Books Worth Reading (or Listening To)

books.md

Books are ordered by author rather than my personal ratings. It's too hard to order these books by rating. The stand-out books are all terrific.

indicates a book that I added on the last round of edits, not necessarily a new release.

Stand-out Books

Title	Author	My Thoughts on this Book
How to Live on 24 Hours a Day	Arnold Bennett	Written in 1908, this is a classic gem that I have a hard time believing I'd never heard of sooner. Common sense, short, and worthwhile advice for making the most of a precious resource: time.
Tiny Habits The Small Changes That Change Everything	BJ Fogg	This is the revolutionary book on habit-forming in my opinion. It is far better than the others I've read, and I've read many. If you want to form habits, read this!
Atlas of the Heart Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience	Brené Brown	Definitions of emotions are not easy to distinguish in some cases. Do you know the difference between envy and jealousy? Learn this and much more from this book.
Loving What Is Four Questions That Can Change Your Life	Byron Katie	We pick up wrong lessons from our experience, and this is a way to challenge those lessons, unlearn them, and learn better ones.
Mindset The New Psychology of Success	Carol S. Dweck PhD	Don't fall victim to thinking any of your traits are fixed. We can all change almost everything, and many do through the correct perspective on their growth.
Good Energy The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health	Casey Means, Calley Means	Your body has around 37 trillion cells. It's no wonder that metabolism—the act of those cells turning food into energy—is so vital. Learn the details. You'll be better off for it.
How to Win Friends & Influence People	Dale Carnegie	This is a classic and deserves its spot here for its conveying of the basics of human interaction. This really is foundational reading on being a social creature.
Thinking, Fast and Slow	Daniel Kahneman	This is my favorite book. The intricacies of human thought are extremely interesting and well-defined here. We're quirky creatures, us humans. It behooves you to learn how.
Thinking in Systems a Primer	Donella H. Meadows	Complex systems are everywhere. Learn how to talk about them and how to see them where you never would have imagined before. Learn how to tweak a system to change its output, and how to build new systems.
The Choice Escaping the Past and Embracing the Possible	Dr. Edith Eva Eger	A holocaust survivor, Edith Eva Eger has an amazing story. Full of tragedy, yes, but full of inspiration and wisdom also. I think of Eger as the female counterpart of Viktor Frankl, not just in her holocaust story but in the eventual outcome.
The Discourses	Epictetus Loeb Classical Library	This work is a timeless classic of ethical brilliance. This is one of the few remaining ancient Stoic texts and is a collection of conversations that Epictetus had with his students and onlookers after class was over. The work of Epictetus has inspired many across the span of the millennia, including US Vice Admiral James Stockdale, captured as a prisoner of war, who attributes Epictetus to helping him get through the duration.
Resilience Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life	Eric Greitens	These letters written from one Navy SEAL to another are absolutely jam-packed with real, down-to-earth, applicable wisdom on how to be resilient and overcome.
Essentialism The Disciplined Pursuit of Less	Greg MacKeown	This book's title was not inspiring for me, but I heard it recommended very strongly and I was definitely glad that I read this. It is incredibly good at explaining how one should be paring down things to their most important core. Very well-written, it has inspired me to start spending a few minutes at the beginning of each day deciding what the one thing is that I want to do in my personal life and the one thing in my professional life.
The Art of Clear Thinking A Stealth Fighter Pilot's Timeless Rules for Making Tough Decisions	Hasard Lee	If you ever wanted to know how to make correct decisions as quickly as possible, this outlines many ways to do it.
The Book of Joy Lasting Happiness in a Changing World	His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, Douglas Carlton Abrams	A classic not just due to the authors, but also because it's a message that everyone needs to hear, especially today.
A Life of Meaning Exploring Our Deepest Questions and Motivations	James Hollis, PhD	Surviving is not enough. All the success in the world does not matter unless you get a sense of purpose from your life. This is at no time more obvious than when one approaches middle age.
Reclaim Your Mind Seven Strategies to Enjoy Tech Mindfully	Jay Vidyarthi	Well, this guy has written the book I feel I would love to have written about creating a healthy relationship with tech. The stance on technology use is refreshing, because he neither demonizes it nor glorifies it. The book has an easy exercise at the end of each chapter that is designed to point you to a new way to be mindful as it pertains to tech. This contains new ways of looking at tech use, moderate views toward tech, simple exercises, and clever ways of stating things.
The Happiness Hypothesis	Jonathan Haidt	I thought for sure this would be boring, but I learned more about happiness and how it can be thought of and attained than pretty much any other source.
