9 days into January, I am here to declare The Entrepreneurial Investor my top pick for best investment book of 2008.

It’s that good. I reserve the right to change my pick whether something better comes out, but I am highly doubtful of that happening. Here’s what makes it so good: The Entrepreneurial Investor contains more investment wisdom in its 152 pages than 10 years worth of CNBC coverage.

Written by Kinko’s founder Paul Orfalea (author of the equally wonderful Copy that!) and the rest of the team at West Coast Asset Management, a value-oriented hedge fund with an impressive track record, The Entrepreneurial Investor is the best philosophical introduction to the field of value investing that I’ve seen

Unlike most investment pundits, Orfalea has a background in building and managing a successful commerce, and that background inspires the WCAM investment philosophy.

Many value investing books are filled with charts and discounted cash-flow analysis, but the authors here focus instead on how investors can find great businesses with durable competitive advantages — and buy them at large discounts to their intrinsic value.

Profiles of entrepreneurs including David Packard and Howard Hughes round out that soon to be classic, making it the most readable, most informative pound for pound introduction to value investing out there: Buy it!

Original post by Zac Bissonnette

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