“A book is like a garden carried in the pocket” – Proverb

Books that have each taught me at least one great lesson

The list begins with books on behavioral psychology. It’s a thread that runs through everything we do, at home and at work. Next are organizational dynamics and culture (which I see as the soil from which strong companies and governments grow), then finance, probability, and statistics – key parts of life and work. Finally, I include books on history, physics, and philosophy —diverse topics with timeless lessons. And some fiction for good measure.

Together, they offer a well-rounded insight into how life works.

But do not limit yourself – read on diverse topics and take what you find useful. Get perspectives and opinions from as many fields as you can – broaden your range and you will be able to reach higher.

This is a running list. I sub as I discover gems. Dig in:

Top 100 favorite books in 10 categories:

Self-governance

  1. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
  2. Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein
  3. Mastery by Robert Greene
  4. The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene
  5. The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
  6. Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
  7. Motivational Interviewing by William R. Miller, Stephen Rollnick
  8. Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
  9. Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink, Leif Babin
  10. Dare to Lead by Brené Brown
  11. Quiet by Susan Cain
  12. Atomic Habits by James Clear
  13. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
  14. Make Your Bed by William H. McRaven
  15. The Mountain Is You by Brianna Wiest
  16. Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows
  17. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
  18. Originals by Adam Grant
  19. The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday
  20. The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday
  21. Getting Things Done by David Allen
  22. Breath by James Nestor
  23. Brain Energy by Christopher M. Palmer

Organizational governance

  1. Thinking Fast & Slow by Daniel Kahneman
  2. Principles: Life & Work by Ray Dalio
  3. Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoğlu, James A. Robinson
  4. Good to Great by Jim Collins
  5. How The Mighty Fall by Jim Collins
  6. Measure What Matters by John Doerr
  7. Your Next Five Moves: Master the Art of Business Strategy by Patrick Bet-David
  8. The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande
  9. Uplifting Service by Ron Kaufman
  10. How Google Works by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg
  11. The Toyota Way by Jeffrey K. Liker, Gary L. Convis
  12. Trillion Dollar Coach Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, Alan Eagle
  13. Lee Kuan Yew by Graham Allison, Robert D. Blackwill, Ali Wyne, Lee Kuan Yew
  14. The Box by Marc Levinson
  15. Reentry by Eric Berger

Organizational culture

  1. An Everyone Culture by Robert Kegan, Lisa Laskow Lahey
  2. The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle
  3. Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh 
  4. Radical Candor by Kim Scott

Finance

  1. Value: The Four Cornerstones of Corporate Finance by McKinsey & Company, Inc. , Tim Koller , Richard Dobbs , Bill Huyett
  2. The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham
  3. Financial Shenanigans by Howard Schilit
  4. Unshakeable by Tony Robbins

Domain-specific

  1. Factfulness by Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund
  2. Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data by Charles Wheelan
  3. Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less by Jim Vandehei , Mike Allen , Roy Schwartz
  4. Data Science by John D. Kelleher, Brendan Tierney
  5. Fundamentals of Software Architecture: An Engineering Approach by Mark Richards & Neal Ford
  6. Clean Architecture by Robert C. Martin

History & science

  1. Peak Human by Johan Norberg
  2. Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
  3. Guns, Germs & Steel by Jared Diamond
  4. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond
  5. Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph by T.E. Lawrence
  6. Rubicon by Tom Holland
  7. Persian Fire by Tom Holland
  8. SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard
  9. The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius
  10. History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
  11. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
  12. River Out of Eden by Richard Dawkins

Physics

  1. Reality is Not What it Seems by Carlo Rovelli
  2. Seven Brief Lessons in Physics by Carlo Rovelli
  3. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
  4. The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene
  5. Quantum Space by Jim Baggott
  6. Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life by Helen Czerski
  7. Relativity: The Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein
  8. What Is Life by Erwin Schrodinger

Biography

  1. The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel by Kati Marton
  2. Open by Andre Agassi

Philosophy

  1. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
  2. Letters from a Stoic by Seneca
  3. The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh
  4. Being Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh
  5. Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh
  6. Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
  7. Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel
  8. Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Taleb
  9. Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
  10. Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki
  11. The Art of War by Sun Tzu
  12. The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli

Fiction

  1. Foundation by Isaac Asimov
  2. Augustus by John Williams
  3. Creation by Gore Vidal
  4. The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andrić
  5. Time of Parting by Anton Donchev
  6. Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz

Recent reads

Recent reads that I am still taking in.

  1. The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Quanta and Fields by Sean Carroll

Potential next reads

A short list of potentials that I might pick up next.

This list is very dynamic, but I am currently mostly focused on statistics, finance, history, and software engineering.

  1. The Thinking Machine by Stephen Witt
  2. The Art of Uncertainty: How to Navigate Chance, Ignorance, Risk and Luck by David Spiegelhalter
  3. Becoming Supernatural by Joe Dispenza
  4. Behave by Robert M. Sapolsky
  5. Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari
  6. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language by David W. Anthony
  7. The Pragmatic Programmer by Dave Thomas & Andy Hunt
  8. Clean Code by Robert C. Martin
  9. The Man Who Knew: The Life and Times of Alan Greenspan by Sebastian Mallaby

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