Five books

[YYjames]

Lets say you could only read 5 books upon which you will reach an arbitrary intermediate level of mastery of investing in the market (strictly public markets here, no real estate etc), which books would those be?

[Jim]

1. The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham

I'll let others give recs for the other 4.  

[jfoxcpacfp]

1. Simple Wealth, Inevitable Wealth


2. Stocks for the Long Run


3. A Random Walk Down Wall Street

Not necessarily in that order as SWIW gives practical application to the other 2.

[soundbyte]

The Millionaire Next Door (not investing so much as personal wealth building)

All About Asset Allocation

Common Sense on Mutual Funds

Bogleheads' Guide to Investing

The Intelligent Investor

 

[YYjames]

Thank you everyone. Appreciate the responses.

[G]

Millionaire Next Door (caveat as mentioned by soundbyte, above)

Affluent Investor

Intelligent Investor (revised)

[Rando]

Agree with Random Walk down Wall Street, Millionaire Next Door, and Intelligent Investor mainly for background.  Agree Millionaire Next Door more for a general mindset than specific investing advice.  The one book I have come to depend on for the long haul is Protecting Your Wealth by Richard Ferri.

[SimpleDoc]

1. The Boglehead's Guide to Investing

2. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing

3. The Four Pillars of Investing

4. All About Index Funds

5. How a 2nd Grader Beat Wall Street

[The White Coat Investor]

Tough task. I could easily be talked out of this list, but that said there are no losers here.

Mindset- Millionaire Next Door

Personal Finance- The Only Investment Guide You Ever Need

Basic Investing- The Investor's Manifesto

Behavioral Investing- Your Money or Your Brain

Advanced Investing- Retire Secure

 

[PhysicianOnFIRE]

The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need by Andrew Tobias.

I'd list four more, but that would defy the title of the first recommendation.

If I were to list more, there would be a couple by Bogle, and after I read it (it's on the way), The White Coat Investor: A Doctor's Guide To Personal Finance And Investing by James Dahle, MD