The books here earned their spot on some mix of useful and beautiful — skewed toward what I've read recently and what stuck with me. If you have recommendations, send them my way.
business, economics & finance34
Basic EconomicsThomas SowellI took a few classes in economics in high school and college, but this book taught me more about what economics actually has to teach us about the world than all of those classes put together.
The Most Important ThingHoward MarksThe best book on investing I've read. From the perspective of a value investor working hard to outperform the market, but has many valuable lessons that generalize to other investment approaches and outside of investing entirely.
The Essays of Warren BuffettWarren BuffettLawrence Cunningham did a great job excerpting Buffett's writings in a way that packs a LOT of insight into a pretty short book and gives a sampler of Buffett's intellectual range. I learned a lot from this book, and now appreciate just how much Warren Buffett's record is no accident.
The Millionaire FastlaneMJ DeMarcoSeems like a trashy self-help book on first glance but is actually a very clear-eyed view on how making money works. I got a lot out of this book as an engineer-turned-startup-founder.
The Innovator's DilemmaClay ChristensenChristensen's body of work is a classic; he coined the idea of disruptive innovation among many others.
The Innovator's SolutionClay Christensen
The Clayton M. Christensen ReaderClay ChristensenA collection of his HBR articles.
Michael Porter's workI got a lot out of reading selections from his work, including this article.
Shoe DogPhil KnightThe origin story of Nike, warts and all.
That Will Never WorkMarc RandolphFrom the cofounder of Netflix. In the mold of, and as good as, Shoe Dog, but for the tech industry.
How to Castrate a BullDave HitzAnother view of tech entrepreneurship from the inside. Also a great and insightful read.
The Soul of a New MachineTracy KidderA journalist's account of the development process of a new minicomputer some 30 years ago. A super interesting read: some things have changed completely since then, and others haven't changed at all!
Venture DealsBrad Feld & Jason MendelsonA great summary of how the world of venture capital works.
Secrets of Sand Hill RoadScott KuporAnother good book in the same genre as Venture Deals.
The Power LawSebastian MallabyAn excellent history of the venture industry in Silicon Valley and elsewhere; looks under the hood of how venture partnerships work in a way that no other book I've read has. This should be required reading for entrepreneurs.
The Luxury StrategyKapferer & BastienHow to build and sustain luxury brands — and more generally, a very interesting read on how marketing and product development interact with human psychology.
A Dozen Lessons for EntrepreneursTren GriffinA well-curated selection of startup advice, but the author's commentary is skippable.
The Mom TestRob FitzpatrickThe Bible of customer interviews, and more generally an excellent primer in how to frame your own psychology to avoid being misled by wishful thinking.
Zero to OnePeter ThielDeserves its popularity.
PrinciplesRay DalioAn interesting manual on company building.
Finding Fertile GroundScott ShaneSlightly tedious but worth reading for would-be entrepreneurs — a very good breakdown of how to think about how and where opportunities to build new companies emerge.
7 PowersHamilton HelmerAnother excellent book for thinking about strategy. Pairs well with Finding Fertile Ground — this one's about how to make sure the company you build can defend its margins long-term. Skip the math if you're not in academia.
InfluenceRobert CialdiniI find a lot of academic psychology to be of questionable value, but this book is a notable exception. An incredible summary of what kinds of things (fear of missing out, social proof, etc.) actually make people act.
Financial Intelligence for EntrepreneursBerman & KnightA great primer on corporate finance and accounting for those who need to understand the concepts on a high level.
Why Stocks Go Up and DownWilliam PikeA more detailed primer on the financial metrics that investors care about — implicitly a lesson in accounting as well.
Irrational ExuberanceRobert ShillerPacked with insights on how markets behave irrationally, as well as finance and economics more broadly — highly recommended if you don't already have a strong understanding of the field.
Pioneering Portfolio ManagementDavid SwensenA really good intro to how a top asset manager thinks — useful to understand how a crucial layer of the world's finance stack works, and to get a feel for how a master of his field thought about investing and forging long-term business relationships.
How I Went from Failure to Success in SellingFrank Bettger100 years old and has stood the test of time. A great book to understand what sales is and how to do it well.
The Founder's DilemmasNoam WassermanAn excellent take on the human dynamics of startups. I was very glad I read it before starting a company.
Trust Me, I'm LyingRyan HolidayA peek under the covers of the PR industry. Pairs well with Paul Graham's essay The Submarine.
Confessions of an Advertising ManDavid OgilvyEven though it's decades-old, this look into one of the all-time masters of advertising has lots to learn from, and it's also full of wisdom about how to build and run a truly high-performance organization.
The Mystery of CapitalHernando de SotoA book on developmental economics that explores the underpinnings and history of financial markets, property rights, and law in a very interesting way.
The Inner Game of TennisTimothy GallweyNot just for tennis — a short and worthwhile read.
periodicals, blogs & newsletters13
Paul Graham's essaysI can't recommend them highly enough.