12 Rules for Life an Antidote to Chaos	Jordan B. Peterson, Norman Doidge MD	Despite what you think of Peterson, this book is almost completely apolitical and full of great life advice that everyone should heed.
How Emotions are Made The Secret Life of the Brain	Lisa Feldman Barrett	There is no better resource for learning the mechanisms of emotion than this book. It will surprise you at some points, but delightfully so.
Revenge of the Tipping Point Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering	Malcolm Gladwell	Better than the original in my opinion, this book explores some hard problems society faces and particularly how Ivy League educational institutions purposefully control the races and ethnicities at their schools.
Tusculan Disputations	Marcus Tullius Cicero	This is my favorite work by Cicero, and follows dialogues from several days of discussions at a "retreat" of sorts where a hard question of philosophy is addressed on each day. The questions are good ones, and the answers have a Stoic flavor, although Cicero was not a Stoic on paper, but a friend of them.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life	Mark Manson	A somewhat sarcastic and funny approach to becoming happy with life. Refreshing in how it differs from the normal, saccharine self-help approach.
Nonviolent Communication Create Your Life, Your Relationships, and Your World in Harmony with Your Values	Marshall Rosenberg PhD	The title is somewhat misleading on this book. Figure out how to communicate your feelings to others and to yourself, and avoid the common pitfalls of miscommunication.
The Let Them Theory A Life-Changing Tool That Millions of People Can't Stop Talking About	Mel Robbins	I'm a bit embarrassed at how much I liked this because it seems like a total cheeseball book, but it's friggin' great! This book is basically an entire book about how to go about applying the dichotomy of control in one's life. She doesn't call it that by name, but that's definitely what it is. There are numerous areas of life that she explores as she spells out how the "Let Them Theory" works in each of the areas. She is witty and very relatable with a no-nonsense communication style that's down to earth and entertaining.
The Quark and the Jaguar Adventures in the Simple and the Complex	Murray Gell-Man	A discussion of the simple, fundamental things and also complex systems, so it's an interesting pairing from a physicist (and a world-renown one at that). It is a great run-through of the different major areas in which complex systems appear and what fundamental elements make up those systems, from physics to biology to economy and more. The writing is very good, and the books design and typesetting are quite nice, which is something I don't usually notice (at least not when it's a positive thing). It is perched right on the edge between being for laymen and being for academics. If it were any more technical then it would be hard to read, but somehow the mix is just right to cause me to think but not work too hard at it.
We Have Never Been Woke The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite	Musa al-Gharbi	This is probably the best sociology book I've read about modern times, explaining what motivates "the great awokenings" and lessons to be taken from all four of them, chief among them: we have never been woke.
Antifragile Things that Gain from Disorder	Nassim Nicholas Taleb	Some things are fragile. Some things are resilient and can withstand stress. Some things, however, are antifragile and benefit from stress. Humans are the most notable of examples.
The Antidote Happiness for People who Can't Stand Positive Thinking	Oliver Burkeman	Balancing optimism and pessimism is a tricky business, but can be done well. This does a good job of showing that.
Think Like a Rocket Scientist Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life	Ozan Varol	If you have a complicated problem, then thinking clearly about the problem and its solution is vital, and there are lots of strategies here that you can employ, as delivered by a real-life rocket scientist.
Outlive The Science and Art of Longevity	Peter Attia MD, Bill Gifford	The modern approach to medicine is to wait for symptoms and then fix the symptoms. What about prevention and early intervention? What about the root causes?
Inner Citadel	Pierre Hadot	There is a lot to this book. It is very information-rich and packed with insights about Stoic teachings, particularly those leading to Marcus Aurelius's views on things. The beginning and ending chapters are pretty boring, but the middle is full of great stuff.
What is Ancient Philosophy?	Pierre Hadot, Michael Chase (Translator)	There's apparently a reason that this guy is a legend among fans of ancient philosophy. This book focuses most of its attention on Greco-Roman philosophies, which is my bread and butter anyway, and he does it with quite a bit of eloquence and elegance. To summarize the major theme of the book: ancient philosophy is a way of life as well as a form of discourse to discuss that way of life. If you do not have both of those things, then you do not have ancient philosophy.
Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order Why Nations Succeed or Fail	Ray Dalio	Many people have espoused apocalyptic scenarios for as long as scenarios have existed I think, but very few have as analytical and thorough an approach as Dalio has here. He looks at what he calls "big cycles" where world orders come into power, stay there for some time, lose their grip, then are replaced by new world orders. None of this is any fun for the people involved, particularly those on their way out. Dalio brings a lot of historical knowledge to the table in this book, and that alone is fascinating, but he also has a personal familiarity with China. I didn't expect to be as captivated by this as I was.
