Personal Development Books
Steve's recommended reading list of personal development books:
Productivity, Time Management, Effectiveness
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey (personal effectiveness)
- Getting Things Done by David Allen (workflow and productivity)
- Simple Rules by Donald Sull and Kathleen M. Eisenhardt (taming complexity)
- Maximum Achievement and Time Power by Brian Tracy (time management)
- The Now Habit by Neil Fiore (overcoming procrastination)
- Organizing From the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern (getting organized)
- Now, Discover Your Strengths and StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Marcus Buckingham (finding your strengths)
- Master Your Workday Now by Michael Linenberger (daily workflow, book review)
- Is Your Genius at Work? by Dick Richards (finding your genius, book review)
- The Power of Less by Leo Babauta (personal effectiveness through simple habits)
- Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman (optimism)
- Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers (overcoming procrastination)
Business, Success, Wealth
- The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle (greatness)
- Little Bets by Peter Sims (turning small failures into big wins)
- The Pumpkin Plan by Michael Michalowicz (counter-intuitive strategy for growing a business)
- The Innovator's DNA by Jeff Dyer et al (disruptive innovation)
- The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman (business basics)
- The Type-Z Guide to Success With Ease and The Millionaire Course by Marc Allen (wealth alignment, Type-Z Guide review, Marc Allen interview)
- Small Time Operator by Bernard B. Kamoroff (starting a small business)
- Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (wealth)
- The Intelligent Entrepreneur by Bill Murphy (business success)
- The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs (presentation skills)
- Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber (history of debt and money)
- 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)
- The Psychology of Winning by Denis Waitley (victory)
- Stein on Writing by Sol Stein (writing skills)
- Manifesting for Non-Gurus by Robert MacPhee (clarifying and experiencing your desires)
Consciousness, Awareness, Spirituality
- Lucid Dreaming and Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge (lucid dreaming)
- Ask and It Is Given, The Amazing Power of Deliberate Intent, and The Vortex by Esther and Jerry Hicks (manifesting intentions)
- The Power of Now and A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle (consciousness and awareness)
- The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra (manifesting intentions)
- The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield (consciousness and awareness)
- Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman (inner peace)
- Cosmic Trigger Vol I, Vol II, and Vol III by Robert Anton Wilson (weird doesn’t begin to describe it)
- The Disappearance of the Universe by Gary Renard (awareness and forgiveness)
- Far Journeys by Robert Monroe (astral projection)
Meaning, Purpose, Philosophy
- The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran (wisdom)
- The Warrior Within by John Little (Bruce Lee's philosophy)
- As You Think aka As a Man Thinketh by James Allen (power of thought)
- Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu (wisdom)
- Life on Purpose by Dr. Brad Swift (discovering your purpose, book review)
- There's a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem, The Power of Intention, and Inspiration by Wayne Dyer (spiritual problem solving, finding your purpose)
- Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl (finding meaning in the Holocaust)
- Freedom by Adam Kokesh (free book on liberating yourself from enslavement)
- A Child Called It, The Lost Boy, and A Man Named Dave by Dave Pelzer (abuse and recovery)
- Happy for No Reason by Marci Shimoff (cultivating unconditional happiness and inner peace)
- Re-Create Your Life by Morty Lefkoe (overcoming limiting beliefs)
Relationships
- Too Good to Leave, Too Bad to Stay, When Good People Have Affairs, and I Love You But I Don't Trust You by Mira Kirshenbaum (outstanding books on diagnosing relationship issues)
- Sex at Dawn by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá (one of the best books on human sexuality)
- The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman (love strategies)
- Opening Up by Tristan Taormino (open relationships and polyamory)
- Open by Jenny Block (one woman's journey from monogamy to open marriage)
- The Ethical Slut by Dossie Easton (ethical polyamory)
- Spiritual Polyamory by Mystic Life (relationships and unconditional love)
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (social skills)
- Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg (communication)
- Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus by John Gray (male-female communication)
- Should I Stay or Go? by Lee Raffel (healing vs. ending relationships)
- Uncoupling by Diane Vaughan (how relationships end)
Biographies, Memoirs
- The Pixar Touch by David A. Price (Pixar story)
- Super Mario by Jeff Ryan (Nintendo story)
- The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin (personal effectiveness)
- Ghost in the Wires by Kevin Mitnick (adventures of a notorious hacker)
- As You Wish by Cary Elwes (delightful memoirs of the making of The Princess Bride)
- Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (Holocaust story)
- True Strength by Kevin Sorbo (Kevin Sorbo bio)
- iWoz by Steve Wozniak and Gina Smith (Steve Wozniak bio)
- Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson (Steve Jobs bio)
- Masters of Doom by David Kushner (id Software story)
- Losing the Signal by Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff (rise and fall of Blackberry)
- Genius by James Gleick (Richard Feynman bio)
Health
- The China Study by T. Colin Campbell (health, book review)
- Spark by John J. Ratey and Eric Hagerman (mental benefits of cardio exercise)
- You Are Your Own Gym by Mark Lauren (bodyweight exercises)
- Living with a Seal by Jesse Itzler (tough 30-day fitness trial)
- Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Caldwell B. Esselstyn (heart health)
- Diet for a New America and The Food Revolution by John Robbins (health and ethical food choices)
- Eat and Run by Scott Jurek (endurance training)
- The Sunfood Diet Success System by David Wolfe (raw food diet)
- The 80/10/10 Diet by Douglas Graham (low-fat raw food diet)
- Mad Cowboy by Howard Lyman (why a cattle rancher stopped eating animals)
- The Egoscue Method of Health Through Motion by Pete Egoscue (pain-free structural alignment)
- Anatomy of an Illness by Norman Cousins (laughter as medicine)
Mental Development
- The Memory Book by Harry Lorayne (develop a superior memory)
- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (mental clarity)
- Your Brain at Work by David Rock (useful brain research)
- The Social Animal by David Brooks (social aspects of the brain)
- Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain (visualization exercises)
- Brain Building in Just 12 Weeks by Marilyn vos Savant (boosting intelligence, mental clarity)
- The Tipping Point and Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (social and mental phenomena)
- Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom (Will we become immortal or extinct?)
History
- Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford (history of the Mongol empire)
- From Yao to Mao by Kenneth J. Hammond (Chinese history)
- Destiny Disrupted by Tamim Ansary (Islamic history)
- Spycraft by Robert Wallace et al (history of spy tech)
- The Alchemy of Air by Thomas Hager (fascinating story of scientific discovery)
- Misquoting Jesus by Bart D. Ehrman (history of the Bible)
Fiction
- The Princess Bride by William Goldman (inconceivably fun)
- Dune by Frank Herbert (great sci-fi novel, better than the movie)
- Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein (an important book to grok)
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (eminently quotable fun)
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (the insanity of social conditioning)
- Catch 22 by Joseph Heller (the insanity of war)
- A Separate Peace by John Knowles (darkness of adolescence)
- Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (grandiose classics)
- Incarnations of Immortality by Piers Anthony (fascinating 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 Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer (the Trojan War and classic Greek mythology)
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding (stranded boys turn into savages)
- Mark Twain: Four Complete Novels by Mark Twain (a true literary genius)
- Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach (outgrowing your old self)