People often ask me for book recommendations.
I read every day, but, I haven’t done a good job keeping track of the books I’ve read.
I’ve written or co-written a few books too, including:
Here are some of the books I’ve read since 2015 (I read lots of fiction too – especially science fiction – but am not including fiction on this list).
I’ll gradually add to the list of books I’ve read (most recent books are at the top of the list).
- White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism (people have a tough time talking about racism – this book examines how people’s reactions influence conversations about race and further entrench racial inequality).
- Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life (great book on the psychology of advertising and marketing)
- Post Corona: From Crisis to Opportunity (an interesting look at who will win and who will lose in a post-corona world)
- Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor (an eye-opening book that helps unpack racial biases)
- Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis (a look at why some nations recover from trauma while others fail)
- Scale: The Universal Laws of Life, Growth, and Death in Organisms, Cities, and Companies (a look at scientific laws that power society, the economy, companies, and cities)
- The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History (a powerful account of mass extinction and the future)
- No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention (terrific look at the unorthodox culture at Netflix)
- What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture (lessons from history and modern business to help companies build a strong culture)
- Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior (explores the subtle influences that affect peoples’ decisions)
- Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World (how to decide how much is just enough when it comes to technology)
- Your Brain is a Time Machine: The Neuroscience and Physics of Time (an exploration of how time works inside the brain)
- American Nationa
- The Algebra of Happiness: Notes on the Pursuit of Success, Love, and Meaning (wisdom and life advice from Professor Scott Galloway)
- Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World (a look at abuses of power by the global elite)
- Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life (the world is complicated and those who maintain focus put themselves in a better position to succeed)
- The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War (terrific espionage story)
- Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason (a look at irrationality)
- Humo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (a look at our possible future)
- Behind the Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went from Idea to Billion-Dollar Company – and Revolutionized an Industry (lots of insights in this book from Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff)
- Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike (a phenomenal book about Nike’s early days and its evolution into a global brand)
- The Gene: An Intimate History (what makes us tick)
- The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming (a close look at climate change and how it will alter our future)
- From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds (part of my continued quest to understand the mind)
- Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology (how quantum physics reshapes our understanding of life)
- Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (the most challenging book I’ve ever read – about ideas at the center of cognitive science)
- Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results (a framework for improving yourself every day)
- Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind (how to position your brand for success)
- It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work (a contrarian view of what it takes to succeed in business)
- Lifespan: Why We Age – and Why We Don’t Have to (almost everything we think about aging may be wrong)
- Turn the Ship Around: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders (by far, the best book I’ve ever read on leadership).
- Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility (how to build great teams)
- The Messy Middle: Finding Your Way Through the Hardest and Most Crucial Part of Any Bold Venture (a terrific startup book)
- Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams (a seminal book about the importance of sleep)
- Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage (great story about Shackleton’s 1914 attempt to reach the South Pole – terrific adventure and great insights on leadership)
- But What if We’re Wrong: Thinking About the Present As If It Were The Past (what if our assumptions and beliefs about the world are wrong?)
