A Weekend with Warren Buffett and Other Shareholder Meeting Adventures

Few investors show up at annual shareholders' meetings or return proxy forms because the agenda is usually technical and the votes foregone conclusions. But Cepuch shows readers how much they're missing with this highly entertaining account of 24 meetings rated for Educational Value, Entertainment Value, Freebies, and Food and Drink. The meetings range from elaborate productions at companies like Berkshire Hathaway and Wal-Mart to dull affairs staged at lawyers' insistence, at companies like Playboy and Microsoft. Managers are feisty or embattled or folksy or worshipped; shareholders are probing or gushing or disgruntled or incoherent. Yet Cepuch unobtrusively works in valuable material for investors about knowing your companies, thinking like an owner and paying attention. It requires no specialized training to judge whether managers are honest, competent and focused on running a sound and profitable business, he points out. There's a bit more discussion of fonts and other presentation items than most readers will appreciate, but this can be forgiven in a former annual report writer. Overall, this ranks among the best commonsense investment books, and is certainly one of the most fun to read. (Mar.)