What do you read?

These are some of the books I've enjoyed.

The War Of Art - Steven Pressfield




The 80/20 Principle - Richard Koch




Psycho-CyberNetics - Maxwell Maltz




The Personal MBA - Josh Kaufman - (this isn't really a book you read from beginning to end, more of something to pick through and reference as needed)




I just finished this book on Elon Musk and man does that guy have an insane work ethic. Pretty insane what he has gone through to get to where he is at now. There is no quit in him ... the man is a MACHINE!

Elon Musk - Ashlee Vance



What I'm about to read next:

How An Economy Grows and Why it Crashes - Peter D. Schiff and Adnrew J. Schiff



Will definitely be checking out some of the books people have listed here. Good stuff

As being a big ebayer I read about whats new and hot in trade magazines along with books about sales and presentation of products.My tastes for just reading is SCI FI.but I do read here for information this site has the info in a shortened form so I dont need to read lots of books.
Dizz

I recommend reading these books. They are pretty awesome. Some are philosophical, some are thriller, and some are IM related:

Philosophical

Alchemist: I recommend this book to all. Really great read. A quote from the book
"And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."

You can find many such quotes throughout the book. It helps me boost my confidence.

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: Its a self help book. Its not the best but some things are explained pretty well and really help in seeing world through different perspective.


IM-related

Ca$hvertising: Useful if you are someone who sells to customer. The life force 8 is really helpful in creating display ads.



Adweek Copywriting Handbook: Another book on writing ad copy to capture cusotmer's attention effectively. Some really good points with examples.

E-myth Revisited: Its more about effective outsourcing. Worth it if you are looking to learn to outsource.

Thriller:

All of Dan Brown's are good thrillers. Da vinci code, inferno, the lost symbols, angels vs demons etc. Stephan king is also good thriller writer.

I might have missed some, but these are most recommended by me.

I haven't read much in a while, I used to read alot more books about 5 years ago. But since then the Ipad 1 has become to unstable with the very last OS update they did, so it crashes too much to be worthwhile to read. Back then I was more into reading more classical books than business such as Anna Karenina, and Pride and Prejudice.

I often read psychology classics books. This is a list:
Games People Play
Lateral Thinking
The origin of Everyday Moods
The Language and Thought of the child...
If you have interested in, you can read it.

Tried to pick all my favs from the book shelf.

The Selfish Gene
The Art of War
Sperm Wars
The Age of Manipulation - The Con in Confidence, The Sin in Sincere
Emotional Intelligence - Why It Matters More Than IQ
How To Tell A Story - Secrets of Writing Captivating Tales
Psycho-Cybernetics
Silent Power
How To Argue & Win Everytime
48 Laws of Power
Influence - The Psychology of Persuasion
Cashvertising
The Ultimate Salesletter
Tested Advertising
Scientific Advertising
Rich Dad, Poor Dad
On Writing - Steven King
On The Art of Copy
The Unfair Advantage - Sell With NLP
Frogs To Princes
NLP For Dummies
The Big Book of NLP Techniques
The Lazy Mans Way to Riches
Think & Grow Rich
Blood, Brains & Beer
Hypnotic Writing
Breakthrough Advertising
The Art of Conversation
The Theory of Everything
Free Will - Sam Harris (great book)
Tuesdays With Morrie
Feel The Fear & Do It Anyway
The Dictionary of Cliches
Going Postal
Eye of The Hurricane
The Celestine Prophecy
How To Be Funny
Comedy Writing Secrets
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
Things You Should Know
Outsmarting Google
Handwriting Analysis
Blink
White Privilege
The Game
4 Hour Work Week
Getting Things Done (great book)
FL Studio Bible
Reason 2.5 Power
Kill Your Friends
Killer Fiction (most fucked writings by a serial killer)
The Last Victim
The Old Man & The Sea
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
Harry Potter 1-5, did not read the last 2.

BreaknBrix said:

Tried to pick all my favs from the book shelf.

The Selfish Gene
The Art of War
Sperm Wars
The Age of Manipulation - The Con in Confidence, The Sin in Sincere
Emotional Intelligence - Why It Matters More Than IQ
How To Tell A Story - Secrets of Writing Captivating Tales
Psycho-Cybernetics
Silent Power
How To Argue & Win Everytime
48 Laws of Power
Influence - The Psychology of Persuasion
Cashvertising
The Ultimate Salesletter
Tested Advertising
Scientific Advertising
Rich Dad, Poor Dad
On Writing - Steven King
On The Art of Copy
The Unfair Advantage - Sell With NLP
Frogs To Princes
NLP For Dummies
The Big Book of NLP Techniques
The Lazy Mans Way to Riches
Think & Grow Rich
Blood, Brains & Beer
Hypnotic Writing
Breakthrough Advertising
The Art of Conversation
The Theory of Everything
Free Will - Sam Harris (great book)
Tuesdays With Morrie
Feel The Fear & Do It Anyway
The Dictionary of Cliches
Going Postal
Eye of The Hurricane
The Celestine Prophecy
How To Be Funny
Comedy Writing Secrets
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
Things You Should Know
Outsmarting Google
Handwriting Analysis
Blink
White Privilege
The Game
4 Hour Work Week
Getting Things Done (great book)
FL Studio Bible
Reason 2.5 Power
Kill Your Friends
Killer Fiction (most fucked writings by a serial killer)
The Last Victim
The Old Man & The Sea
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
Harry Potter 1-5, did not read the last 2.

