Reading List

My full reading list. Most of these I haven't read yet. The one-liners under each title reflect the book's established critical reception — what reviewers and readers say the book is about and why it matters — not my take. I'll add my own notes as I actually get through them.

Jump to: Philosophy & Wisdom · Mindset & Psychology · Business & Entrepreneurship · Marketing & Sales · Finance & Investing · Strategy & Systems · Power & Influence · Leadership & Culture · Biographies & Stories · Links and essays

Philosophy & Wisdom

Meditations — Marcus Aurelius · Read The Roman emperor's private journal. Treated as the foundational stoic text — notes to self from a man trying to stay sane and decent under pressure.
The Book of Five Rings — Miyamoto Musashi · On the shelf Seventeenth-century treatise on strategy by Japan's most famous swordsman. Read today as a compact manual on discipline, timing, and beating opponents on their own terms.
Complete Musashi — Alexander Bennett (translator) · On the shelf Modern scholarly translation of Five Rings alongside Musashi's other writings. Reviewers praise it for restoring context Victorian translations flattened.
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant — Eric Jorgenson · On the shelf A free, crowd-compiled distillation of Naval's tweets and podcasts on wealth and happiness. Widely treated as the Silicon Valley founder's stoicism handbook.

Mindset & Psychology

Atomic Habits — James Clear · On the shelf The dominant pop-science book on behaviour change. Reviewers consistently cite its four-step loop as the most practical framework of the last decade.
Deep Work — Cal Newport · On the shelf Argument that focused, distraction-free work is becoming both rarer and more valuable. Taken as a canonical counter-text to always-on culture.
Essentialism — Greg McKeown · On the shelf The case for doing less, better. Critics describe it as productivity advice for people who suspect "productivity advice" is the problem.
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience — Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi · On the shelf The seminal study of "flow" — the state where challenge and skill align. Cited in almost every modern book on performance, creativity, and engagement.
Thinking in Bets — Annie Duke · On the shelf Former poker pro on decision-making under uncertainty. Reviewers highlight the core idea: separate the quality of a decision from its outcome.
Mastery — Robert Greene · On the shelf Studies of historical masters — Da Vinci, Darwin, Coltrane — as a roadmap for deliberate skill-building over decades. Treated as a more patient counter to "hustle" literature.
Can't Hurt Me — David Goggins · On the shelf Part memoir, part mental-toughness manual from a Navy SEAL. Polarising — some call it the best self-discipline book in years, others find it punishing. Few call it boring.
Indistractable — Nir Eyal · On the shelf A systematic framework for managing attention in a world engineered to steal it. Read as the mature follow-up to Hooked — from the same author, now critiquing the trap he helped design.
Misbehaving — Richard Thaler · On the shelf The Nobel laureate's personal history of behavioural economics. Reviewers praise it for making a dense academic field feel like a detective story.
Talent is Overrated — Geoff Colvin · On the shelf A popular summary of the "deliberate practice" research. The book that mainstreamed Anders Ericsson's ideas before Gladwell's Outliers did.
The 4-Hour Work Week — Tim Ferriss · On the shelf The original "escape the 9–5" manifesto. Dated in specifics but credited with seeding most of today's indie-hacker and location-independent movement.
Think and Grow Rich — Napoleon Hill · On the shelf The 1937 self-help ur-text. Critics call it foundational for the genre and simultaneously warn it's a mythologized study of Gilded Age tycoons, not a proven system.
The Secret — Rhonda Byrne · On the shelf The 2006 mega-bestseller on the "law of attraction." Reviewers are split: its influence on pop self-help is massive; the underlying science is not.

Business & Entrepreneurship

Zero to One — Peter Thiel · On the shelf Thiel's contrarian playbook for building monopoly businesses. Widely considered essential reading for founders, even by critics who reject the politics.
The Lean Startup — Eric Ries · On the shelf The book that codified "build-measure-learn" and MVPs. Credited with shaping a decade of startup vocabulary; criticized for being over-applied to problems it doesn't fit.
The Startup Owner's Manual — Steve Blank & Bob Dorf · On the shelf Blank's dense, step-by-step customer-development textbook. Read less like a book and more like a reference manual — YC-era founders cite it as the definitive process guide.
Personal MBA — Josh Kaufman · On the shelf A survey of the core business disciplines — finance, marketing, operations, strategy — at undergrad depth. Treated as a cheaper substitute for an actual MBA.
Company of One — Paul Jarvis · On the shelf The case for staying deliberately small. Critics call it the most articulate argument against the "growth at all costs" default for independent operators.
Platform Revolution — Parker, Van Alstyne & Choudary · On the shelf Academic-leaning book on how multi-sided platforms (Uber, Airbnb, Visa) actually work. Frequently cited as the clearest framework for platform vs. pipeline businesses.
Your Next Five Moves — Patrick Bet-David · On the shelf A chess-inspired strategy book aimed at operators running medium-sized businesses. Reviewers flag it as practical over theoretical — useful, occasionally self-promotional.
Ready, Fire, Aim — Michael Masterson · On the shelf Framework for moving companies from zero to $100M across four stages. Treated as a realistic sequel to The Lean Startup for founders past product-market fit.
The Lean Marketplace — Juho Makkonen & Cristóbal Gracia · On the shelf The practitioners' guide to building two-sided marketplaces, from the team behind Sharetribe. Narrow audience, but considered the best book specifically on marketplace liquidity.
The Art of Profitability — Adrian Slywotzky · On the shelf Twenty-three distinct business models explained through a Socratic mentor-student dialogue. Strategy consultants often cite it as the most efficient primer on how companies actually make money.
7 Powers — Hamilton Helmer · On the shelf A rigorous framework for the seven sources of enduring competitive advantage. Taught inside most serious VC firms; treated as the modern successor to Porter's Five Forces.
Catalyst Code — David Evans & Richard Schmalensee · On the shelf Earlier academic work on "catalyst" (two-sided) businesses. Dense but foundational — heavily cited by later platform literature.
Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0 — Jim Collins & Bill Lazier · On the shelf Updated edition of Collins's early-stage management classic. Reviewers call it the bridge between scrappy startup and the Good to Great canon.

