaphor: the snowball of compounding, applied to money and to a life.
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Age & Reading Level
Recommended age
Adult
Reading level
Adult
2 content notes · who it suits
Content to know about
marital separation and family strain
death of a spouse
Skip if you want a short, step-by-step value-investing manual rather than a 960-page narrative biography.
Editorial Review
Alice Schroeder's The Snowball is the first biography of Warren Buffett written with his full cooperation, built on six years of singular access and over 2,000 hours in his personal files. At 960 pages, it is the deepest available account of his investing career and private life.
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