over the last 5 years, i’ve read 348 books – that’s an average of 1.3 books per week.

of the 348 books i’ve read, below (categorized) are the most impactful. books i return to time and time again, and can recommend with full confidence:

business

• mastery
• deep work
• influence
• antifragile
• the hard thing about hard things
• zero to one
• crucial conversations

philosophy

• meditations
• total freedom (by krishnamurti)
• a guide to the good life
• things hidden since the foundations of the world

motivation / inspiration

• the war of art
• turning pro
• tuesdays with morrie
• the alchemist

evolutionary psychology

• the moral animal
• the red queen
• the selfish gene
• the mating mind
• the rational animal
• the adapted mind

other non-fiction

• losing the war (not a book, but an incredibly long piece of writing. probably my favorite piece of writing ever)
• cannery row
• godel, escher, bach (difficult, long but entirely worth the read)
• why nations fail
• the sovereign individual
• seeing like a state
• sapiens
• the last lion
• 33 strategies of war

sci-fi / fantasy

• ender’s game
• red rising (series – just incredible)
• wool (and the entire silo series)
• anathem
• cryptonomicon
• the entire “the name of the wind” series by patrick rothfuss
• seven eves

other fiction

• fight club
• jitterbug perfume
• the prince of tides (really anything by pat conroy)
• the entire noble house series
• atlas shrugged and fountainhead. if you have to read just one, make it atlas shrugged
• the lies of locke lamora (series)
• the rosie project
• the martian
• pillars of the earth
• fall of giants (book 1 in series by ken follet. the whole series is fantastic)
• a man called ove
• stories of your life and others
• ant farm (short story collection by simon rich)
• zorba the greek