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

Books that have helped shape my thinking

This list begins with books on behavioral psychology, especially as it relates to work and managing people. It’s a thread that runs through everything we do, at home and at work.

Next are statistics and finance, key parts of life and work, followed by organizational culture, which I see as the soil from which strong companies and governments grow.

You’ll also find books on leadership, management, systems, negotiation, habits, and chance—pillars that support culture and structure.

Finally, I include books on history, physics, and philosophy —diverse topics with timeless lessons.

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 add on to it as I discover gems. Dig in:

My favorite 84 books in 8 categories:

Life & organizational governance

  1. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
  2. Thinking Fast & Slow by Daniel Kahneman
  3. Principles: Life & Work by Ray Dalio
  4. Mastery by Robert Greene
  5. The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene
  6. The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
  7. Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoğlu, James A. Robinson
  8. Good to Great by Jim Collins
  9. How The Mighty Fall by Jim Collins
  10. Measure What Matters by John Doerr
  11. Trillion Dollar Coach Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, Alan Eagle
  12. Your Next Five Moves: Master the Art of Business Strategy by Patrick Bet-David
  13. The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande
  14. Uplifting Service by Ron Kaufman
  15. The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel by Kati Marton
  16. How Google Works by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg
  17. The Toyota Way by Jeffrey K. Liker, Gary L. Convis
  18. Lee Kuan Yew by Graham Allison, Robert D. Blackwill, Ali Wyne, Lee Kuan Yew
  19. The Box by Marc Levinson
  20. Reentry by Eric Berger

Domain-specific

  1. Factfulness by Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund
  2. Data Science by John D. Kelleher, Brendan Tierney
  3. Fundamentals of Software Architecture: An Engineering Approach by Mark Richards & Neal Ford
  4. Clean Architecture by Robert C. Martin
  5. Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data by Charles Wheelan

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

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

History & science

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

Self-governance

  1. Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein
  2. Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
  3. Motivational Interviewing by William R. Miller, Stephen Rollnick
  4. Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
  5. Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows
  6. Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink, Leif Babin
  7. Dare to Lead by Brené Brown
  8. Quiet by Susan Cain
  9. Atomic Habits by James Clear
  10. Make Your Bed by William H. McRaven
  11. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
  12. Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High by Kerry Patterson, Stephen R. Covey, Joseph Grenny
  13. Originals by Adam Grant
  14. The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday
  15. The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday
  16. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
  17. The Mountain Is You by Brianna Wiest
  18. Getting Things Done by David Allen
  19. Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less by Jim Vandehei , Mike Allen , Roy Schwartz
  20. Breath by James Nestor
  21. Brain Energy by Christopher M. Palmer

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 Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

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. Peak Human by Johan Norberg
  2. Behave by Robert M. Sapolsky
  3. Becoming Supernatural by Joe Dispenza
  4. Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari
  5. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language by David W. Anthony
  6. The Pragmatic Programmer by Dave Thomas & Andy Hunt
  7. Clean Code by Robert C. Martin
  8. The Man Who Knew: The Life and Times of Alan Greenspan by Sebastian Mallaby

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