This book is excellent! If you don't have a finance background but need to understand the financial statements this book will teach you everything you need. If you already know about finance this book will teach you what you don't know.

Everyone is familiar with the "Dummies" book series, and, perhaps, we all have a dozen of them on our shelves. In many cases, we reach for the "Dummies" books, because they represent our first foray into a subject we know nothing about, like "Fishing for Dummies," and we feel like we need to get a "handle" on it. In other words, we are non-experts, we'd like to learn from the experts, but we don't want to become an expert. We just want to "understand" the subject, so that we don't look stupid at work or during cocktail party conversations.

The big "letdown" with most "Dummies" books I've read is that they're too wordy, too thin on substance, and you feel like you're wanting more. THIS IS NOT THE CASE WITH "HOW TO READ A FINANCIAL REPORT" BY JOHN TRACY.

Instead, Tracy's book is that rare book for "non-majors" that is written clearly, does not require prior knowledge of the subject, and may be all that a "non-financial" manager, such as a salesperson, marketing manager, office manager -- or maybe even an individual investor -- might need to understand how to read balance sheet.

Tracy's book is far from wordy, and, clocking in at around 100 pages, it is pithy. More importantly, the book is extremely well-illustrated in such a way that the reader is not treated to financial concepts, but is actually taught the "skill" of reading an income statement, a balance sheet or a cash flow report, something which "Fishing for Dummies" has yet to do for me.

With Tracy's book, I will never have to read a 400-page tome on accounting or finance. If I am in trouble, I'll simply need to read this book, never confusing "net" and "gross" again.

This book gets 3 stars only for its organized content, as well as the fact that there are very few good books for beginners that take you from A to Z in reading financial statements. However, this book is not one of them in my opinion. The problem is that the author does not break the material down to a level that a novice can understand unless he reads the book many times. There is too much detail in many of the sections and the main points can easily be lost. I learned to read financial statements long ago, but this book did not help me, other than alerting me to the complexity involved. If you do have a background in financial statements, then this book might be good. Perhaps I will go back now and read the book now that I already know how to read fin statements and see if it makes sense.

This little gem is extremely lucid and -- dare I say -- fun to read.

Consider this book the best $20 investment you'll make this year.

Whether you're a 1st year MBA, stockbroker, or lawyer -- or just someone who wants to learn how to read the 10Ks/Qs you get in the mail -- this book has something for you.

I found this book on my own before going to get my MBA and was always a bit embarrased to admit that I had learned more from this book than any other (it's design makes it look a bit elementary). I was pleasantly surprised to see that my Finance professor at the MBA program (Babson - the #1 entrepreneurship program 11 years running) brought it out on the first day and said it was a "must" for any businessperson's library!

It is a fantastic resource - don't let the look fool you!