Top Picks

He says that in any civilized society the government is going to have to intervene to prevent the division of labor from making people as 'stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human being to become.'

The most illuminating book on the topic... essential reading.

I think it's Orwell's greatest work, much more interesting than 1984 or Animal Farm.

There’s a marvelous literary portrayal of this in Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov, the Grand Inquisitor section... It describes Jesus coming back to earth... and the Grand Inquisitor... sentences him to death.

More perceptive than [Orwell's] 1984 and [Huxley's] Brave New World.

I learned about Sigmund Freud reading in that book by David Bakan about his Kabbalist worship and that is how I learned about what Frankism was.

I'm trying to purchase 'The Assault on Truth' and it appears to be sold out everywhere... Anyone purchased this recently?

That book Hollywood Babylon completely blew my mind.

I've told you to read Chaos a thousand times I'm gonna tell you a thousand more times. ... It's basically required summer reading.

It shows there's a direct cycle between how you were raised and how you raise your kids... It allows us to plot a recurring cycle in American history.

It is a book worth reading because what you'll see is... history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes.

I found it to be truly extraordinary. Every page is full of so many principles of distinction and insights—and I love how Ray incorporates his history and his life in such an elegant way.

I don't give a damn how rich you are financially or how abundant you are with your family or love. We all experience extreme stress in our life at some point. It's the ultimate equalizer... the ability to find meaning in the most difficult times, I think, is one of the most important skills of life, and there's probably not a greater example than that book.

It's the whole concept of understanding that your thoughts really, truly shape everything in your life that you feel and experience. I have read it more than a dozen times and often give the book as a gift because it's concise, easy to read, and profound.

I love gardening, so The Comfort Of Crows sounds like a must read for me.

Secrets, betrayal and friendships on the edge — Society of Lies is the perfect mix of suspense and drama. Think Big Little Lies, but with even more twists.

A once-famous ballerina faces a final choice—to return to the world of Russian dance that nearly broke her, or to walk away forever—in this incandescent novel of redemption and love.

The book that had the biggest impact on my life was Wild by Cheryl Strayed. It’s the first book that I optioned to turn into a movie that I was producing and starring in... I love the themes of women versus nature.

Magnificent. Simply the best memoir by a chef ever. Ever. Gabrielle Hamilton packs more heart, soul, and pure power into one beautifully crafted page than I've accomplished in my entire writing career.

A masterpiece. Don't settle for seeing the film versions. One of the great heroines of all time and a magnificent book filled with great dialogue.

I think The Friends of Eddie Coyle is the absolute benchmark of pitch-perfect dialogue and atmosphere. You can smell the beer on these characters.

The first account of what it's REALLY like in a professional kitchen, and as true today as it was when it was written.

So, I'll bring Graham Greene's The Quiet American if I'm going to Vietnam. It's good to feel romantic about a destination before you arrive.

Dante is the most aggressive and polemical of the major Western writers... He is the only poet since Shakespeare who is adequately compared to him.

The true use of Shakespeare or of Cervantes... is to augment one's own growing inner self.

Shakespeare is the canon. He sets the standard and the limits of literature.

Her book 'The Face of War' is a great read. I remember her saying something like: politicians and generals are the same in every nation (personality-type wise) regardless of the type of political system.

This book is important because there are still a lot of misconceptions that Hitler improved Germany's economy... This idea is 100% false, and it is thoroughly torn apart in the book.

It's great. Also check out his other fantastic book... which details the attempts to get great intelligences together to try to formulate how to deal with these unbelievably powerful weapons.

Of all the books I read in 2023, two stood out that I would recommend to anyone... the other is From Strength to Strength by Arthur Brooks. Inside, Arthur does a fantastic job of showing the strengths and weaknesses of aging as a leader.

A must-read for leaders and parents. With our Gen Z workforce constantly expanding, this is an essential tool for you in helping the next generation build a healthier framework.

Of all the books I read in 2023, two stood out that I would recommend to anyone. Will Guidara's Unreasonable Hospitality is one of them. This book is a must-read if you lead in a nonprofit or any service industry.

