Business Adventures, by John Brooks, is the best business book I’ve ever read. Unfortunately, it is not easy to find. The book went out of print in the early 1970s. The original publisher is out of business, and Brooks died in 1993. But his family kindly agreed to provide one chapter as a free e-book, which you can download below.
“Xerox Xerox Xerox Xerox,” which originally appeared in the April 1, 1967 issue of The New Yorker, demonstrates all the strengths that made Brooks such a special writer: his intellect, his ability to see the big picture, and his sense of humor. I hope you’ll check it out:
In addition to this free chapter, the full version of Business Adventures was recently released by a new publisher as an e-book. You can buy it at many retailers’ websites.
As I wrote in my full review, Warren Buffett first recommended this book to me in 1991, shortly after we first met. He loaned me his copy and we had a lot of fun talking about what we had learned from it. So it’s great to be able to share this neglected classic with the wider audience that it deserves.