Books From the Best Minds
If you want to read the best books, begin by finding the best minds, then ask what those people are reading.
The most influential ideas—on power, money, psychology, philosophy, and more—overlap and recur in many of the books recommended by intelligent people. The more you are exposed to these ideas, the more you see them in the world, and the better equipped you are to make broad connections and informed decisions.
Since books take so long to read, I try to only read the ones that are worth my time. The best strategy I’ve found is to seek recommendations of writers I admire and people whose thinking I appreciate.
These are recommendations from some of my favorite thinkers and writers.
Happy reading!
Morgan Housel
Morgan Housel is one of my favorite writers. I devour his articles and have read his book, The Psychology of Money, twice. I even got to interview him. For more info on Housel, check out this curation. For his book recommendations, look no further:
Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday is another of my favorite authors. He’s a prolific writer with more than a dozen published titles over the last decade. If he reads 300 books for every book he writes, he’s already read more books than nearly every person will read in his or her lifetime.
I’m sure I’ve read more books recommended by Holiday than any other single person.
Books to Base Your Life On - This piece has a ton of good recommendations, but he also links to more than a dozen other book recommendation articles he has written at the end. If you enjoy his recommendations, be sure to sign up for his monthly reading list email. It’s one of my favorite things to read every month.
Patrick Collison
Patrick Collison is the founder of Stripe. He is brilliant, due in no small part to being a prolific reader. While he doesn’t do a lot of writing, I came to appreciate his thinking after watching this discussion about the lack of progress in modern America.
Bookshelf - A list of his entire library, color coded to indicate the books he thought were “particularly great” and “substantially above average.”
Derek Sivers
Derek Sivers is an interesting thinker. Some of his ideas I’ve found most influential are “Hell Yes or No,” “No Speed Limit,” and “Moving For Good.” Since I appreciate his thinking, I’m interested in the books he’s enjoyed most.
Books I’ve Read - A continuously updated list of the books Sivers reads. He gives each book a rating and writes detailed notes on them. I suggest sorting by his highest rated and starting there.
Clayton Dorge
Clayton Dorge is a highly underrated writer and thinker who I’ve had the pleasure of becoming friends with over the last couple years. You can listen to our podcast conversation here.
He and I seem to operate on the same wavelength, so I generally find his recommendations to be perfect for me.
He also writes a fantastic monthly email called Side Notes. I actually look forward to this one more than Ryan Holiday’s. Big endorsement.
Reading - A running list of all the books Clayton has read dating back to 2012. In recent years, he’s been adding notes, quotes, and descriptions for each book. He also marks his personal favorites with an asterisk. I’d start with those.
Erik Rostad
Inspired by the book recommendations in Tim Ferriss’ book, Tools of Titans, Erik began his Books of Titans project in 2017. Every year since then, Erik has read 52 books and documented them through his beautiful website and informative podcast.
I had the pleasure of chatting with Erik on my podcast, and I’ve learned a lot from him over the last few years. Because of his experience and thoughtfulness, I highly respect Erik’s reading recommendations.
The Nine Books that Changed My Life - The title is pretty self-explanatory.
Book Ideas - Three curated lists based on Erik’s favorite books from his reading project. The lists contain 12, 24, and 52 books, respectively.
Jack Raines
Jack Raines is quickly becoming one of the best new writers on the internet. He's been described as "if Tim Urban and Morgan Housel had a baby." That's high praise.
A Few Books that Changed My Life - Thirteen books, each with a quote and thoughtful description. I’ve read five of the books on this list and endorse them equally.
Joe Wells
At the risk of being a pretentious ass, I’m adding my recommendations to this list. I’m going to assume if you’re on my website you might be interested in my influences and recommendations.
If I’m wrong, feel free to ignore.
If I’m right, scroll down to the bottom of the page and sign up for The Lake Street Journal, my weekly email.
Books I’ve Based My Life On - Nineteen of my favorite books with short descriptions, separated into tactical and philosophical. The tagline of my newsletter is Borrowed wisdom for a better life. The best ideas I’ve borrowed came from these books.
Can You Recommend a Book? - Four books I think everyone should read, complete with detailed descriptions.
Photo by Matthew Feeney on Unsplash
