6 Highly Influential People Share Their Favorite Books
Below are some of the answers from people like Tony Robbins that might catch your attention. Thanks to this list, I just got a lot of my Christmas shopping done.
Before we get to that though, let's recap the books that Tim has recommended:
- "What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars"
- "The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph" (Complement with this exploration of Stoic philosophy.)
- "The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance "(Pair with these two passages from the book on how he advanced faster than others and why the key to learning is depth over breadth.)
- "Daily Rituals: How Artists Work" (Pair with the daily routines of famous creatives: artists, writers, composers. Also check out Hemingway's routine.)
- "Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel"
Ok, now it is time for Tim's podcasts guests to take over. Here are some of the ones that caught my eye. While I've read a lot of these, there were some very interesting new finds. I ended up ordering several books.
Kevin Kelly, the founding editor of WIRED magazine, recommends:
- "Cat's Cradle" by Kurt Vonnegut
- "The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide" by James Fadiman
- "The Adventures of Johnny Bunko" by Daniel H. Pink
- "So Good They Can't Ignore You" by Cal Newport
- "Shantaram: A Novel" by Gregory David Roberts
Tony Robbins, performance coach to Bill Clinton, Serena Williams, Paul Tudor Jones, Leonardo DiCaprio, Oprah Winfrey, and a bunch of other people you've heard of, recommends:
- "As a Man Thinketh" by James Allen
- "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor E.Frankl (Complement with this rare video clip from 1972 where Frankl tells us why we should believe in others and the human search for meaning.)
- "The Fourth Turning" by William Strauss
- "Generations" by William Strauss
- "Slow Sex" by Nicole Daedone (I'm guessing he didn't give a copy of this to Clinton … or maybe he did.)
- "Mindset" by Carol Dweck (Complement with Angela Duckworth on how we can develop grit.)
Neil Strauss has written seven New York Times bestsellers, including "The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists." He offers:
- "On the Shortness of Life" by Seneca (I love Seneca. Why? Among other things we can learn a lot from him about creativity, wisdom, reading, and saving time. Complement with the stoic reading list.)
- "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Gregory Rabassa
- "The Painted Bird" by Jerzy Kosinski
- "Life Is Elsewhere" by Milan Kundera
Ryan Holiday is an author and the media strategist behind authors Tucker Max and Robert Greene. Ryan mentioned Farnam Street in his podcast with Tim and might be the only person I know who consistently reads more than I do. He recommends:
- "Meditations: A New Translation" by Marcus Aurelius (Complement with How to Act: Four Habits of Thought to Eliminate and Debts and Lessons)
- "The Art of Living" by Epictetus (Complement with this.)
- "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable Fragility" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (A lot of people talk about this but few people understand a black swan.)
- "Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (This contains the seeds to both "The Black Swan" and "Antifragile." If you're new to Taleb, start with FBR.)
- "Antifragile" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- "Benjamin Franklin" by Walter Isaacson (Complement with Franklins 13 virtues and his rule for decision making.)
- "Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller" by Ron Cherow (This has been on my shelf since Charlie Munger recommended it, time to pull it out.)
- "How to Live" by Sarah Bakewell (Montaigne is full of awesomeness.)
- "The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King" by Rich Cohen
- "Tough Jews" by Rich Cohen
- "Edison - A Biography" by Matthew Josephson (I loved Isaacson's biography on Edison, which was also recommended by Munger.)
- "Ulysses S. Grant: Triumph Over Adversity" by Brooks D. Simpson
- "The Control of Nature" by John McPhee
- "Giving Good Weight" by John McPhee
- "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield (A New York Times best-selling author recommended this book to me.)
Ramit Sethi is a personal finance advisor and entrepreneur. Sethi is the author of the 2009 book on personal finance, "I Will Teach You To Be Rich," a New York Times Bestseller. He recommends:
- "The Checklist Manifesto" by Atul Gawande (I loved this book.)
- "Mindless Eating" by Brian Wansink (Complement with why we eat more than we think and how sugar affects the brain.)
- "The Robert Collier Letter Book" by Robert Collier
- "Age of Propaganda" by Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson
- "The Social Animal" by Elliot Aronson
- "Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time" by Keith Ferrazzi
- "Iacocca: An Autobiography" by Lee Iacocca and William Novak
- "What They Don't Teach You At Harvard Business School: Notes From A Street-Smart Executive" by Mark H. McCormack
Still not satisfied? See what Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Bill Gates recommend.
- US buys 81 Soviet-era combat aircraft from Russia's ally costing on average less than $20,000 each, report says
- 2 states where home prices are falling because there are too many houses and not enough buyers
- A couple accidentally shipped their cat in an Amazon return package. It arrived safely 6 days later, hundreds of miles away.
- Markets rebound in early trade amid global rally, buying in ICICI Bank and Reliance
- Women in Leadership
- Rupee declines 5 paise to 83.43 against US dollar in early trade
- Election Commission issues notification for sixth phase of Lok Sabha polls
- 6 Coffee recipes you should try this summer
- JNK India IPO allotment date
- JioCinema New Plans
- Realme Narzo 70 Launched
- Apple Let Loose event
- Elon Musk Apology
- RIL cash flows
- Charlie Munger
- Feedbank IPO allotment
- Tata IPO allotment
- Most generous retirement plans
- Broadcom lays off
- Cibil Score vs Cibil Report
- Birla and Bajaj in top Richest
- Nestle Sept 2023 report
- India Equity Market