This book may be helpful for those seeking a general understanding of financial statements and what Mr. Buffett considers in his review, but be aware of several points:
1. The book is written in remedial business language that leaves out a lot of important details that an active investor should know. It is clearly not intended for anyone with a decent understanding of accounting or finance;
2. The book contains errors - in two separate tabular displays, the balance sheet presented is not even balanced;
3. I wish I had a count of the number of times they wrote "durable competitive advantage." I get it - a durable advantage is important; and
4. Entire paragraphs are repeated verbatim in some sections. The book is horribly redundant - the authors clearly ran out of things to say.
In my opinion, the authors rushed to release this book and profit from the market downturn. Anything with Warren Buffett's name on it is apparently a hot selling item currently, and while this book certainly has some useful bits of investing advice, I would be surprised if Mr. Buffett himself actually read or approved the content of the book. The vast majority of the book is very general, basic information, and the only reason the book is getting attention is because the authors are lucky enough to have worked with Warren Buffett and are able to use his name in their title.
Overall, if you know nothing about investing or financial statements, this is probably a good book for you; however, if you have a business background and are somewhat versed in accounting and finance, you will find this to basic and redundant. It is a quick read and a cheap price, so I am not entirely negative on it, but certainly wish I would have flipped through a hard copy before ordering on Amazon. Lesson learned. I would give it two stars, but knocked to one for the errors and redundancy.