The below is a list of some of the best books that I’ve found, thus far in life. This list is being continuously updated. The list is curated and handpicked after carefully listening to or reading about which books people I’m inspired by, have found to be the most impactful. By tracking these and then selecting the ones that were most often recommended, a list emerged. I have read them all personally, and then down-selected the ones I found to be the best among those.
There are many great books to read, and in order to make the most of your time you may want to consider learning how to speed read. Speed reading is a technique used to increase reading speed without sacrificing comprehension or retention of information.
Some of the best techniques and approaches to speed reading
Table of Content
- Useful and Effective Mental Models
- Philosophy and Psychology
- Health and Longevity
- Business, Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Management
- History and Society
Useful and Effective Mental Models
- The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness by Eric Jorgenson
- The Book of Elon: A Guide to Purpose and Success by Eric Jorgenson
- Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger
- The Anthology of Balaji: A Guide to Technology, Truth, and Building the Future by Eric Jorgenson
- Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
- Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows
- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, also see the below section on Cognitive Biases
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
- The Secret Pulse of Time: Making Sense of Life’s Scarcest Commodity by Stefan Klein
- The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss
- The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life by Timothy Ferriss
- The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes and Its Implications by David Deutsch
- The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World by David Deutsch
Philosophy and Psychology
- Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
- Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
- Bhagavad Gita (commentary by Swami B.G. Narasingha)
- 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. Peterson
- How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan
- Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard H. Thaler
- Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini
- Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely
- The Common Denominator of Success by Albert E. N. Gray
- Lying by Sam Harris
- The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
- Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
- I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi
- Die With Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life by Bill Perkins
Health and Longevity
- Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia
- The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-loss, Incredible Sex and Becoming Superhuman by Timothy Ferriss
Business, Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Management
- The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek
- Zero to One by Peter Thiel (with Blake Masters)
- Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works by A.G. Lafley, Roger L. Martin
- The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail (1997) by Clayton M. Christensen
- The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
- Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days (2016) by Jake Knapp
- The Right It : Why So Many Ideas Fail and How to Make Sure Yours Succeed (2019) by Alberto Savoia
- The Minimalist Entrepreneur: How Great Founders Do More with Less (2021) by Sahil Lavingia
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers (2014) by Ben Horowitz
- Financial Intelligence by Karen Berman and Joe Knight (with John Case)
- Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect by Will Guidara
- The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing Al Ries, Jack Trout
- The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M. Goldratt
- Steal the Show by Michael Port
- Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
- How to Be a Power Connector by Judy Robinett
- Team of Teams by General Stanley A. McCrystal
- Radical Candor: Be a Kick-ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott
- Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
- Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t by James C. Collins
- Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the creator of Nike by Phil Knight
- Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die (2007) by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
- The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
- What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars by Jim Paul and Brendan Moynihan
- Fish!: A Proven Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results by Stephen C. Lundin, John Christensen, Harry Paul and Ken Blanchard
History and Society
- Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom
- Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
- Factfullness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling
- A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
- The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future by Gretchen Bakke
Some of these books can be put together into smaller well-curated curriculums, such as
How to Attain a Personal MBA in 6 Months
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