Over the past year, I read 161 books. I started even more of them. I recommend hundreds of books to organizations and people to help them solve problems. http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/newsletter/

1. 5 books you should read.

2. “Reading what everyone else reads is good
for conversation, perhaps, but it’s not going
to enable you to think differently.”

3. “And if you can’t think differently, you’re
always going to be a one-legged man in an
ass kicking contest .”

4. Over the past year, I started over 300 books.
After tossing out the nonsense and putting
books back on my shelf that I wasn’t ready
for, I ended up reading 161 books cover-to-
cover.
If you want to read and learn along with me,
subscribe to my weekly digest: brainfood.

5. HERE ARE FIVE UNDISCOVERED
BOOKS THAT WILL (PROBABLY)
CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

6. Collected Maxims
Deceptively brief and easy to read, La
Rochefoucauld’s unflattering analysis
of human behavior will stay with you
for a lifetime. His maxims and
reflections influenced people like
Nietzsche, Voltaire, Proust, de Gaulle,
and Conan Doyle. “The reader’s best
policy,” Rochefoucauld suggests, “is
to assume that none of these maxims
is directed at him, and that he is the
sole exception. …. After that, I
guarantee that he will be the first to
subscribe to them.”

7. 48 Laws of Power
I’ve never read this book in a cover-
to-cover sense but I’ve read each of
the laws. More than that, I’ve broken
each of the laws. I’ll give you an
example. The first law is “Never
outshine the master.” Once I was
hired as the assistant to a very senior
person, I worked as hard as I ever
have to show off my talents and skills
and at every turn it backfired over and
over again. The lesson — “make your
masters appear more brilliant than
they are and you will attain the
heights of power.” I wish I read this
book earlier in my career, it certainly
would have been helpful.

8. The Arts of Leadership and War
This book sat on my shelf for a year
before I picked it up recently. This is
the biography of Cyrus the Great,
also known as Cyrus the Elder, who
made the oldest known declaration of
human rights. The book is full of
leadership lessons. Here’s an
example. “Brevity is the soul of
command. Too much talking suggests
desperation on the part of the leader.
Speak shortly, decisively and to the
point–and couch your desires in such
natural logic that no one can raise
objections. Then move on.”

9. Letters From a Self-Made Merchant
This no nonsense collection of 20
letters from a self-made man to his
son are nothing short of brilliant as far
as I’m concerned. This is a great
example of timeless wisdom. The
broad theme is how to raise your
children in a world where they have
plenty but the lessons apply to
parents and non-parents alike.

10. Models of my Life
An autobiography of Nobel laureate
Herbert A. Simon, a remarkable
polymath who more people should
know about. In an age of increasing
specializing, he’s a rare generalist —
applying what he learned as a
scientist to other aspects of his life.
Crossing disciplines, he was at the
intersection of “information sciences.”
He won the Nobel for his theory of
“bounded rationality,” and is perhaps
best known for his insightful quote “A
wealth of information creates a
poverty of attention.”

11. AND ONE MORE. JUST FOR
GOOD LUCK.

12. Meditations
Ok, this is a bonus pick as I figured a
many of you might have read this
already. It was, after all, on the 2013
Farnam Street reader’s choice list. If
you bought it and haven’t read it,
consider this a nudge. The best way
to sum up this book is: A simple and
powerful guide to life. This book was
never intended for publication it was
for himself. How many people write a
book of epigrams to themselves?
Get it. Read it. Live it.

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