Behave The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst	Robert M. Sapolsky	An objective and sometimes-surprising view of human behavior, where it comes from, and how we should perceive it.
Making Sense Conversations on Consciousness, Morality, and the Future of Humanity	Sam Harris	This can get a little anti-religious at times, but I think that there is a ton of wisdom about consciousness here from a less ethereal perspective that starts to bring the conversation about consciousness closer to the ground.
Careless People A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism	Sarah Wynn-Williams	The story from inside Facebook, and damn is it ever a juicy one. I imagine that the publisher had to lawyer up the author to extreme levels, because this is epic (not a literal epic). The book is outrageous in the proper sense of the word, likely sparking outrage in the people that read it, like it has with me. I do not know if this will cause (or has already started) a firestorm, but I can imagine it would.
Ultralearning Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career	Scott H. Young	This has a ton of practical tips for really learning a subject in-depth and in a serious, dedicated fashion.
Moral Essays	Seneca the Younger Loeb Classical Library	These essays come in three volumes. Some essays were more impactful upon me than others, but all of them deserve to be read. The writings of Seneca have been an inspiration for many and it's easy to see why. Making smarter ethical decisions and having the proper perspectives is all the more likely after reading these.
The Lost Art of Running A Journey to Rediscover the Forgotten Essence of Human Movement	Shane Benzie, Tim Major	You likely have been running wrong. No, seriously. Even if you run every day, if you haven't consciously considered your running form, it may be time to do so for your own health and wellbeing.
The Infinite Game	Simon Sinek	The book focuses on organizations/businesses, because that's where Sinek's wheelhouse lies, but the implications of this line of thinking—that some games go on forever and aren't meant to be won by reaching a target—carries into a bunch of different areas of life. The book spawned quite a bit of thought that eventually came out in some of my writings, which is a sign that it's a pretty impactful read. I continue to think of this dynamic between goal-focused orientation versus truly integrating a pursuit into the rest of my life until I die.
The Art of Impossible A Peak Performance Primer	Steven Kotler	FLOW, baby! This book has even more information on how to set the proper conditions for its attainment than the seminal book by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Flow).
Buddha, Socrates, and Us Ethical Living in Uncertain Times	Steven Batchelor	Batchelor is controversial among authors of Buddhism material, because he very secular in that he doesn't subscribe to the metaphysical doctrine, and he is very heavy on the ethics. I appreciated his unique perspective on the ethics of Buddhism, particularly how what he calls "the four tasks" were changed into "the Four Noble Truths" by followers that came after Gotama was gone and turned it into a set of dogmatic doctrine, thereby changing Gotama's advice about four ways to act into four ways things are. Also outlined is a lot about Socrates and how Gotama and Socrates were surprisingly similar. The largest similarity between them was probably their embracing of uncertainty, then there was also their hesitancy to declare anything about the way things were and their focus more on how to act—they showed everyone how to be in the world instead of simply giving them truths about conditions. There is also a detailed outline of the four tasks and the Eightfold Path interpreted through the lens of the tasks, split between four contemplative and four active/ethical points. I found this very interesting and different, and it gave me a lot to think about!
How the Mind Works	Steven Pinker	The most comprehensive (at the time of writing) look at the brain that I have yet encountered while still being written in plain language.
Quiet The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking	Susan Cain	Shy people are not necessarily introverts. Introverts are not necessarily shy. Introverts can be outgoing just as extraverts can be shy. Learn more about introversion than you ever thought was knowable.
The Staff Engineer's Path A Guide for Individual Contributors Navigating Growth and Change	Tanya Reilly	Not for a general audience, but this is a fantastic book for anyone who is considering taking the individual contributor track after senior-level engineering (as opposed to the management track). I found this book to be both spot-on with what I already know and full of great pro tips (in the very real sense). There is no bullshit in here and it is sprinkled with some humor here and there that will make any engineer chuckle a little.
Meaning in Life	Thaddeus Metz	This is the first modern academic philosophy book that makes it to my five-star book list. My own search for meaning in life has brought about a lot of questions, some of which I'd thought of and some of which I hadn't thought of. This book does a fabulous job of outlining what the existing theories are and the problems with it, as well as the author's own theory. All of it is explained in language that's pretty easy for an educated layman like me to understand. I think this book gave me some new ways to see meaning in life and nuances about it.
