business and investing

This is a must read for any person serious about investing (ie not gambling) in the stock market. The book is rather easy to read. Graham was an investor but also a teacher (at Columbia). He has a good balance between technical yet simple explanation. If you know absolutely nothing about the stock market and financials, you may still find it a bit obscure at time, but you should probably not invest directly anyway (at least not right away). For everyone else, read it.
Yes the latest edition was written in 1972. It is amusing at time to see the evolution. But actually this evolution is also part of what you learn by reading the book. You do see that some things never change (like valuing a company!), and others do change quite a bit. it gives you a nice perspective. Now the intersting part of the book is to understand the logic of Graham, less its conclusions. The conclusions date a bit. Graham used to work at a time when most corporations where industrial companies, when nowadays services are dominant for example. So take graham conclucions with a grain of salt. But do read in depth and try to understand his logic.
Value investing won't make you rich overnight. But reasonnably well done, it will avoid having you lose money, and can even open you the doors of year by year over-performance in the market. Warren Buffett and several other successfull investors have followed the approach of Graham. But as they all say, when you first read about value investing, you either understand it right away, or you never will. But trust my 15 year of investing on the stock market, you're better of understanding the value of value investing. And this book is the key to it.

A "must read". At the risk of being repetitive, the essay at the end by Warren Buffett is worth the cost of the book alone, as it reminds one that you can become enormously wealthy as a "value" investor, and how many different ways there are to be a "value" investor in the first place. You do not need to day trade internet stocks. You can make a lot of money buying sound companies at attractive prices and not spend all day logged on to your computer with your heart in your mouth. Graham's text helps bring home the principles needed to invest in this manner, particularly the "margin of safety" idea. I do not agree with the idea that long term investors should put 50% of their assets into bonds though.

This is very worthwhile reading. I'd also recommend David Dremen's books, "The Warren Buffet Way", and "What Works on Wall Street", as they are more "how to" oriented than this one.

The issue is how to make money on the stock market.

The conclusion is that if you have the discipline and follow the advise with rigour, you will make money on the stock market. It is not for a day trader but a genuine investor.

There are many pieces of sound advice. One of the recommended easy and time saving way to pick a stock: buy the stock of Dow Index companies with minimum P/E ratio.

It is a classic.