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Is that all?

Thomas, I am currently reading "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell. Very interesting.. I have suggested this to my friends as well.

Currently reading Think&Grow Rich, but will probably listen to the advice in the book and read it at least 2 more times
Interesting books i've read/plan on reading :

How I Braved Anu Aunty And Co-founded A Million Dollar Company
The Lean Startup
Good to Great
Who Moved My Cheese
Losing My Virginity How I Survived - Richard Branson
ReWork - Change the Way You Work Forever
Rich Dad, Poor Dad
Midas Touch - Trump, Kiyosaki
The Millionaire Fastlane - MJ DeMarco
The Millionaire Next Door

Reading BHW these days and learning great information

MacArthur said:

Thomas, I am currently reading "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell. Very interesting.. I have suggested this to my friends as well.

Click to expand...

Yeah, it's one of my favourites!

meathead1234 said:

Is that all?

Click to expand...

It's pretty close.

After college I doubt I read more than 150 books. Then maybe a handful of books I've read 2-3 times. Like 4 Hour Work Week, Cashvertising and a few others.

Tons of great suggestions here already.

Just to add one, Rework by 37 signal guys. Absolutely awesome.

I'm studying more on marketing oriented stuff atm rather that general entrepreneurship, so my suggestions currently would be anything and everything from Gary Halbert, Dan Kennedy & Jay Abraham.

I can't recommend "The greatest minds and ideas of all time - Will Durant" highly enough.

Not only is the book fantastically well written but it's a gateway to the best literature and ideas in human history, for example one of the sections is on 'The 100 best books for an education'. It's a fairly short book but it covers a massive range of topics including philosophy, English literature, poetry and so much more. Although not specifically related to entrepreneurship, any book that makes you a more rounded/knowledgeable person is worth its weight in gold. A quote:

"Life is better than literature, friendship is sweeter than philosophy, and children reach into our hearts with profounder music than comes from any symphony, but even so these living delights offer no derogation to the modest and secondary pleasures of our books.

When life is bitter, or friendship slips away, or perhaps our children leave us for their own haunts and homes, we shall come and sit at the table with Shakespeare and Goethe, and laugh at the world of Rabelais, and see its autumn loveliness with John Keats. For these are friends who give us only their best, who never answers back and always wait our call.

When we have walked with them awhile, and listened humbly to their speech, we shall be healed of our infirmities, and know the peace that comes of understanding."

i often read books with plain pages. and damn they are good.

Mclovinn said:

I don't know about this one.

Never read it but sounds like a bunch of hype. It's like the kind of thing Pewep would post - just stay positive and all your dreams will be manifested. The part they miss out is the bit about taking action. You could be a starving man on the streets of Kolkata, and no amount of positive thinking would make any difference whatsoever... but I digress.

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The book is about a bit more than just positive thinking. It really is a good read - you should give it a chance. However when you mentioned the Pewep ideology I must admit I did laugh because it's sort of true. Except I'm almost positive Pewep has a larger mental issue. The guy thinks he's a wizard smh.

Anything by Malcolm Gladwell is gold. He takes a lot of sophisticated science (Well, sophisticated to me) and makes it actionable and relates it well.

Think and Grow Rich gets a +1 for me. A few types of people 'love it'. The arm - chair business person who thinks they are experts. Then you have the 'earthy / spiritual' types who think they understand the universe talk. Then you have the real business people who see the principles being shared in reference to a variety of sources. The book is a glimpse into the minds of people who became successful and for that it deserves a read until you 'get it'.

The Alchemist reads as one of the books I dislike for business. An extreme which forcs you to take extrapolations. The good is if you are at the 'right place' in life, the book and its story will resonate. The lessons of trusting your gut, following intuition and believing the universe wants you to succeed can help you. But from an outside perspective and knowing this when going in, it did not 'reach me' like it did others who suggested it. But when picking out the lessons it was amazing.

A more straight foreword read is 'Influence'. Teaches you quite a bit about Psychology. Something to frame the book with is this, "If you are not selling to someone, you are being sold to." (Did I just make a quote of myself? Or did I hear that somewhere?) If you take the book in that light you will easily see real world examples of the entire book and it has more impact. Scarcity, for example, hits you from dating, to pre - releases on video games to 'limited time offers' popular on the net.

Finally I have Book of Five Rings. You will find works like 'Think and Grow Rich'; 'Influence', and EVERY other business book attempts to extrapolate the same 'meaning' when they write stories in book to metaphor business. Book of Five Rings just does it better. Translations of 'Strike when the iron is hot'; 'test, test, test'; 'Be the first to act' appear in the text which will give a foundation to business. Much like 'The Alchemist' does in setting the business stage for people but act as two different sides of the same coin. 'The Alchemist' helps get your inner self ready for business. 'Book fo Five Rings' helps get your mind ready for business.

I have read several other 'good' business books. But many seem to be copies of the aforementioned books in some way drawing from the same lessons in simply new revisions.

At the moment I'm re reading 'Think And Grow Rich' and 'The Science Of Getting Rich' (Wallace Wattles). Both oldies but goodies. I have a few favorites that I revisit every year or two because they have alot to teach.

I think the 'art of war' is quite good and I'll try to read the books you have recommended, meathead