So many team members at Life.Church say this was the book that changed how they work. A must-read. How do you transform an organization on an 'okay' trajectory to achieve lasting success?

The principles in this book will change your life and leadership for the better. Atomic Habits was a worldwide bestseller in 2021 for good reason.

I put that book down at the end of it and felt profoundly moved. That's I've actually got that one by my bedside.

One of the great writers/critics on totalitarianism in the 20th century... A towering staggering achievement.

There are many, many reasons why Money is the Great English Novel of the 1980s.

P.G. Wodehouse is the author of the most imperishable double act in fictional history.

It formed part of the essential bookshelf of those intellectuals who repudiated their early illusions about the Soviet Union.

It is independent of time and place. It is not just about 20th-century totalitarianism.

We're going to have bit parts in a new movie called 'Geek Love' in the New Year. It's about the freakshow family who breed flipper children.

I think I like Burroughs best, and I'm into Bukowski and Beckett.

I've read Perfume, by Patrick Süskind, about ten times in my life and I can't stop reading it. It's like something that's just stationary in my pocket all the time, it just doesn't leave me.

Stolen Focus is one of the most underrated non-fiction books in the world.

If I had to describe Masters Of Scale in one word, it would be 'extraordinary.' It contains life-changing business advice.

I've been waiting years for someone to write this book... It is even better than I imagined.

The best book I've ever read on change.

My favorite books include Think and Grow Rich... [it teaches] the basics of positive thinking, using your mind to create your reality.

There are 2 versions, one published in 1925 by Vieux and one published in 1927. I suggest you read both versions.

Ask and it is Given and all the Abraham books are written by 'God' (the universal field) without ANY human filtering. Think about that and read those books!

Success is not determined by the size of your intelligence, but by the size of your thinking.

You'll have whiplash until the very end. The Wives will leave the most sure-footed reader uneasy until the last word is read.

I read this book back before E.L. James even wrote it... I loved it SO much.

God-Shaped Hole will change you as a reader, writer and human. It is rare books like this one that remind me why I fell in love with the written word.

One of my all-time favorite books.

I love anything by J.D. Salinger.

I love Jane Eyre.

When I was a kid, I remember reading this book called Watership Down. That was one of the most grueling... stories I've ever read.

I also love One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

I think one of the greatest reads I've ever experienced was Crime & Punishment by Dostoyevsky. I know that sounds highbrow, but to be completely honest it was a page turner for me.

Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep is one of my all-time favorite SF books. I'm in a re-read right now, and it is as delightful as I remember it being.

Weir's finest work to date... This is the one book I read last year that I am certain I can recommend to anyone, no matter who, and know they'll love it.

Going Postal is my favorite Pratchett right now. If you read him, don't start with the first book. Start with the books in the middle of his career... His later books are pure genius!

The Shadow Rising is the best book in the series. ... Reading fantasy is what got me into writing fantasy, and that's still what I prefer to read.

This was the book that changed it all for me and made me a fantasy reader. It's interesting, because this is a book that should not have worked for me... But I had a smart teacher who knew that I needed something more.

One of the first best-selling self-help books ever published... #5.

My top recommended books in order... #4.

My top recommended books in order... #3.

My number one recommended book.

I read that book and it fucked me up because the first chapter was like don't expand your brand too much because it can like a certain car brand right try to make so many different models and in that they lose their focal point.

The most powerful book I've read in the last ten years... There's a chapter called the 'Levels of Human Consciousness' and what the whole premise is that basically the power of frequency of your action is informed by the intention.

I read that book... it's about a gang member from Chicago who presented himself in a way he never got no cases... he infiltrated the CIA... used their agenda... against them... one of my underlying strategies.

When asked how he got the idea [to sell the Crenshaw mixtape for $100] he mentioned reading Contagious... One of the first stories is about a restaurant owner in Philly who charged a hundred dollars for a cheesesteak and people came from all over to buy it.

The one artist that I feel could be my brother is Franz Kafka.

The Art Spirit sort of became the art life, and I had this idea that you drink coffee, you smoke cigarettes, and you paint, and that's it... that sort of became my Bible, because that book made the rules for the art life.

