Ask Steve – Recommended Reading
Could you recommend some of your all-time favorite books?
Sure.
Since the early 90s I’ve been reading about a book a week, so that adds up to quite a few books. I’ll scan my office bookshelves to recall which ones had a meaningful impact on me after I read them.
Here are some of my personal favorites in no particular order:
Edit 8/22/06: A more complete version of this list, conveniently sorted into categories, can be found here: personal development books.
- Power vs. Force by David Hawkins (levels of consciousness)
- The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield (wisdom)
- The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran (wisdom)
- As You Think aka As a Man Thinketh by James Allen (power of thought)
- The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra (manifesting intentions)
- Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (wealth)
- Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu (wisdom)
- Ask and It Is Given by Esther Hicks (manifesting intentions)
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey (personal effectiveness)
- The Art of War by Sun Tzu (slaughtering your enemy efficiently)
- The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene (ensuring your enemy doesn’t slaughter you first)
- Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman (inner peace, no slaughtering)
- Chaos and Genius by James Gleick (chaos science and fractals; Richard Feynman bio)
- Unlimited Power and Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins (achievement and NLP)
- Maximum Achievement and Time Power by Brian Tracy (time management)
- The Egoscue Method of Health Through Motion by Pete Egoscue (pain-free structural alignment)
- Using Your Brain for a Change by Richard Bandler (NLP)
- Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman (optimism, duh)
- The Power of Now and A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle (consciousness and awareness)
- Diet for a New America and The Food Revolution by John Robbins (health and ethical food choices)
- Mad Cowboy by Howard Lyman (why a cattle rancher won’t eat meat)
- Too Good to Leave, Too Bad to Stay by Mira Kirshenbaum (awesome book on diagnosing relationship issues)
- Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (philosophy in 1000 pages)
- The Psychology of Winning by Denis Waitley (victory)
- Lucid Dreaming and Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge (lucid dreaming)
- Far Journeys by Robert Monroe (astral projection)
- Cosmic Trigger Vol I, Vol II, and Vol III by Robert Anton Wilson (“weird” doesn’t begin to describe it)
- Anatomy of an Illness by Norman Cousins (laughter as medicine)
- Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl (finding meaning in the Holocaust)
- Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (Holocaust story)
- Brain Building in Just 12 Weeks by Marilyn vos Savant (becoming a smarty pants)
- Built to Last and Good to Great by Jim Collins (business)
- Incarnations of Immortality by Piers Anthony (awesome fiction series):
- On a Pale Horse (Death)
- Bearing an Hourglass (Time)
- With a Tangled Skein (Fate)
- Wielding a Red Sword (War)
- Being a Green Mother (Nature)
- For Love of Evil (Satan)
- And Eternity (God)
- The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin (personal effectiveness)
- The Disappearance of the Universe by Gary Renard (awareness and forgiveness)
- A Course in Miracles by the Foundation for Inner Peace (what the Bible meant to say)
- Bringers of the Dawn by Barbara Marciniak (channeled teachings of the Pleiadians)
- Inspiration by Wayne Dyer (finding your purpose)
- Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain (visualization)
- The Millionaire Course by Marc Allen (wealth, read my interview with Marc Allen)
- Getting Things Done by David Allen (workflow and productivity)
- A Child Called It, The Lost Boy, and A Man Named Dave by Dave Pelzer (abuse and recovery)
- Organizing From the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern (getting organized)
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki (wealth advice with fake stories)
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (social skills)
- The China Study by T. Colin Campbell (health, read my book review)
- Code Complete and Rapid Development by Steve McConnell (software development)
- The Self-Publishing Manual by Dan Poynter (self-publishing)
I guess I have a lot of favorite books. 🙂
This entry is part of the “Ask Steve” series. See the original Ask Steve post for details, or view the Archives (July 2006) to peruse the entire series.