Tap Dancing to Work

Warren Buffett on Practically Everything, 1966–2012: A Fortune Magazine Book

By: Carol J. Loomis

Narrated by: Susan Boyce, Barry Press

When Carol Loomis first mentioned a little-known Omaha hedge-fund manager in a 1966 Fortune article, she didn’t dream that Warren Buffett would one day be considered the world’s greatest investor - nor that she and Buffett would become close personal friends. As Buf­fett’s fortune and reputation grew, Loomis used her unique insight into Buffett’s thinking to chronicle his work for Fortune, writ­ing and proposing scores of stories that tracked his many accomplishments - and his occa­sional mistakes.

Now Loomis has collected and updated the best Buffett articles Fortune published between 1966 and 2012, including thirteen cover stories and a dozen pieces authored by Buffett himself. Loomis has provided commentary about each major arti­cle that supplies context and her own informed point of view. Listeners will gain fresh insights into Buffett’s investment strategies and his thinking on management, philanthropy, public policy, and parenting. Some highlights include:

• The 1966 A. W. Jones story in which Fortune first mentioned Buffett
• The first piece Buffett wrote for Fortune, 1977’s "How Inflation Swindles the Equity Investor"
• Andrew Tobias’ 1983 article “Letters from Chairman Buffett,” the first review of his Berk­shire Hathaway shareholder letters
• Buffett’s stunningly prescient 2003 piece about derivatives, "Avoiding a Mega-Catastrophe"
• His unconventional thoughts on inheritance and philanthropy, including his intention to leave his kids "enough money so they would feel they could do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing"
• And Bill Gates’ 1996 article describing his early impressions of Buffett as they struck up their close friendship

Scores of Buffett books have been written, but none can claim this work’s combination of trust between two friends, the writer’s deep under­standing of Buffett’s world, and a very long-term perspective.

©2012 Time Inc. (P)2013 AudioGO

a good book but it repeats itself a lot

the book is fairly decent. the narrative was done nicely but the entire book i wasn't sure what year the book had been written and the book starts out in the 60's. This book repeats itself a lot. I'm sure this was due to trying to fill up blank spaces but it was a waste of my time.

Definitely worth a read

I've read other books about Warren. But this one had refreshing information not previously available in other books. Worth every penny

Loved it!!

I learned a lot, even though I have been a student of Buffett for many many years.

Terrible narration

Good read, terrible narration. Sounds like a robot.
Almost kills the book but I slugged through.

OK book

The book is made up of excerpts of articles, a cross everything important written about or by Buffet. It serves as a great walkthrough of Buffets staggering career and achievements, but, is not a literary wonder... at times, it's certainly missing some depth and personality making it at times a bit daunting to read through.

But, Buffet's achievements are in themselves impressive so it still makes for an ok read.

I Like the content,.... one of the narrators ....not so much.

For some reason Barry Press's reading style and voice really bother me. Not sure why. I can't stand listening to him. Susan Boyce is great, easy to listen to.

The stories are what I was expecting.

Very surface level

It's a number of news articles stuck together so very light on substance and heavy on surface anecdotes.

Delightful book!

The book, Tap Dancing to Work, was delightful to listen to! Especially the Carol Loomis parts.

Unbearable Narrator

My god, is this narrator robotic. I have never heard a narrator as monotone as she is - a flat-line voice with no emotion or pathos. Even though I am a big Buffett fan, I had to stop after 30 minutes because it is utter torture to listen to her. The publisher can use Siri next time and still be better off. Additionally, please be aware that the book is mostly a collection of Fortune Magazine articles on Buffett. That could be good or bad depending on your preference. The stories are informative, but I prefer book-style writing for my audiobooks than magazine writing. No digs at Fortune though, great magazine.

A collection of finance articles - not a biography

You could say I had very high expectations after listening to all the biographies from Walter Isaacson and enjoying each one immensely. Warren Buffet is a great businessmen with an incredible sense for picking winners, I was very intrigued about his life and excited to learn about the way he thinks.

The audiobook is simply a collection of articles, published by Forbes, related to Warren Buffet. Note that I wrote related - meaning they are not about Warren. For example, there is a whole article about Solomon brothers that mentions Warren's involvement in the crisis - but fails to add any color or explain his decision process or providing any context. There are a couple articles about other investors, some about hedge funds, a couple about investment banks.

Imagine someone taking the top 20 results for "Warren buffet" on a Google search and making a book out of them., that's what this book feels like. The first hour seems like a course on the history of hedge funds. Then there is a chapter on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and so on. If you are majoring in finance or if you are an investment banker you may find this book to be interesting.

If you are looking for a book that peeks into the mind of Warren or a bit of insight into his personal mind, then you need to look elsewhere.

To be honest I did not listen to the entire audiobook. I did not think it was a good investment of my time.