New Book Recommendations for 2018
What are the books that the most successful people in the world want you to read? Here’s a list.
Recently, I have finished Timothy Ferriss’ most recent book, Tribe of Mentors.
In it, the most innovate leaders, thinkers, and entrepreneurs provide life lessons and advice to everyone who is willing to listen.
As I was reading it, I was finding myself underlining and taking pictures of everything I could. Among these pictures and highlights were my favorite book recommendations.
Here is a list of some of them that stood out to me, following a list of books that people were recommending.
Neil Gaiman
Listen in the Dictionary of Literary Biography as one of the top ten living postmodern writers. He is a prolific creator of prose, poetry, fiction, journalism, comics, song lyrics, and drama. Bestsellers include The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, The Graveyard book, Coraline, and others.
His commencement speech, “Make Good Art,” is mandatory listening for anyone who hopes to be creatively successful in the long haul.
Chris Anderson
Became the curator of the TED Conference in 2002 and has developed it into a global platform for disseminating ideas worth spreading. In 2006, TED began free distribution of its talks on the web and more than 2,500 talks are now available.
David Deutsch’s The Beginning of Infinity. It’s a remarkable argument for the power of knowledge- as not just a human capability but as a force that shapes the universe.
Steven Pinker: anything.
C. S. Lewis, the Narnia series. As a child, they exploded my imagination.
David Lynch
That Motel Weekend by James Donner
The Srimad Devi Bhagavatam, and
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka.
Neil Strauss
Eight-time New York Times best-selling author. His books, The Game and Rules of the Game, for which he went undercover, made him an international celebrity and an accidental hero to men around the world. In his follow-up book, The Truth: An Uncomfortable Book About Relationships, Strauss dives deep into the worlds of sex addiction, nonmonogamy, infidelity, and intimacy. Most recently coauthored with Kevin Hart the instant #1 New York Times bestseller I Can’t Make This Up: Life Lessons.
The book that’s most influenced me is James Joyce’s Ulysses. I read it in senior year high school, and it awakened me to the power and possibilities of language. It’s hypertext before hypertext existed. I reread it every three years, and each time it’s a different book.
The book I’ve given most as a gift is Under Saturn’s Shadow by James Hollis, a Jungian analyst.
Other Recommended Books Include:
Most often recommended BY FAR: Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl.
Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, explains more about life (including behavior and myself) than anything else I’ve read.
Linda Rottenberg, Crazy is a Compliment: The Power of Zigging When Everyone Else Zags.
The Scourge of the Swastika, by E. F. L. Russell (about the horrors of Auschwitz).
Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility by James P. Carse.
One True God: Historical Consequences of Monotheism by Rodney Stark.
The Idea of Decline in Western History by Arthur Herman.
The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker.
The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction is Not a Disease by Marc Lewis.
Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir.
From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds by Daniel D. Dennett.
Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Create Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder, by Ariana Huffington.
Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger by Peter Bevelin.
The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin.
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara.
Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.
The Baroque Cycle (Saga) by Neal Stephenson. It is way over the top in capturing the character of Newton and his contemporaries, and the science sometimes (intentionally) becomes magical but with the interwoven sex and violence, it is way too much fun to put down.
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. “These books are magical in how he creates a world out of nothing and characters so well srawn that you’ll think Joe takes trips to this magical place and interviews these people. on top of all that, Joe has a hilarious sense of humor.”
The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber. “If you read it, keep in mind it’s written by an Atheist.”
Also, expect a comprehensive review of the book.
I am also working on a blog post that is specifically directed towards College students, which I wish to publish by the end of the week.
If you wish to find some other book recommendations, I provide a list of books that I have read in 2017, including 5 books that stood above all the rest, here:
Before you go…
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keep reflecting.