What's Our Problem? A Self-Help Book for Societies	Tim Urban	A much-needed look at what's wrong with society. It sounds like a horrible read described this way, but the popular author of the blog Wait, but Why?, Tim Urban is a fantastic writer that exudes clarity and sensibility in his words and illustrations.
Man's Search for Meaning	Viktor E. Frankl	A book on meaning like no other because of the author's history in a Nazi concentration camp, how he survived it by gleaning meaning from his life, and became a highly-influential psychologist thereafter.
The Practicing Stoic	Ward Farnsworth	Probably the best primer on the Stoic philosophy that I've yet found. It does a great job of distilling the views of my chosen philosophy.
Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind	Yuval Noah Harari	It is really a brief history of humankind despite being a longer book. It explains things quite well with a through-line you can follow through the whole thing.

Very Good Books

Title	Author
Aspiration The Agency of Becoming	Agnes Callard
Open Socrates The Case for a Philosophical Life	Agnes Callard
Attached The New Science of Adult Attachment and How it Can Help You Find—and Keep—Love	Amir Levine, Rachel Heller
Grit The Power of Passion and Perseverance	Angela Duckworth
Being You a New Science of Consciousness	Anil Seth
Tiny Experiments How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World	Anne-Laure le Cunff
Longpath Becoming the Great Ancestors Our Future Needs – An Antidote for Short-Termism	Ari Wallach
The Body Keeps the Score Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma	Bessel van der Kolk, MD
The Body a Guide for Occupants	Bill Bryson
5 Types of People Who Can Ruin Your Life Identifying and Dealing with Narcissists, Sociopaths, and Other High-Conflict Personalities	Bill Eddy
The Power of Vulnerability Teachings of Authenticity, Connections and Courage	Brené Brown
101 Essays that will Change the Way You Think	Brianna Wiest
The Mountain is You Transforming Self-Sabotage into Self-Mastery	Brianna Wiest
Deep Work Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World	Cal Newport
Supercommunicators How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection	Charles Duhigg
Breaking the Social Media Prism How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing	Christopher A. Bail
The Invisible Gorilla and Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us	Christopher Chabris, Daniel Simons
The Mind Illuminated a Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science	Culadasa John Yates PhD, Matthew Immergut PhD, Jeremy Graves
The Honest Truth About Dishonesty How We Lie to Everyone—Especially Ourselves	Dan Ariely
Altered Traits Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body	Daniel Goleman, Richard Davidson
Emotional Intelligence Why it Can Matter More than IQ	Daniel Goleman
When the Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing	Daniel H. Pink
The Molecule of More How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity - And Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race	Daniel Z. Lieberman MD, Michael E. Long
How to Know a Person	David Brooks
The Road to Character	David Brooks
Range Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World	David Epstein
Your Brain at Work Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long	David Rock
How to Think Like a Roman Emperor The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius	Donald J. Robertson
How to Think Like Socrates Ancient Philosophy as a Way of Life in the Modern World	Donald J. Robertson
Difficult Conversations How to Discuss What Matters Most	Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen
Dopamine Nation Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence	Dr. Anna Lembke
Trying Not to Try The Art and Science of Spontaneity	Edward Slingerland
The Art of Loving	Erich Fromm
To Have or to Be The Nature of the Psyche	Erich Fromm
Ben & Me In Search of a Founder's Formula for a Long and Useful Life	Eric Weiner
Chatter The Voice in our Head, Why it Matters, and How to Harness It	Ethan Kross
Abundance	Ezra Klein, Derek Thompson
The Phoenix Project A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win	Gene Kim, George Spafford, Kevin Behr
Gut The Inside Story of our Body's Most Underrated Organ	Giulia Enders
The Canceling of the American Mind Cancel Culture Undermines Trust, Destroys Institutions, and Threatens Us All—but There Is a Solution	Greg Lukianoff, Rikki Schlott
On Bullshit	Harry G. Frankfurt
The Reasons of Love	Harry G. Frankfurt
Original Love The Four Inns on the Path of Awakening	Henry Shukman
Atomic Habits An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones	James Clear
Prisms Reflections on this Journey we Call Life	James Hollis, PhD
Why Good People Do Bad Things Understanding Our Darker Selves	James Hollis, PhD
A Practical Guide to Breathwork a Remedy for the Modern Human Condition	Jesse Coomer
Rejection Proof How I Beat Fear and Became Invicible Through 100 Days of Rejection	Jia Jiang
Whole Brain Living The Anatomy of Choice and the Four Characters That Drive Our Life	Jill Bolte Taylor
