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Favorite Business Books
Top 10 "Must-Read" Business Books
- Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
- The ONE Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan
- Crucial Conversations by Patterson, Grenny, McMillan, and Switzler
- Deep Work by Cal Newport
- You're Not Listening by Kate Murphy
- Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull with Amy Wallace
- All the Devils Are Here by Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera
- Wooden on Leadership by John Wooden and Steve Jamison
- The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver
- Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferriss
Recommendations for Behavioral Economics
- Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
- Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein
- Why We Buy by Paco Underhill
Recommendations for Business Profiles
- The Everything Store by Brad Stone
- The Upstarts by Brad Stone
- Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
- Lessons from the Top by Thomas Neff and James Citrin
- The Smartest Guys in the Room by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind
- Super Pumped by Mike Isaac
- Hatching Twitter by Nick Bilton
Recommendations for Company Culture
- Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull with Amy Wallace
- Work Rules! by Laszlo Bock
- The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle
- What You Do Is Who You Are by Ben Horowitz
- Powerful by Patty McCord
- All In by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton
- No Rules Rules by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer
- Big Potential by Shawn Achor
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
- The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni
- Good to Great by Jim Collins
- Built to Last by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras
- It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
Recommendations for Effectiveness and Prioritization
- The ONE Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan
- Deep Work by Cal Newport
- Rise by Patty Azzarello
- The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
- Death by Meeting by Patrick Lencioni
- Essentialism by Greg McKeown
- The 80/20 Manager by Richard Koch
- The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey by Blanchard, Oncken Jr, and Burrows
- The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker
- When by Daniel Pink
Recommendations for Entrepreneurship
- Zero to One by Peter Thiel with Blake Masters
- Straight Talk for Startups by Randy Komisar and Jantoon Reigersman
- Killing Giants by Stephen Denny
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
- The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki
- Startup CEO by Matt Blumberg
- The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
- The Upstarts by Brad Stone
- Super Pumped by Mike Isaac
- Hatching Twitter by Nick Bilton
Recommendations for Finance and the Stock Market
- All the Devils Are Here by Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera
- A Colossal Failure of Common Sense by Lawrence McDonald with Patrick Robinson
- Flash Boys by Michael Lewis
- The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- Skin in the Game by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- The Big Short by Michael Lewis
- Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis
- A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel
Recommendations for Giving and Receiving Feedback
- Crucial Conversations by Patterson, Grenny, McMillan, and Switzler
- Thanks for the Feedback by Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
- Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg
- Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott
- Difficult Conversations by Stone, Patton, and Heen
- Radical Candor by Kim Scott
Recommendations for Leadership and Management
- Start with Why by Simon Sinek
- Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio
- Influencer by Patterson, Grenny, Maxfield, McMillan, and Switzler
- Growing Influence by Ron Price and Stacy Ennis
- The 5 Levels of Leadership by John Maxwell
- Dare to Lead by Brené Brown
- The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier
- Wooden on Leadership by John Wooden and Steve Jamison
- Winning by Jack Welch with Suzy Welch
- The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive by Patrick Lencioni
- The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell
- The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson
- Leaders by McChrystal, Eggers, and Mangone
Recommendations for Probability and Statistics
- The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver
- How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff
Recommendations for Public Speaking
- Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
- Talk Like TED by Carmine Gallo
- The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs by Carmine Gallo
- TED Talks by Chris Anderson
- Brief by Joseph McCormack
Recommendations for Self-Improvement
- You're Not Listening by Kate Murphy
- So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport
- Ego Is The Enemy by Ryan Holiday
- Give and Take by Adam Grant
- Peak by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool
- Daring Greatly by Brené Brown
- The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday
- The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
- Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferriss
- Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss
Recommendations for Strategy and Decision-Making
- Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed
- Measure What Matters by John Doerr
- Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke
- The Biggest Bluff by Maria Konnikova
- Decisive by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Favorite Nonfiction Books
Top 10 "Must-Read" Nonfiction Books
- On Writing by Stephen King
- Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
- Factfulness by Hans Rosling with O. Rosling and A.R. Rönnlund
- Mindset by Carol Dweck
- Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
- Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
- The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
- Educated by Tara Westover
- On the Shortness of Life by Seneca
- Becoming Steve Jobs by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli
Recommendations for Biography/Memoir
- Becoming Steve Jobs by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli
- Walt Disney: An American Original by Bob Thomas
- Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
- Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
- Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
- Educated by Tara Westover
