With my credit cards maxed out, checking account emptied out and all my watches pawned out, I can’t afford $35 to buy “The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life” and find out how he overcame similar obstacles to become the richest man on the planet who never sold drugs … well, I can’t verify that because I can’t afford the book. However, I managed to spend a few minutes in my favorite brick-and-mortar bookstore drinking coffee and pretending to read the book like everyone else in the place who’s too young to remember libraries. I had barely skimmed the jacket before the clerk snatched the book away and brushed off the crumbs from the cookie I smuggled in from home … have you priced the biscotti lately? So, here’s my review of the book jacket of “The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life” by Alice Schroeder.
Warren Buffett must be old because his cover picture is in the shadows – like those publicity shots they do of Hollywood actresses once they reach 30. I guess he wants us to think he’s frugal because he’s wearing reading glasses that went out of style with papyrus.
On the inside front flap, it says that Buffett is known as “The Oracle of Omaha.” Talk about lucky. Had his parents moved a few miles away, he could have ended up as “The Lunatic of Lincoln.” The flap says this is a “great American story.” I guess that means Sarah Palin is probably reading a copy purchased for her by the Republican National Committee.
The back flap shows a picture of author Alice Schroeder and says she was a noted insurance industry analyst and writer who was a managing director at Morgan Stanley. Apparently when you write a book you get to write the glowing flap copy too. She first met Warren Buffett when she published research on Berkshire Hathaway and they’ve been friends ever since. That means she didn’t find any pictures of him playing bridge with Bill Gates and a couple of strippers … or if she did, she’s saving them for a much bigger advance. According to the flap, Ms. Schroeder was born in Texas and now lives in Connecticut. She probably moved there hoping she’d someday get the nickname “The Bard of Bridgeport.”
All in all, the jacket of “The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life” was a thought-provoking flap-turner from start to finish. I highly recommend it to anyone who has already read everything in the basket in the bathroom.