Extreme Ownership How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win	Jocko Willink, Leif Babin
The Eureka Factor Aha Moments, Creative Insight, and the Brain	John Kunios, Mark Beeman
Awakening from the Meaning Crisis Part 1: Origins	John Vervaeke
The Anxious Generation How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness	Jonathan Haidt
The Righteous Mind Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion	Jonathan Haidt
Beyond Order 12 More Rules for Life	Jordan B. Peterson
The Great Transformation The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions	Karen Armstrong
Radical Candor Be a Kick-Ass Boss without Losing Your Humanity	Kim Scott
Self-Compassion The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself	Kristin Neff
Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain	Lisa Feldman Barrett
Complexity The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos	M. Mitchell Waldrop
David and Goliath Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants	Malcolm Gladwell
On Duties (De Officiis)	Marcus Tullius Cicero
On Ends	Marcus Tullius Cicero
Beyond Anxiety Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life's Purpose	Martha Beck
A Handbook for New Stoics How to Thrive in a World Out of Your Control; 52 Week-by-Week Lessons	Massimo Pigliucci, Gregory Lopez
Think Faster, Talk Smarter How to Speak Successfully When You're Put on the Spot	Matt Abrahams
Why We Sleep Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams	Matthew Walker
Scarcity Brain Fix Your Craving Mindset and Rewire Your Habits to Thrive with Enough	Michael Easter
The Comfort Crisis Embrace Discomfort To Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self	Michael Easter
This is Your Mind on Plants	Michael Pollan
The Bed of Procrustes Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms	Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Amusing Ourselves to Death Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business	Neil Postman
Superbloom How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart	Nicholas Carr
Stop Overthinking 23 Techniques to Relieve Stress, Stop Negative Spirals, Declutter Your Mind, and Focus on the Present	Nick Trenton
Meditations for Mortals Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts	Oliver Burkeman
The Charisma Myth How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism	Olivia Fox Cabane
Agentic Artificial Intelligence Harnessing AI Agents to Reinvent Business, Work and Life	Pascal Bornet, Jochen Wirtz, Thomas H. Davenport, David De Cremer, Brian Evergreen, Phil Fersht, Rakesh Gohel, Shail Khiyara, Nandan Mullakara, Pooja Sund
Psych The Story of the Human Mind	Paul Bloom
The Fifth Discipline The Art and Practice of The Learning Organization	Peter Senge
Becoming Nobody The Essential Ram Dass Collection	Ram Dass
Nudge Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness	Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein
Good Strategy/Bad Strategy The Difference and Why It Matters	Richard Rumelt
Exhale 40 Breathwork Exercises to Help You Find Your Calm, Supercharge Your Health, and Perform at Your Best	Richie Bostock
Hardwiring Happiness The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence	Rick Hanson
The Evolving Self Problem and Process in Human Development	Robert Kegan
Determined A Science of Life Without Free Will	Robert M. Sapolsky
Peak Secrets from the New Science of Expertise	Robert Pool, Anders Ericsson
The Happiness Trap How to Stop Struggling and Start Living	Russ Harris
Humankind A Hopeful History	Rutger Bregman
Moral Ambition Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference	Rutger Bregman
The Power of Character Strengths Appreciate and Ignite Your Positive Personality	Ryan M. Niemiec, Robert E. McGrath
Waking Up A Guide to Spirituality without Religion	Sam Harris
Start with Why How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action	Simon Sinek
Do Hard Things Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Suprising Science of Real Toughness	Steve Magness
Meaning in Life and Why it Matters	Susan R. Wolf
Insight Why We're Not as Self-Aware as We Think, and How Seeing Ourselves Clearly Helps Us Succeed at Work and in Life	Tasha Eurich
The Art of Living Peace and Freedom in the Here and Now	Thích Nhất Hạnh
Redirect The Surprising New Science of Psychological Chang	Timothy D. Wilson
Outrage Machine How Tech Amplifies Discontent, Disrupts Democracy—and What We Can Do About It	Tobias Rose-Stockwell
Stoicism for Dummies	Tom Morris PhD, Gregory Bassham PhD
Money: Master the Game 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom	Tony Robbins (only thing of his worth reading imo)
Leonardo da Vinci	Walter Isaacson
The Socratic Method A Practitioner's Handbook	Ward Farnsworth
A Guide to the Good Life The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy	William B. Irvine
Alcohol Explained	William Porter
The Social Paradox Autonomy, Connection, and Why We Need Both to Find Happiness	William Von Hippel
The Wim Hof Method Activate Your Full Human Potential	Wim Hof, Elissa Epel PhD
Homo Deus A Brief History of Tomorrow	Yuval Noah Harari
Nexus A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI	Yuval Noah Harari