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The new Warren Buffett biography, The Snowball, comes out today. Of course, we learn the hows and whats of Buffett’s investing philosophy and decision-making. But Buffett gave investment analyst and first-time biographer Alice Schroeder full access, which she used to unearth every detail. We get more of the man under the threadbare sweater than ever before, and Buffett shines through in eccentric and mostly charming glory. Here are the juicy bits:

Fascinations:

“Most nights, Buffett ate dinner—something like a hamburger of pork chop—at home with [his second wife] Astrid. After a couple of hours he turned his attention to his nightly bridge game on the Internet, to which he devoted about twelve hours a week. While he tapped away, glued to the screen with the background noise of the TV, Astrid mostly left him to his game, except when occasionally he said, ‘Astrid, get me a Coke!’ ” (p. 30)

“At [his grandfather] Ernest’s house, Warren read a shelf full of back issues of the Progressive Grocer. Subjects like ‘how to stock a meat department’ fascinated him.” (p. 72)

“Buffett loved the Wall Street Journal; he loved it so much that he had made a special deal with the local distributor of the paper. When the batches of Journals arrived in Omaha every night, a copy was pulled out and placed in his driveway before midnight. He sat up waiting to read tomorrow’s news before everybody else got to see it.” (p. 528)

“ ‘U2’s music doesn’t blow me away. What interests me is that Bono splits the revenue of U2 among four people absolutely equally.’ ” (p. 766)

Shrewd moves and missed opportunities:

"At the end of 1944, Warren filed his first income tax return. He paid only seven dollars in taxes; to get it down to that, he deducted his wristwatch and bicycle as business expenses. He knew that was questionable. But at the time, he was not above cutting a few corners to get where he wanted to go." (p. 83)

“Once, Buffett says, they had even tried to buy a Maryland ‘town’ that the Federal Housing Authority was auctioning off for peanuts: it consisted of the post office, the town hall, and a large number of rental properties that were charging below-market rents. … But even for ‘peanuts’ the town was expensive and they couldn’t get together enough cash.” (pp. 219-220)

“Buffett did have a merry Christmas [in 1987], but for another reason: His present to himself was Coca-Cola. It would make up a great deal of the unhappiness from Salomon. At a White House dinner some time earlier, he had reconnected with his old friend Don Keough, who was now president and chief operating officer of the company; Keough had convinced him to switch from his own concoction of Pepsi dosed with cherry syrup to the newly introduced Cherry Coke. Buffett tried it and liked it.” (p. 551)