Reading good books and great books is an essential part of your learning plan. You’ll be strengthened through reading books which are a little difficult for you, just as pushing yourself past comfort in physical exercise builds muscle and endurance. You’ll find a handful of books which are truly significant for you. Study those repeatedly, make them your own.
List of Recommended Books
I’ve grouped some books, but there is no particular order or weighting. Read for breadth and depth. Stretch yourself.
I have a Western/English bias. There are undoubtedly many great books in Eastern tradition and other languages that are less accessible to me.
There are few books here about technical subjects. You need to find and study these over time, as you have interests, but they tend to become outdated quickly. I know several good books on AI, for example, but by the time you read this they could be less helpful.
My biography list probably has too much weight on Americans and men.
I’ve listed a diverse set of religious texts not because I think they are all equally valid, but because I believe wise people must be aware of different religious ideas.
A key criteria: all these can be read, and re-read, and still yield insights and ideas. An excellent book continues to speak to a person at different stages of their life. The best book is the one that teaches you something important you either didn’t know, or something worth remembering again.
Modern Works with recognized value for many people:
The Great Ideas — Mortimer Adler
Principles – Ray Dalio
The E-Myth – Michael Gerber
Zero to One – Peter Thiel
The Lean Startup – Eric Ries
Tools of Titans – Tim Ferriss
Good to Great – Jim Collins
Built to Last — Jim Collins
Tribes – Seth Godin
This is Marketing — Seth Godin
Atomic Habits — James Clear
Mindset – Carol Dweck
Grit – Angel Duckworth
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion – Robert Caldini
How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie
Bold – Peter Diamandis
The Fifth Discipline – Peter Senge
A Rulebook for Arguments – Anthony Weston
The Black Swan – Nicola Taleb
What Technology Wants – Kevin Kelly
On Writing Well – Zinnser
Evolution 2.0 – Perry Marshall
True Professionalism – David Maister
A History of Knowledge – Charles Van Doren
Basic Economics – Thomas Sowell
Switch — Chip and Dan Heath
Extreme Ownership and The Dichotomy of Leadership – Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
How to Read a Book – Mortimer Adler
Godel, Escher, Bach – Douglas Hofstadter
The Lessons of History – Will and Ariel Durant
The Prince – Machiavelli
The 48 Laws of Power and Mastery – Robert Greene
The Obstacle is the Way – Ryan Holliday
The Effective Executive – Peter Drucker
The Effective Manager – Mark Horstman
The Portable MBA – Josh Kaufmann
12 Rules – Jordan Peterson
The 80/20 Principle — Richard Koch
80/20 Sales and Marketing – Perry Marshall
Warfighting — US Marine Corps
Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger — Peter Bevelin
The War of Art — Steven Pressfield
Execution – Bossidy and Charan
Elements of Style – Strunk & White
Team of Teams and One Mission – Chris Fussell
Essentialism – Greg McKeown
Suicide of the West – Richard Koch
The Natural Laws of Business – Richard Koch
Exponential Organizations – Salim Ismail
Man’s Search for Meaning – Victor Frankl
The Art of War – Sun Tzu
Deep Work – Cal Newport
On Becoming a Leader – Warren Bennis
The Truth About Leadership – Kouzes and Posner
Start with Why – Simon Sinek
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – Patrick Lencioni
The Essential Wooden: A Lifetime of Lessons on Leaders and Leadership – Wooden and Jamison
Everyone Communicates, Few Connect – John Maxwell
Crucial Conversations – Patterson and Grenny
The Goal – Eliyahu Goodratt
Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman
The Power of Full Engagement – Loehr and Schwartz
Getting Things Done – David Allen
Deep Survival – Laurence Gonzales
Made to Stick – Chip and Dan Heath
Presentation Zen – Garr Reynolds
How to Lie with Statistics – Darrell Huff
Work the System – Sam Carpenter
Making Things Happen – Scott Berkun
Competitive Strategy – Michael Porter
Blue Ocean Strategy – Kim and Mauborgne
Seeing What’s Next – Clayton Christensen
The Design of Everyday Things – Donald Norman
Six Easy Pieces – Richard Feynman
High Output Management – Andy Grove
Poor Charlie’s Almanack – Charlier Munger
Half-Time — Bob Buford
Walden– Henry Thoreau
Essays – Montaigne
Collected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Federalist – Hamilton, Madison, Jay
The Laws of Human Nature — Robert Greene
The Abolition of Man — C.S. Lewis
Pre-Gutenberg Classics and Religious Texts
Beowulf
The Illiad and The Odyssey – Homer
The Aeneid — Virgil
The Republic – Plato
The History — Herodotus
On the Brevity of Life – Seneca
Lives — Plutarch
The Divine Comedy – Dante
The Canterbury Tales — Chaucer
The Emperor’s Handbook – Marcus Aurelius
The Bible
The Bhagavad Gita
The Koran
The Tao
The Analects of Confucius
The Divine Conspiracy – Dallas Willard
In Introduction to the Devout Life – Francis de Sales
Confessions – St. Augustine
The Imitation of Christ – Thomas a Kempis
The Pilgrim’s Progress – John Bunyan
Mere Christianity – C.S. Lewis
The Cost of Discipleship – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
(*Note: here is a list of 75 Christian books which had most influenced me by 2009:
http://www.teachtochangelives.com/GreatBooks.htm )
Biographies
Titan (biography of John D. Rockefeller) — Ron Chernow
Benjamin Franklin – Walter Isaacson
Leonardo da Vinci – Walter Isaacson
The Last Lion (biography of Winston Churchill in 3 volumes) – William Manchester
Eisenhower in War and Peace – Jean Edward Smith
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt – Edmund Morris
Theodore Rex — Edmund Morris
Team of Rivals – Doris Kearns Goodwin
Truman – David McCullough
John Adams – David McCullough
Alexander Hamilton – Ron Chernow
Robert E. Lee – Emory Thomas
Lew Kwan Yew: The Man and His Ideas – Kwang and Fernandez
Washington: A Life – Ron Chernow
Einstein: His Life and Universe – Walter Isaacson
The House of Morgan – Ron Chernow
Margaret Thatcher (authorized biography) – Charles Moore
Indira Ghandi – Inder Malhotra
Victoria: The Queen – Julia Baird
A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael – Elisabeth Elliot
Fiction and Literature
The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Dune – Frank Herbert
Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card
Best Poems of the English Language (anthology) – Harold Bloom
The Wasteland – T.S. Eliot
The Chronicles of Narnia – C.S. Lewis
The Brothers Karamaov – Leo Tolstoy
Paradise Lost – John Milton
Moby Dick – Herman Melville
Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
1984 – George Orwell
Animal Farm – George Orwell