I'm currently working my way through the equity investing classics. One Up On Wall Street is among the best I've read. I decided to read the book after watching a few talks by Peter Lynch and have not been disappointed – it is both informative and hilarious.
The central theme is that if you want to be successful in stocks, you have to find your edge. This is a point that many other classics skip over, instead jumping straight into the analytical techniques. Lynch continually emphasises the importance of thinking for yourself, preferring stocks that have very little analyst coverage from Wall Street or economists:
As some perceptive person once said, if all the economists of the world were laid end to end, it wouldn’t be a bad thing.
It's a very refreshing framework for thinking about stocks, and the book is packed with tips and things to look for when you're examining a company.
When somebody says, “Any idiot could run this joint,” that’s a plus as far as I’m concerned, because sooner or later any idiot probably is going to be running it.
In summary, there's a huge amount to be learnt from Peter Lynch and his writing style makes this a very painless process.