- God: A Human History (explores the history of our understanding of God)
- The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google (how four of the most successful companies in the world became successful)
- BadMen: How Advertising Went From a Minor Annoyance to a Major Menace (a good look at the core problems with marketing and advertising today)
- The Spider Network: How a Math Genius and a Gang of Scheming Bankers Pulled Off One of the Greatest Scams in History (a great story about one of the greatest financial scandals of all time)
- Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street (looks at the deep problems in our financial system)
- Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice (a terrific story of corruption, murder, and high finance in Putin’s Russia)
- Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley (about the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal and the inner workings of the tech world)
- The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future (how technology will transform our lives in the next 30 years)
- Creative Selection: Inside Apple’s Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs (a terrific insider’s account of Apple’s creative process)
- Winning with Data: Transform Your Culture, Empower Your People, and Shape the Future (explores the cultural changes introduced to businesses by big data)
- That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea (lots of insights in this look at how Netflix beat the odds)
- The Score Takes Care of Itself (a great book on leadership by Bill Walsh)
- Managing Oneself (how to develop a metric-driven approach for yourself)
- Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea (an interesting look at the zero)
- A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka: A Memoir (a story of a family fleeing Russia in the late 1980s)
- Radical Honesty: How to Transform Your Life by Telling the Truth (people lie, mostly to themselves; terrific read on self-discovery)
- The Startup-up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career (how you can learn from the most innovative entrepreneurs to build a great career)
- Extreme Ownership (How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win) (a great book about leadership)
- Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future (a terrific look at Must and his journey to build transformational companies)
- Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street (a look at major crises on Wall Street and valuable lessons learned from each)
- The Weather Machine: A Journey Inside the Forecast (a look at the infrastructure behind the weather forecast and what it reveals about climate and our planet)
- Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society (a look at how our genes affect the ways we make societies)
- Reagan: The Life (my family was able to emigrate to the U.S., in part, because of Reagan. A terrific read)
- The Eureka Factor: Aha Moments, Creative Insights, and the Brain (an interesting look at creativity and neuroscience)
- 21 Lessons for the 21st Century (a good look at important issues and the lessons for the future)
- Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader (a terrific biography)
- Quantum Advertising; A brief reflection on the nature of advertising (a great perspective on the advertising industry)
- Ant Encounters: Interaction Networks and Colony Behavior (a look at how ant colonies get things done without central control or hierarchy)
- Enchiridion (about stoicism)
- Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It (how to influence what VC say/think about you)
- Bitcoin Billionaires: A True Story of Genius, Betrayal, and Redemption (about the Winklevoss’s big bet on crypto-currency)
- The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (traumatic stress and its impact on society)
- Chase, Chance, and Creativity: The Lucky Art of Novelty (examines the role of chance in the creative process)
- Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal (phenomenal read about the founding of Twitter)
- Turing’s Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe (a great introduction to the early years of computers)
- Putin’s Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia? (a deep dive into how Putin gained power and the people who became wealthy during his climb)
- Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future (a contrarian approach to building startups)
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers (important advice on building and running a startup)
- Thinking, Fast and Slow (a look at how and why we make the choices we make)
- Age of Context: Mobil,e Sensors, Data and the Future of Privacy (how technology and social media will shape a personalized future)
- Remote: Office Not Required (how to run a successful distributed team)
- Gates: How Microsoft’s Mogul Reinvented an Industry and Made Himself the Richest Man in America (well research biography)
- Ctrl Alt Delete: Reboot Your Business. Reboot Your Life, Your Future Depends on It (how to take charge of your life and your business to create a successful and sustainable business).
- Extreme Trust: Turning Proactive Honesty and Flawless Execution into Long-Term Profits (how to stay competitive in a world of total transparency)
- Startup Life: Surviving and Thriving in a Relationship with an Entrepreneur (good insights on what it takes to build a strong relationship with an entrepreneur)
- The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right (how to master complexity with an ordinary checklist)
- No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama Bin Laden (an interesting, first-person account)
- Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success (the obsession with simplicity separates Apple from other companies)
- Inside Apple: How America’s Most Admired – and Secretive – Company Really Works (systems, tactics, and leadership strategies that have made Apple so successful)
- Steve Jobs (a terrific biography)
- Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions (a good look at the irrational decisions that precipitated the financial meltdown of 2008)
- Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 (a suspenseful firsthand account of a secret military operation in Afghanistan)
- Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed (true story of a secret and successful aerospace operation)
- The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (a terrific story about the 2008 economic meltdown)
- Outliers: The Story of Success (what sets high achievers apart from normal people)
- Who Gets What – and Why: The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design (about market design)
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (what it means to be human)
- Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead (how to attract great people and ensure they succeed)
- Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization (phenomenal book on building great teams)
- Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ (what it means to be emotionally smart)
- Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End (how medicine can improve the process of ending life)
- Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand In the Way of True Inspiration (a phenomenal book about creativity and what set Pixar apart from all other studios)
- Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt (a look at high-frequency trading)
- The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution (the story of the people who created the computer and the Internet)
- Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (the factors that lead to the collapse of civilization)
- Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (how geographic and environmental factors shaped the modern world)
- Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking (terrific book for introverts)