- Tiger Woods by Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian
- Elon Musk: Inventing the Future by Ashlee Vance
- Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
- Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
- The Good Neighbor by Maxwell King
Recommendations for Philosophy
- On the Shortness of Life by Seneca
- Letters from a Stoic by Seneca
- The Art of Happiness by Epictetus
- The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
Recommendations for Psychology
- Mindset by Carol Dweck
- Grit by Angela Duckworth
- Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
- The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
- Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
- Drive by Daniel Pink
- The Invisible Gorilla by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons
Recommendations for Spirituality
- The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
- The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
- Crazy Love by Francis Chan
- Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell
- What Is the Bible? by Rob Bell
- Inspired by Rachel Held Evans
Recommendations for True Crime
- American Kingpin by Nick Bilton
- Blind Eye by James B. Stewart
Recommendations for Writing and Creativity
- On Writing by Stephen King
- Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
- Stein on Writing by Sol Stein
- Perennial Seller by Ryan Holiday
- Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
- On Writing Well by William Zinsser
- Pity the Reader by Kurt Vonnegut and Suzanne McConnell
- The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker
- Consider This by Chuck Palahniuk
Recommendations for Assorted Nonfiction
- Factfulness by Hans Rosling with Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund
- Our Final Invention by James Barrat
- Quiet by Susan Cain
- Fooling Houdini by Alex Stone
- Dark Money by Jane Mayer
- Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
- Catch Me If You Can by Frank Abagnale
- Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer
- Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow
- The Grandmaster by Brin-Jonathan Butler
Favorite Fiction Books
Top 10 "Must-Read" Fiction Books
- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
- Red Rising by Pierce Brown
- Misery by Stephen King
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
- Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield
- Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
- Dracula by Bram Stoker
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
- Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
- Pines by Blake Crouch
Recommendations for Classic Literature
- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
- Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
- Dracula by Bram Stoker
- The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
- The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Recommendations for Dystopian Fiction
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
- The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
- Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding
- The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
- Red Rising by Pierce Brown
Recommendations for Psychological Thrillers and Horror
- Misery by Stephen King
- The Dead Zone by Stephen King
- It by Stephen King
- The Shining by Stephen King
- The Running Man by Richard Bachman (Stephen King)
- Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
- The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
- The Chain by Adrian McKinty
- The Compound by S.A. Bodeen
- Limitless by Alan Glynn
- Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin
- The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
Recommendations for Fiction Series
- Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
- Red Rising series by Pierce Brown
- The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins
- The Dark Tower series by Stephen King
- The Maze Runner series by James Dashner
- Wayward Pines series by Blake Crouch
- The Kingkiller Chronicle series by Patrick Rothfuss
- The Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Walking Dead series by Robert Kirkman
Recommendations for Sci-Fi and Fantasy
- Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
- Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
- The Prestige by Christopher Priest
- Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Recommendations for Assorted Fiction
- Watchmen by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins
- V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd
- Holes by Louis Sachar
- Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
Hi Business book Reviewer,
I hope you are well. I have been following the reviews for quite a while with great joy and I feel like this opportunity could contribute to the content of the blog.
Mads Faurholt is a serial entrepreneur who has started more than 20 companies across technology, financial services, marketing, HR, food and education with thousands of employees and investors such as Goldman Sachs, Alibaba and the World Bank. He recently released his #1 bestselling book, Entrepreneur: Building Your Business From Start to Success in Europe.
In that connection, I would love to jump on the phone with you to discuss the possibility of creating an review of Mads’s book. How do you look for tomorrow afternoon?
Keep up the good work with the book reviews!
I look forward to speaking with you.
Best Regards
Anton
Hello Anton,
My apologies for the delayed reply. I just returned from a couple weeks of vacation. Thank you for your support and kind words! I’m happy to hear you enjoy the blog.
Mads’s book sounds great. Unfortunately, I’m not interested in it at this time because I’m not doing any business in Europe now or the foreseeable future. However, I wish Mads the best with his book, and thank you so much for reaching out!
I hope you have a great weekend,
Bobby
When did you write this list? I don’t see a date on the blog post but I see that your comment was made in 2018. Several years ago I created an Ideal Bookshelf. Both of my daughters answered in the comment what their favorite books are. Since this list is eight years old, I need to create a new one, keeping in mind some of my favorites read in the ensuing years. My Ideal Bookshelf For a book to be in my top ten, I have to have re-read it or wanted to. Love the photo of you and Kaylyn!
I first published this page years ago, but I’ve been keeping it updated as I go. It’s a living document. 🙂
I haven’t read a few of the books on your top 10 list, so I’ll have to check those out. For example, I still haven’t read “Pride and Prejudice” (shameful, I know), so thanks for the reminder! I’ll plan to read that one soon.