This book gives insight as good as any book on the changes that have taken place over time in economics, politics, military customs and more—very insightful.

This book will ground you in the belief that whatever you believe you become. It's based on the idea that we are what we think.

This book will teach you to do just what the title promises: how to read a book for all it is worth so that you come out the best you can be at the end.

Written in parables, this is a classic on thrift, financial planning and personal wealth. Everyone needs to read this book.

This is arguably the best personal development and wealth building book of all time. It belongs on everyone's bookshelf.

Of all the people that have lived outside of the Scriptures, George Müller is my hero of heroes.

One of my favorite books, As A Man Thinketh, is tiny but will remarkably stretch your mind.

I fell in love with this book when I first read it, and I've been reading it for years. I carry a copy in my case all the time.

I've been reading Think and Grow Rich for the past 50+ years. I don't go anywhere without it and I've been reading the same copy since the 60s.

I closed this book feeling that it was the first book in economics that spoke directly to me.

This is a landmark book in social thought, in the same league as The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith and The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud.

Transformed how I share online.

This has kind of changed the way that I approach thinking about money... shifts focus from endless saving to joyful spending.

Essential for ditching hustle culture. Profound.

Completely changed my relationship with money.

Mad, went mad over them... I fell in love with the first one. It's like fantasy fiction romance... 'Romantasy'.

A light hearted and funny read that would make you relaxed and not demand any sort of heavy attention or deep reading.

It's my favorite book in the whole world. I've read that book like four times and I don't mind reading it one more time.

Murakami is very psychedelic, it's very therapeutic. When you read a Murakami book it takes you days to get out of that plot.

So you've got to have a mindset of a general, a warrior, a strategist... That's what you'll learn from this book.

When you read this book, you will look at hypomanic, manic, ADHD, bipolar, in a completely different way. All of us have somebody like that in our family.

I set it aside and then 6 months later read the book. And I said, 'Wait a minute, it's one of the best books I've ever read in my life.' I've recommended it over and over and over again, and I've read it so many different times.

If you want to build products that are important, that users care about, this teaches you different tactics for learning about users, either through user studies or by interviews.

It's a bit dark but it does cover a lot of useful territory on what building an organization is like.

For B2B, I recommend “Crossing the Chasm.”

For B2C, one of my favorite books is “The Lean Startup,” which takes a narrower view but it gives one specific tactic for innovating quickly.

The first is “Zero to One” by Peter Thiel, a very good book that gives an overview of entrepreneurship and innovation.

Fukuyama's ideas are often caricatured, mischaracterized, and misunderstood, but his basic point here still holds.

I love big, sweeping history, and this account of the West's rise to global dominance is one of the best recent examples.

A brilliant mixture of political philosophy and sociology. The book explains why we embrace certain ideologies better than any other I've read.

Most 'idea books' are bloated essays; this one, from a Nobel Prize–winning economist, is worth reading all the way through.

A monumental achievement. Pinker, a Harvard psychology professor, draws on 5,000 years of historical evidence to explain in fascinating detail how violence has declined across human history.

What I loved most was the novel's deep understanding of adolescent depression and anxiety.

Wow this book really radically deepened my appreciation for and understanding of non-human animals.

The friendship between Sula and Nel transformed the way I thought about love and gender.

Stunning.

I am briefly attempting to become a booktokker just to tell you how much I love this book... This book made me feel that feeling more intensely than I've ever felt it before.

The book... stands as one of the foremost examples of compassion.

The world needs this book.

I've never felt so hopeful about what I don't know.

This is a book for these times... If a cheetah can be tamed, so can a woman.

My first quote-unquote psychology book... I remember reading it and thinking, 'I'm not alone!'

A prophetic warning about technology and human nature that feels eerily relevant today.

My favorite novel this year [2017].

Started reading Sohrab Ahmari's new book 'The Unbroken Thread' last night. Couldn't put it down, finished more than half in one sitting. Highly recommended.

There are maybe four or five things that kind of set me back on a path of reversion, and C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity was certainly one of them.

Run out there and get Poetic Diction... it's a great book... a theory of knowledge and a theory of language. I've been evangelical about recommending this book to people.