The EconomistA great source for good and broad, if shallow, coverage of almost anything happening in the world. I was a subscriber for more than a decade.
Money StuffMatt LevineBoth insightful and hilarious.
Astral Codex TenScott AlexanderA lot of high-quality content with a genuinely contrarian perspective (and its predecessor Slate Star Codex before it).
Benedict EvansConsistently excellent; he has a newsletter and writes elsewhere too.
Marginal RevolutionTyler CowenInteresting perspectives on diverse subjects.
Sam Altman's essays
pmarchiveMarc AndreessenHe took his blog down, but some highlights are archived at pmarchive.com.
Elad Gil's blogConsistently insightful: another one of my favorites.
Silicon Hills LawyerJosé AncerFull of good sense.
Reaction WheelJerry Neumann
SaaStrA lot of the content is great — see the Best Of.
Y Combinator videos & essaysMost YC content is extremely good; I especially like the Dalton and Michael videos.
non-business nonfiction44
The Power BrokerRobert CaroNot just one of the best biographies I've ever read; also one of the best books I've read on how power actually works, and how political careers are built. Being a single book, it's a great place to start for the Caro-curious.
The Years of Lyndon JohnsonRobert CaroFour (and hopefully eventually five) volumes, equally high-quality but even more detailed than The Power Broker — a remarkably unvarnished and informative view of the life and career of one of the most influential people of the 20th century, and the times he lived in.
WorkingRobert CaroCaro's book about his writing process — also a very interesting read.
George Orwell's essaysProbably the best essays of all time in the English language.
The Red QueenMatt RidleyWith The Selfish Gene, gave me quite a bit of insight into the workings of evolution and the implications for the way people are.
The Selfish GeneRichard Dawkins
Man's Search for MeaningViktor FranklHas changed the lives of many readers for the better, and I count myself among them.
Deep WorkCal NewportAn unparalleled primer on productivity for workers in high-focus fields.
So Good They Can't Ignore YouCal NewportAnother gem from Newport; one of the best career books I've ever read. (Develop a "passion" rather than looking for it!)
The Autobiography of Benjamin FranklinA well-deserved classic.
The BoxMarc LevinsonA surprisingly entertaining account of the container revolution in shipping.
The Emperor of All MaladiesSiddhartha MukherjeeAn excellent history of cancer.
EnduranceAlfred LansingAn account of Shackleton's voyage, and a lesson in leadership.
Eichmann in JerusalemHannah ArendtAs advertised, a lesson in the banality of evil. This book changed my view of the world significantly.
Iron CoffinsHerbert WernerA page-turning account of the submarine war in the Atlantic from the German perspective, and a lesson in competence and leadership.
In Cold BloodTruman CapoteSome of the best long-form journalism I've ever read.
Slouching Towards BethlehemJoan Didion
Barbarian Days: A Surfing LifeWilliam FinneganA great adventure story.
Surely You're Joking, Mr. FeynmanRichard FeynmanAn ode to the joys of science, and of keeping technical work fun.
Seven Years in TibetHeinrich HarrerA German mountaineer and POW escapes from a prison camp in India during WW2 and spends years of his life in still-independent Tibet. A great true story.
McDonald's: Behind the ArchesJohn LoveThe building of the biggest restaurant chain ever.
The Elements of StyleStrunk & White
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern WorldJack Weatherford
The Biggest BluffMaria KonnikovaVery well-written, both a great story and a well-thought-out take on social science and its applicability in the real world.
The PrizeDaniel YerginA good history of the oil industry. I wish it had been shorter, but it was good enough that I read most of it.
How to Avoid a Climate DisasterBill GatesBy far the best take on climate issues, and what to do about them, that I've read.
The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniThe astonishing and braggadocious memoirs of one of the great artists of Renaissance Italy, who was also a notorious murderer — interesting both for Cellini's experience of his life and world, and for getting a sense of the mentality of a very different era through a narrative that feels surprisingly modern.
Dancing in the Glory of MonstersJason Stearns
The Military RevolutionGeoffrey Parker
The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval EnglandIan Mortimer
Life with FatherClarence Day
The Wright BrothersDavid McCulloughA great story about the birth of aviation and a very special family.
The Periodic TablePrimo LeviA touching memoir in a very unique form — a series of memories, with a couple of short stories thrown in for good measure, by an Italian chemist and writer who, among other trials in an eventful life, survived the Holocaust.
The Good WarStuds TerkelInterviews with all kinds of people who lived through WW2.
Two Years Before the MastRichard Henry DanaA really great account of sailing as a merchant mariner by an author on leave from Harvard in the 1830s.
TitanRon ChernowA biography of John Rockefeller.