Marketing & Sales

This is Marketing — Seth Godin · On the shelf Godin's summary of his own thirty-year argument: marketing is about change, permission, and the smallest viable audience. Considered his most condensed, practitioner-friendly book.
Confessions of an Advertising Man — David Ogilvy · On the shelf The 1963 inside account from the founder of Ogilvy & Mather. Still cited as the clearest articulation of what makes advertising actually work — opinionated, funny, brutally specific.
Hooked — Nir Eyal · On the shelf The "Hook Model" of habit-forming products. Widely taught in product design; also widely debated for the ethical questions it raises (which Eyal later tackled in Indistractable).
Expert Secrets — Russell Brunson · On the shelf Playbook for building a following and a high-ticket info-product business. Polarising: many credit it with their funnel mental model; others find the style aggressive.
Fanatical Prospecting — Jeb Blount · On the shelf The outbound-sales bible. Consistently recommended as the most direct, unsentimental book on the actual mechanics of prospecting.
The Sales Acceleration Formula — Mark Roberge · On the shelf How HubSpot scaled its sales org from zero to $100M — hiring formula, onboarding, metrics. Cited inside most SaaS sales orgs as the definitive playbook.
Predictable Revenue — Aaron Ross & Marylou Tyler · On the shelf The book that introduced the SDR model and "cold calling 2.0" — credited with shaping how B2B SaaS sales teams are structured today.

Finance & Investing

The Intelligent Investor — Benjamin Graham · On the shelf Buffett famously calls it "by far the best book on investing ever written." The foundational text on value investing and "Mr. Market."
Poor Charlie's Almanack — Charlie Munger (ed. Peter Kaufman) · On the shelf Collection of Munger's speeches and "mental models." Treated as the more practical companion to Graham — wisdom delivered in Munger's blunt, polymathic voice.
The Tao of Charlie Munger — David Clark (ed.) · On the shelf A pocket edition of Munger quotes with brief commentary. Reviewers frame it as the entry-level Munger before committing to the Almanack.
The Psychology of Money — Morgan Housel · Read Short essays on how people actually behave around money. The modern breakout book on the behavioural side of finance — praised for being specific, humble, and short.
Richer, Wiser, Happier — William Green · On the shelf Lessons drawn from interviewing elite investors (Miller, Greenblatt, Marks, etc.). Reviewers highlight how much of it is about temperament, not stock picking.
Devil Take the Hindmost — Edward Chancellor · On the shelf A history of financial speculation from tulips to the 1990s. Frequently cited by investors as the single best book on how bubbles actually form.
Basic Economics — Thomas Sowell · On the shelf A non-mathematical textbook on how prices and incentives move resources. Politically charged, but consistently praised for plain-English explanations of core economic mechanics.
Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order — Ray Dalio · On the shelf Bridgewater founder's macro-historical study of rising and falling empires. Reception is mixed — sweeping and thought-provoking to some, oversimplified to others.
The Millionaire Fastlane — MJ DeMarco · On the shelf A polemic against "save-your-way-to-retirement" orthodoxy, arguing that business ownership is the only real accelerator. Loved by the indie-founder crowd; dismissed by traditional financial advisors.
Rich Dad Poor Dad — Robert Kiyosaki · On the shelf The famously controversial personal-finance bestseller. Treated by many as the gateway book to thinking about assets vs. liabilities — while also one of the most fact-checked books in the genre.
The Richest Man in Babylon — George S. Clason · On the shelf Century-old parables teaching the basics of saving, debt, and compounding. Still recommended as the gentlest first personal-finance book.
Your Money or Your Life — Vicki Robin & Joe Dominguez · On the shelf The philosophical backbone of the FIRE movement. Reviewers praise it for reframing money as "life energy" — spending it is trading time.
Money: Master the Game — Tony Robbins · On the shelf Long, interview-heavy personal-finance book drawing on Dalio, Bogle, and others. Praised for the source material, criticized for its length and Robbins-style framing.
Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits — Greg Crabtree · On the shelf Cash-flow and labor-efficiency framework for owner-operated businesses doing $1M–$50M. Small-business CFOs and bookkeepers cite it as the most practical book on the topic.
Financial Intelligence for Entrepreneurs — Karen Berman & Joe Knight · On the shelf A finance-for-non-finance-people walkthrough of balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow. Widely adopted as corporate-training material.
Accounting Made Simple — Mike Piper · On the shelf Under 100 pages, covering the actual basics of double-entry accounting. Reviewers consistently praise its no-fluff density.
Misbehaving — Richard Thaler · (also listed under Mindset) · On the shelf Nobel laureate's personal history of behavioural economics — why real humans don't behave like the rational agents of textbook finance.