A powerful, evocative writer with a unique voice... It's a fucking brilliant chapter.

I gulped it down in a day or two, and have been waiting for the third one ever since.

He's bloody good, this Rothfuss guy... The Name of the Wind was an instant classic, an epic fantasy structured as an innkeeper telling his life story...

This is the original Game of Thrones. The Accursed Kings has it all. Iron kings and strangled queens, battles and betrayals, lies and lust, deception, family rivalries... and all of it straight from the pages of history.

I admire Tolkien greatly. His books had enormous influence on me... The battle of good and evil is a great subject for any book and certainly for a fantasy book.

There is a great book called Think and Grow Rich. The title is not Work Hard and Grow Rich.

If you want to know why the towers of American capitalism are crumbling, I recommend reading 'The Creature from Jekyll Island' by G. Edward Griffin.

I would like every one of my subscribers to click on to Amazon.com and buy a new book that has just been published entitled, 'The Dollar Crisis'... The book costs around twenty bucks and is worth ten times that amount.

One of the most moving books I have read in recent years. It investigates a father's suspended state of unexpected loss and grief with a gorgeously wry sense of humor. Captivating, poetic, and surprising.

I remember reading it on a train, and I had to pull my hoodie over my face because I was crying. It's a magnificent book... It stayed with me.

The book seemingly has little or no plot but the sheer towering beauty of its language, atmosphere and insight make it impossible to put down or to forget.

An absolutely stunning achievement and one of the most heartbreaking books I have ever read. Dark, fiercely funny, compassionate, and unashamedly Irish. Its depiction of a young boy's descent into isolation and madness in small town Ireland has never left me.

One of those books that you read as a young man and become intoxicated with, yet it is a book to be savored over the course of a life. It was written with great mischief and humor, but full of empathy for the outsider struggling to imagine a purpose in this world.

This masterwork identifies thirteen principles that every person should adopt if they are serious about achieving success.

I want you to get the book and really read it because I can't even tell you how much it helped me... This book along with my anniversary trip helped changed the whole way I think.

It is the most powerful book outside of the Bible that I have ever read in my life. The book is based on the law of attraction and how that principle once you master it can help you find wealth, happiness, better health, whatever you're looking for.

The first book I tell anybody to read is The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale. That's the beginning. You've got to fix this. The difference between successful people and non-successful people is this: it's what happens in between the ears.

The Magic of Thinking Big was huge for me. It just taught me one simple principle: it don't cost no more energy to think big than it does to think small.

Simply excellent. A must read. Why did I wait so many years before I read this?

This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how socialism inevitably leads to totalitarianism.

Are you a giver or a taker? In business, we often only give to get. But when you're generous with your money, time and talents, you'll help others succeed while you build character. You can't lose by helping others—you can only increase the winning.

Obstacles are no match for the Go-Getter. He does what it takes (short of theft) to finish a task most would have quit almost immediately. Perseverance is what separates the button-pushers from the go-getters.

Can your desk job serve a higher calling? Of course it can! Christians don't have to choose between the secular and the spiritual. Any talent can bring glory to God—whether it's in the church or in the marketplace. Treat all your work as holy.

I believe in this book so much that I require my team to read it when they start working on my team. Scott Alexander has discovered the REAL secret of success: becoming a rhinoceros. Read it and go rhino!

It inspired optimism... I realized a law degree allows diverse paths, encouraging me to stay open-minded about my future.

It reignited my creative writing aspirations... The vivid, dramatic audio version immersed my family, strengthening bonds through shared fascination.

This book offers concise, daily meditations organized by date, providing accessible wisdom and hope through life's challenges... I enthusiastically recommend gifting this book to express care and companionship for loved ones.

One of my favorite books is the International Bestseller, The Alchemist. It's one of the bestselling books of all time... The major takeaway from this book is a quote... 'When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.'

Seeing Like a State is a book I adore that taught me such a useful way of looking at the world and why schemes with the best of intentions fail because it doesn't work with peoples lived experience.

The book I wish every policymaker would read. This is one of the best policy books I've read. It's a book I hope future governments and current governments will absorb.