My ConfessionSamuel ChamberlainA consistently entertaining memoir of the author's time before, during, and after his service as a cavalryman in the Mexican-American War. Pairs well with Two Years Before the Mast. The end of this book was the inspiration for Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian — with alarmingly little embellishment added by McCarthy.
The Son Also RisesGregory ClarkTurns out class is transmitted from generation to generation far more than other studies have suggested, when you look at class markers of rare last names over multiple centuries.
How the War Was WonPhillips O'BrienA logistical/economic view of how WW2 was dominated by air and sea power, through which the US and UK gradually crushed the Axis powers. Very interesting and convincing.
Late AdmissionsGlenn LouryAn unusually candid and pretty riveting memoir. Not many memoirs have this much to be this candid about.
The German WarNicholas StargardtA fascinating look at the home front and what being a German under the Nazi regime was like.
Life Among the SavagesShirley JacksonSuper well-written and funny memoir of domestic life by someone better known for dark fiction.
Testament of YouthVera BrittainA really interesting window into how devastating the war years of 1914–18, and the periods before and after, were for that generation in England.
My Mother's Sabbath DaysChaim GradeA very well-written memoir of the Jewish community in Vilna before the Holocaust, the author's flight across Soviet Russia and his eventual return to the ruins of the community he grew up in. Super haunting.
fiction32
The Border TrilogyCormac McCarthy — especially The CrossingSomething I've found myself thinking back to and quoting more than any other book.
Blood MeridianCormac McCarthyAnother classic. (Skip The Passenger, and I also wasn't as big a fan of Suttree as of his later work.)
War and PeaceLeo TolstoyLives up to its reputation.
A Soldier of the Great WarMark HelprinAmong my all-time favorite books.
The Sun Also RisesErnest HemingwayHemingway is another favorite — this and For Whom the Bell Tolls I've read multiple times.
For Whom the Bell TollsErnest Hemingway
East of EdenJohn SteinbeckA powerful story and Biblical exegesis. Another one of my all-time favorites. Steinbeck's other work is consistently very good as well.
AusterlitzW.G. SebaldOne of the most unusual and beautiful books I've ever read. The translator deserves great credit for capturing the tone of this book.
The World of YesterdayStefan ZweigZweig is a writer unjustly forgotten by history. This (a nonfiction work) is such an evocative portrait of pre-WW1 Europe that it permanently changed the way I perceive Western history.
The Post-Office GirlStefan ZweigAn understated and excellent novella.
StonerJohn WilliamsAnother underappreciated classic. A view into the inner life of a quiet man, it expresses unspoken struggles common, I'm sure, to many of us.
Post OfficeCharles BukowskiBukowski is another inimitable voice.
The Unbearable Lightness of BeingMilan KunderaAn excellent story and a quiet but firm indictment of communism.
The CrucibleArthur MillerAn all-too-human story and a reminder of our tendency to hunt down and destroy the lives of imagined internal enemies. Relevant to this day.
I, ClaudiusRobert GravesHistorical fiction at its finest. Graves was a classicist and used his knowledge to paint Roman society as realistically as possible.
Claudius the GodRobert GravesThe sequel — also very good.
The Narrow Road to the Deep NorthRichard FlanaganA well-crafted story largely set in the Burmese prison camps of WW2. Also made me a big fan of Tennyson and his poem "Ulysses" in particular.
The Naked and the DeadNorman MailerAnother WW2 story set in the Pacific, a very good novel.
The Things They CarriedTim O'BrienAn excellent book about war and its ugliness.
All Quiet on the Western FrontErich Maria RemarqueAnother reminder of the ugliness, and the banality of the ugliness, of war.
All the Light We Cannot SeeAnthony DoerrAnother beautiful book set in and around WW2.
A Tree Grows in BrooklynBetty SmithA classic coming-of-age story.
The Bonfire of the VanitiesTom WolfeA modern classic and a great send-up of a society that's still recognizable in our country today.
Norwegian WoodHaruki Murakami
My StruggleKarl Ove KnausgaardTechnically nonfiction, but reads like a novel. In a similar style to Proust but more modern, and I found it much more engaging. Knausgaard is very good at seeing and depicting both himself and others with both the most extreme candor and the most penetrating insight, in a way that I don't believe any other writer has ever pulled off.
Men at Wared. Ernest HemingwayA collection of short stories curated by Hemingway; almost all of them are very good. I find myself thinking back to the story "Buchmendel" by Stefan Zweig particularly often.
All the King's MenRobert Penn WarrenA very good novel, and incidentally an interesting peek into the world of politics (although The Power Broker is a much more detailed, and real, way to get a sense of what that world is like).
The Radetzky MarchJoseph RothA novel set in the old Austro-Hungarian Empire that I find myself thinking back to often.
The MartianAndy WeirWith Project Hail Mary — really fun sci-fi.
Project Hail MaryAndy Weir
The OdysseyHomerA great story and a fascinating look at what being human was like a very long time ago.