Don’t have time to read 960 pages? Here’s what you need to know.

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)