I love The Overstory. I loved it. I've never walked through a forest the same way again.

Few books have done more to change the way I think than Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows. This is a framework for thinking about how dominant ideologies disguise, protect, and conserve themselves.

To my mind, there have been two great American novels in the past fifty years. Catch-22 is one of them.

One of the most important horror novels of the 20th century.

It was the first book with hands—strong ones that reached out of the pages and seized me by the throat.

Read 1984. Read Brave New World. Go deeper. The regime hates an informed population. They hate that you guys know what's going on. Because if you know history, you know their next moves.

Anything by C.S. Lewis I recommend, but Mere Christianity especially. Probably the best-selling Christian book of the last 100 years.

One of the most important books that one can read... It talks about finding meaning in all circumstances regardless of how much depression or darkness that there is.

Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It's a superpower in our increasingly competitive economy.

Everything can be taken from a person but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember our rule of thumb: The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.

If someone is wanting to be pointed towards a book that will genuinely change their life, the first book I'd hand them is Meditations.

Recently I've really loved the books on the old Soviet chess championships... which I found really interesting.

I was actually reading a bit of 'The Silicon Road to Chess Improvement' by Sadler. I really enjoy Sadler's content in general.

Rowson wrote another book called Chess for Zebras... it's about thinking differently about black and white in chess... and that is something I find really interesting.

Well, you know at the center of it all is Slappy's Revenge, but I'm gonna go with Night of the Living Dummy and The Blob That Ate Everyone.

And then Isaac Asimov's 'I, Robot'.

I started reading all the science fiction books, by people like Ray Bradbury. I loved 'The Martian Chronicles.'

The first book I ever really enjoyed was science fiction for children, 'A Wrinkle In Time'. It was great.

I wrote the foreword for this book. Matthew is the king of fantasy sports and this book is a must for any fan.

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. I've actually read it. I'm fascinated by his legacy and his impact on the world.

The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin... I actually read it. It's a great book about the history of the Supreme Court.

The Search by John Battelle is a book about Google... This is one of the very few books I’ve read from cover to cover.

For me I recommend the E-Myth, altho it is catered to people who have started something.

This isn't philosophy—it's the pragmatic way to riches. I loved how Wallace talked about how becoming rich is a noble desire.

I included Think and Grow Rich in my top list of recommended books. I adopted the 'no negativity rule' into my home and office after reading it.

The Richest Man in Babylon gives some simple rules of money: 1) Start fattening your purse: save money. 2) Control your expenditures: don't spend more than you need. 3) Make your gold multiply: invest wisely.

This book is about why some people can produce so much through work and some cannot. If you can't produce, you can't create wealth. I have personally read this book four times.

This book answered ALL my questions but more importantly Dianetics showed me HOW TO PERMANENTLY GET RID OF all the unwanted thoughts, self-imposed barriers, destructive thinking, inhibitions, insecurities and limitations.

The best fantasy book of all time.

Arguably the most important dystopian fiction of our century.

I think is the best book of the last 10 years. That's been sort of impactful on some of the thoughts I've been having lately.

I recommend it to everybody sort of 15 and up. It's easier than say Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics... If you read this book and Basic Economics you'll know more than all of your classmates combined about the basic workings of free markets and economics.

The best finance book I've ever read.

One of the best selling books in history... it has shaped tens and tens and tens of millions of lives.

Reading The Slight Edge was a transformative experience... The book's concept — that small, consistent actions can lead to long-term success — [was] both inspiring and practical.

Profound and transformative impact... changed my perspective on how I viewed depression and addiction.

This book completely changed my life - from my romantic relationships to my relationship with myself. There's a reason it's sold millions of copies worldwide.

Astonishing book about an astonishing, terrifying atrocity, relived in real time by those who were there. I read it in one sitting & was utterly gripped from start to finish.

Fantastic book by one of my former Daily Mirror lieutenants David Leigh about a truly incredible story. Highly recommend.

One of the most important figures in Arsenal history has written a brilliant autobiography. We've never been the same since David Dein was shamefully driven out of the club. Great football man, and an even better guy. Highly recommend this book to anyone who loves Arsenal.

