In its 960 pages, it delves into the crucial roles various people have played in shaping the business acumen for which Mr Buffett is famous, including economist Benjamin Graham. It also provides clear and detailed accounts of the key events in his six-decade investor career. The biographical nature of this book does not preclude the average reader from gleaning useful lessons about how to invest their money, pursue more profitable business relationships, or even live a fuller life. Such lessons are plenty, owing to the detailed-writing style of Ms Schroeder, the depth of her research, and her experience in the financial arena.

There's the Buffett investment philosophy that has seen him take stakes in, or control of, companies from his first farm when he was a second-year college student, to such giants as Coca-Cola, which has remained a cornerstone of his investment flagship Berkshire Hathaway since 1988.

It goes something like this: Estimate the investment's intrinsic value, discount it for risk, make sure there is a margin of safety between how much the company is worth in its books and its asking price, make sure it stays within its core competencies, and let compounding do its work - effectively building the 'snowball' that the book's title is alluding to.

Be warned that other gems, be they about investment, business, or life in general, only yield themselves after some effort. Ms Schroeder's work is filled not only with events in the daily business life of the multibillionaire, it is also embellished with interesting stories of the many people around Mr Buffett.

She spends considerable effort describing the close friendship between Mr Buffett and former Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, and how the two met at a party and immediately discovered a kindred soul in each other. While some may find this entertaining, others seeking a more direct path to the book's treasures may find it difficult to slog through.

The next question becomes: Should you listen to what Mr Buffet has to say? After all, the 'Oracle of Omaha' reportedly lost US$16 billion last year as the US economy tanked. He is also down US$2 billion on his deal to invest US$5 billion in Goldman Sachs in September, after shares in the investment bank fell despite his gesture.

It should also be noted that Mr Buffett has been wrong before. Take his 1989 investment in USAir, now US Airways, which turned out to be one of his worst business judgments when he had to write down the entire US$358 million investment in 1995.

'As soon as the cheque cleared, the company went into [the] red and never came out. I have an 800 number I call and say 'My name is Warren Buffett and I'm an Air-aholic,' Mr Buffett said of the failed investment.

The last time that people muttered en masse that Mr Buffett had lost his touch was in the late 1990s to early 2000s, when he allegedly missed the boat on the technology boom, and we all know how that turned out. At the same time, Mr Buffett has earned his reputation as a master investor only because Berkshire Hathaway routinely outpaces the rest of the US stock market throughout most of its history with him at the helm.

Finally, it was Mr Buffett who warned that trade in derivatives posed great risks to the world financial markets as early as 2003, years before most noticed there was anything amiss.

He may be down for the moment, but he is not by any measure out of the game.

Five insights

1 His well-known quote goes: 'Be greedy when others are fearful, and fearful when others are greedy, and don't think you can outsmart the market.' For the average investor, Buffett believes there are far fewer better choices than a long-term investment in a low-cost index fund. The simple reasoning behind this is that productivity across industries is expected to increase, and will drive stocks up with it.

2 It helps if a person can be satisfied by what Buffett refers to as an 'inner scorecard', and to understand whether their behaviour will help them achieve their goals and desires rather than worrying about what other people think about them. Such advice carried the veteran investor through most recently the technology boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s, when he remained sceptical of the internet and other technology stocks and shares in his flagship investment firm suffered as a result, only to be vindicated when the dotcom bubble burst.

3 When considering your career, find something you are passionate about, and work with people you like. Buffett refers to his decades-long business partner Charles Munger as his 'Siamese twin' because the two have similar investment philosophies, and are so like-minded that some of their associates think they communicate via telepathy. Finally, he says that if you go to work every morning disliking where you are and who you are with, then you are probably in the wrong business, or the wrong company.

4 When asked what the secret of his success was, the 77-year old philanthropist always attributed it to a near-obsessive state of focus on achieving his goals. Ms Schroeder describes, how on his honeymoon, he stuffed the back seat of his car with Moody's Manuals for light reading. He also reads old newspapers dating back a century to understand business cycles, reads about every person he admires to learn something he could use in his life, and excludes himself from almost anything not related to business so that he could focus on his passion.

5 Beware that the same single-minded focus could come at a heavy price. Buffett paid that price in 1977, when he was worth US$72 million. His first wife moved out because he was devoted to making even more money that he neglected their relationship.