Best Business & Investing Titles of 2008

We continue our rundown of our Best Books of 2008 with a look at the top titles in Business & Investing.

In a year marked by markets in free-fall, record home foreclosures, and epic bank failures (surely the subjects of some of 2009's list), the publishing event of the year was The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life. Buffett allowed author Alice Schroeder unprecedented access to his family, associates, records, and himself, and at 900+ pages, this surely qualifies as the definitive tome of the "Oracle of Omaha's" life and times. Get to know him--the man who was the richest in the world in 2008 may be casting a long and distinguished shadow over the financial policies of the incoming administration.

And sure, this list is called "Business & Investing," but you might notice a dearth of investing titles on either our list or our customers'. So have recent events have resulted in fewer potential investors withholding their money from the markets, or are investing books published prior to the credit crisis rendered instantly outdated? Let's hope 2009 sees a resurgence in the personal investing titles.

There is also an emerging category that somewhat tangential to Business & Investing but obviously critical to those who want to understand their business, and specifically their customers. Grandfathered by Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (first published in 1841), resuscitated by Paco Underhill's Why We Buy, and exploded by Malcom Gladwell's The Tipping Point, these books adopt scientific, statistical, and sociological methods in investigating human (i.e. consumer) behavior. 2008 saw several interesting additions to this collection (including our customers' #1 selection): Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, and Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. Below I've added a list including similar titles that didn't make either Top Ten.

More in the Best Books of 2008 Store.

--Jon

Editors' Top Ten Picks in Business & Investing

1. The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
2. A Sense of Urgency
3. The Brand Bubble: The Looming Crisis in Brand Value and How to Avoid It
4. The Momentum Effect: How to Ignite Exceptional Growth
5. The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures
6. The Gone Fishin' Portfolio: Get Wise, Get Wealthy...and Get on With Your Life (Agora Series)
7. The Illusions of Entrepreneurship: The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By
8. Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies  
9. The Contrarian Effect: Why It Pays (Big) to Take Typical Sales Advice and Do the Opposite
10. Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition

Customers' Top Ten Picks in Business & Investing

1. Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
2. The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
3. Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter)
4. Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
5. The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means
6. Economic Facts and Fallacies
7. Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism
8. The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures
9. The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash
10. Six Disciplines® Execution Revolution: Solving the One Business Problem That Makes Solving All Other Problems Easier

Nine Books About Why We Act This Way, in No Certain Order   

• Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
• Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
• Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior
• The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives
• The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World
• Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do
• Outliers: The Story of Success
• Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy
• Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are