These books are useful now and for generations to come ’m often asked, especially as the holiday gift-giving season approaches, which books I recommend for investors. I haven’t kept exact count, of course, but over the past quarter-century I have surely read (or tried to read) a couple thousand books on investing. Nearly all of them were a tragic waste of good trees. Most weren’t worth reading even a few pages of. So I feel strongly that the usual article on “best investing books” has way too many entries and ends up suggesting good books you might read, rather than recommending great books you must read. Here’s a list that I would still be comfortable with decades from now. Every book below has stood the test of time and, I’m confident, will remain useful for generations to come. You will quickly note that some aren’t even about investing. But they all will help teach you how to think more clearly, which is the only way to become a wiser and better investor. I’ve listed them alphabetically by author. Gary Belsky and Thomas Gilovich, “Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes and How to Correct Them” In clear, simple prose, Belsky and Gilovich explain some of the most common quirks that cause people to make foolish financial decisions. If you read this book, you should be able to recognize most of them in yourself and have a fighting chance of counteracting some of them. Otherwise, you will end up learning about your cognitive shortcomings the hard way: at the Wall Street campus of the School of Hard Knocks. By JASON ZWEIG