Strategy & Systems

Good Strategy Bad Strategy — Richard Rumelt · On the shelf The definitive book on what strategy actually is — and isn't. Widely taught in MBA programs; known for mercilessly exposing "fluff strategy" dressed up in corporate language.
Thinking in Systems — Donella Meadows · On the shelf Short, clear primer on systems thinking from one of its pioneers. Reviewers describe it as the book that makes leverage points, feedback loops, and unintended consequences click.
The Great Mental Models Vol 1 — Shane Parrish · On the shelf Farnam Street's curated collection of reasoning tools (first principles, inversion, second-order effects). Treated as the modern, illustrated update of Munger's mental-models catalog.

Power & Influence

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion — Robert Cialdini · On the shelf The six principles (reciprocity, commitment, social proof, authority, liking, scarcity). Probably the most cited book on persuasion in the last forty years.
Pre-Suasion — Robert Cialdini · On the shelf The follow-up to Influence: how the moment before the message determines whether it lands. Reviewers call it a worthy sequel, though narrower in scope.
The 48 Laws of Power — Robert Greene · On the shelf Case studies from history distilled into hard-edged rules for navigating power games. Divisive — admired for its clarity on how power actually behaves, criticized for moral neutrality.
How to Win Friends and Influence People — Dale Carnegie · On the shelf The 1936 interpersonal-influence classic. Still the most-recommended book on basic social skills; critics note much of modern social advice is Carnegie rediscovered.
Never Split the Difference — Chris Voss · On the shelf Ex-FBI hostage negotiator's playbook for high-stakes negotiation. Widely considered the most actionable negotiation book since Getting to Yes — and a direct challenge to it.
Getting to Yes — Roger Fisher & William Ury · On the shelf The Harvard Negotiation Project's foundational text on "principled negotiation." The book Voss is reacting against — still required reading in most MBA negotiation courses.

Leadership & Culture

Leadership and Self-Deception — The Arbinger Institute · On the shelf Parable-style book on how leaders self-sabotage by treating people as objects. Polarising format, but frequently cited as transformative by readers who stick with it.
Wooden on Leadership — John Wooden · On the shelf The legendary UCLA basketball coach's "Pyramid of Success" and how he built a dynasty. Treated as a sports-origin classic with broader leadership application.
The Motive — Patrick Lencioni · On the shelf Short fable arguing most bad leadership stems from being a leader for the wrong reasons. Reviewers call it Lencioni's sharpest single idea, delivered fast.
Maverick!: The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace — Ricardo Semler · On the shelf How Semler turned a Brazilian manufacturer into a radically democratic company. Still the go-to case study for self-management and workplace democracy.

Biographies & Stories

Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller — Ron Chernow · On the shelf Chernow's sweeping biography of America's first billionaire. Widely cited as the definitive Rockefeller portrait — equally rigorous on ruthlessness and philanthropy.
Leonardo Da Vinci — Walter Isaacson · On the shelf Isaacson's best-received biography, drawing on Leonardo's own 7,200 notebook pages. Reviewers praise how it makes his range — art, anatomy, engineering — feel like one coherent mind.
Elon Musk — Walter Isaacson · On the shelf The authorized Musk biography with extensive personal access. Reception is sharply split on whether the access produced insight or excuses.
Napoleon: A Life — Andrew Roberts · On the shelf A one-volume, ~800-page modern biography with access to Napoleon's correspondence. Commonly ranked the best single-volume Napoleon biography in English.
The Everything Store — Brad Stone · On the shelf The unauthorized history of Amazon and Bezos up to roughly 2013. Held up as one of the best business narratives of the last decade — Bezos's wife famously gave it a one-star Amazon review.
Then We Came to the End — Joshua Ferris · On the shelf A novel about a Chicago ad agency during the dot-com bust, told entirely in the first-person plural. National Book Award finalist; reviewers note it captures office life more truthfully than most non-fiction.
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 — Cho Nam-Joo · On the shelf A short Korean novel tracing one woman's life through everyday sexism. Became a cultural flashpoint in Korea; widely translated and critically acclaimed internationally.

Links and essays

Paul Graham essays — all of them, especially Do Things That Don't Scale and How to Get Startup Ideas. Free, timeless, worth reading in one sitting.

Andrej Karpathy on agents and memory — the clearest thinking I've found on AI agent architecture.

Patrick McKenzie (patio11) — writes about software, business, and Japan. Salary Negotiation and Don't Call Yourself a Programmer are the obvious ones, but everything is good.

Currently reading

Meditations — Marcus Aurelius. Starting from the top of the list.