The book that changed my life... he's been for me one of the most pivotal people in my life.

The book that changed my life. Read this & you'll never moan about your life again, nor lose the spirit to fight adversity.

This book hit me so hard and got me so fired up it's untrue. It gave me a much-needed kick up the ass to become the best version of myself I possibly can be.

My most recommended book... honestly it should come with a warning label. I think I'm at 100% hit rate for this. Everyone I've told to read Red Rising has become addicted. This is a late-night killer.

One of the greatest books ever written on money... In my mind, that makes the book a modern-day classic and a must-read! ... If you're going to read three books in the world... [this is one of them].

If you're going to read three books in the world... [this is one of them]. Start here before reading any other personal development book. Essentialism forces you to strip away everything which is non-essential and gets you back on track focusing on the only things that genuinely matter.

I haven't highlighted or made as many notes in a book in a very long time as I did with this one. It's probably the best book I've read... I tell everybody that I speak to that if you're going to read three books in the world, Essentialism, The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, and The Psychology of Money... those are the three books that you need.

Thomas Sowell's great book... I think it's the most important work of the last 30 years.

It's one of the most important books of the last decade.

Amazing book.

This is an amazing book... [Desmet is] one of the true geniuses I've spoken to... This book has really changed my view on a lot.

It changed my life... The book made me want to drop everything... and take up journalism.

I started reading this book and it taught me that social media was where everything was going... The second thing the book taught me is documenting, not creating. Look at what you're doing every day; that is what you should be talking about.

It taught me that I didn't need to have a high income to be wealthy, I needed to have high net worth... It also taught me that you have to confront that fear [of losing money] and learn to be okay with it.

This book was so good because it taught me one fundamental principle: building a business and having success is not about how well you do with the circumstance or with others, but it starts with yourself. You can't manage yourself if you don't know yourself.

There are two things I really got from this book: our circumstances do not dictate how we feel about ourselves; our thoughts about our circumstances and the meaning we give them are what dictate the outcomes. Winners and losers have no different circumstances, they just have different meanings they ascribe to those circumstances.

There's two takeaways that I had from that book that have drastically changed and kind of altered and even built the philosophy of how I run my teams. The first piece is that you always want to be asking people questions... curiosity over judgment. The second takeaway is that encouragement is always going to work better than criticism.

Highly recommend reading @BarbaraCorcoran's book Shark Tales! It's great & she's a hoot!

A great read for any entrepreneur... an honest and captivating account of building a business.

I don’t get a lot of time to read lately, but I do have some favorite books: Angela’s Ashes, Glass Castles, Memoirs of a Geisha.

I don’t get a lot of time to read lately, but I do have some favorite books: Angela’s Ashes, Glass Castles, Memoirs of a Geisha.

I don’t get a lot of time to read lately, but I do have some favorite books: Angela’s Ashes, Glass Castles, Memoirs of a Geisha.

This is the only investment guide I have read that truly made sense. Bottom line is that you can take a little risk and get a little return, or you can take a lot of risk and get a lot of return.

The whole premise of the book was that if you could save up $1 million and live like a student, you could retire. But you would have to have the discipline of saving. I believed heavily in that book. It was a big motivator for me.

If given a choice between investing in someone who has read Rework or has an MBA, I'm investing in Rework every time. This is a must read for every entrepreneur.

It encouraged me to think as an individual, take risks to reach my goals, and responsibility for my successes and failures. I loved it. I don't know how many times I have read it, but it got to the point where I had to stop because I would get too fired up.

Essential reading if you want an idea of how a decentralized organization should operate.

Why organizational health trumps everything else in business. In the early days of Binance, we dedicated one offsite meeting to go through the exercises in this book.

You can't succeed in this world if you don't understand humans. This book gives unique and insightful insights into our history, how we got to where we are today, and why we behave the way we do.

More than 60 years have passed since this book was first published, but there are few books that better encapsulate the inner workings of economics than this one.

This short (only 60+ pages) but timeless book... aligns with a lot of my personal philosophy. It forms a fundamental view of the world and of what constitutes right and wrong.