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See Contributing Guidelines for details on how the books are curated.

Books

Startups and Business

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike Phil Knight 4.46 2016
The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company Robert Iger, Joel Lovell 4.44 2019
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup John Carreyrou 4.4 2018
The Compound Effect Darren Hardy 4.40 2010
Never Split the Difference Chris Voss 4.39 2016
Failing to Succeed: The Story of India's First E-Commerce Company K. Vaitheeswaran 4.39 2017
High Output Management Andy Grove 4.38 1995
Outwitting the Devil: The Secret to Freedom and Success Napoleon Hill 4.38 2011
The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime! M.J. DeMarco 4.28 2011
How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be : The 25 Principles of Success Jack Canfield, Janet Switzer 4.26 2007
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine Michael Lewis 4.26 2015
The Future Is Faster Than You Think: How Converging Technologies Are Transforming Business, Industries, and Our Lives Peter H. Diamandis, Steven Kotler 4.25 2020
The Middle Finger Project Ash Ambirge 4.22 2020
Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration Ed Catmull, Amy Wallace 4.21 2014
The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership Bill Walsh, Steve Jamison, Craig Walsh 4.21 2009
The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers Ben Horowitz 4.20 2014
Think and Grow Rich Napoleon Hill 4.17 1937
AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order Kai-Fu Lee 4.16 2018
Nail it then Scale it: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Creating and Managing Breakthrough Nathan Furr 4.13 2011
Outliers: Story of Success Malcolm Gladwell 4.11 2008
The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing : A Guide to Move More Profitable Thomas Nagle, John Hogan, Joseph Zale 4.09 2005
Principles: Life and Work Ray Dalio 4.07 2017
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action Simon Sinek 4.07 2009
Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children John Wood 4.07 2006
Hackers and Painters Paul Graham 4.06 2004
How Google Works Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg 4.06 2014
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler 4.05 2002
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap And Others Don't Jim Collins 4.05 2001
The Lean Startup: How Constant Innovation Creates Radically Successful Businesses Eric Ries 4.04 2011
The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal Jim Loehr, Tony Schwartz 4.03 2005
The Checklist Manifesto: How To Get Things Right Atul Gawande 4.03 2009
Where Good Ideas Come From Steven Johnson 4.03 2010
Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose Tony Hsieh 4.01 2010
The Innovator's Dilemma clayton m. christensen 4.00 1997
Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson 3.98 2007
The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It Michael E. Gerber 3.98 1995
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity David Allen 3.98 2001
Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way Richard Branson 3.97 1998
SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance Steven D. Litt 3.96 2009
The Ten Faces of Innovation Tom Kelley 3.96 2005
Rich Dad Poor Dad : What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That The Poor And Middle Class Don't Robert T. Kiyosaki 3.95 1997
Founders At Work: Stories Of Startups Early Days Jessica Livingston 3.94 2007
The Paypal Wars Eric M. Jackson 3.94 2010
Lean In : Women, Work and the Will to Lead Sheryl Sandberg 3.94 2013
ReWork: Change the Way You Work Forever David Heinemeier Hansson 3.93 2010
The 22 Immutable Laws Of Branding Laura Ries and Al Ries 3.93 1998
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner 3.93 2006
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference Malcolm Gladwell 3.92 2002
The Four Steps to the Epiphany Steve Blank 3.92 2005
The Curse of the Mogul Jonathan A. Knee, Bruce C. Greenwald, Ava Seave 3.91 2009
David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants Malcolm Gladwell 3.90 2013
Strategy for Sustainability: A Business Manifesto Adam Werbach 3.89 2009
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable Nassim Nicholas Taleb 3.88 2007
Contagious: Why Things Catch On Jonah Berger 3.88 2013
Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?: Leading a Great Enterprise through Dramatic Change Louis V Gerstner, Jr 3.88 2003
Linchpin: Are You Indispensable Seth Godin 3.87 2010
The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future Chris Guillebeau 3.85 2012
Too Big to Fail Andrew Ross Sorkin 3.85 2011
The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less Barry Shwartz 3.84 2005
The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything Guy Kawasaki 3.82 2004
Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business Jeff Howe 3.82 2008
Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age Clay Shirky 3.82 2010
Data Driven D.J. Patil 3.80 2015
Zero to One Peter Thiel, Blake Masters 3.75 2014
One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon.com Richard Brandt 3.75 2011
Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think Kenneth Cukier 3.70 2013
The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich Timothy Ferriss 3.61 2012
The Accidental Billionaires : The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal Ben Mezrich 3.50 2009

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Philosophy And Psychology

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness Eric Jorgenson 4.64 2020
Karma Yoga Swami Vivekanand 4.51 1999
The Ascent of Humanity Charles Eisenstein 4.43 2007
Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion Gregory Boyle 4.41 2010
The Slight Edge - Secret to a Successful Life Jeff Olson 4.39 2005
Education and the Significance of Life Krishnamurti 4.38 2008
Passions Within Reason: The Strategic Role of the Emotions Robert H. Frank 4.34 1989
The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living Ryan Holiday, Stephan Hanselman 4.34 2016
Man's Search for Meaning Viktor E. Frankl 4.33 2006
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones James Clear 4.32 2018
The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size Tor Norretranders 4.30 1999
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen Christopher McDougall 4.27 2009
Prometheus Rising Robert Anton Wilson 4.26 2010
The Concise 48 Laws of Power Robert Greene 4.25 2011
The Hero with a Thousand Faces Joseph Campbell 4.24 1972
The Magic of Thinking Big David J. Schwartz 4.23 1959
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind Shunryu Suzuki, David Chadwick 4.23
The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain, from Vienna 1900 to the Present Eric Kandel 4.22 2012
Meditations Marcus Aurelius 4.21
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion Robert B. Cialdini 4.18 2006
The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence Gavin de Becker 4.18 2000
Gifts of Imperfection Brene Brown 4.18
Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern Douglas Hofstadter 4.16 1996
The Truth About Everything: An Irreverent History of Philosophy : With Illustrations Matthew Stewart 4.15 1997
Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah Richard Bach 4.15 1977
How to Win Friends and Influence People Dale Carnegie 4.14 1998
Creative Visualization: Use the Power of Your Imagination to Create What You Want in Your Life Shakti Gawain 4.13 2002
Bulfinch's Mythology Thomas Bulfinch 4.13 1998
Ego Is the Enemy Ryan Holiday 4.12 2016
Awaken the Giant Within: How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Destiny! Anthony Robbins 4.11 1991
The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment Eckhart Tolle 4.11 1997
Tuesdays with Morrie Mitch Albom 4.11 1997
The Way of the Monk Gaur Gopal Das 4.10 2020
Predictably Irrational Dan Ariely 4.10 2008
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 4.10 1990
Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman 4.09 2011
Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy William Barrett 4.09
Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine Derren Brown 4.08 2016
The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World David Deutsch 4.08 2011
Metaphors We Live By George Lakoff, Mark Johnson 4.08 2003
Grit Angela Duckworth 4.08 2016
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto Michael Pollan 4.07 2008
The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature Steven Pinker 4.07 2003
The History of Western Philosophy Bertrand Russell 4.06 2008
Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them Joshua Greene 4.05 2013
Thus Spoke Zarathustra Friedrich Nietzsche 4.05 1883
The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life Kevin Simler, Robin Hanson 4.05 2017
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking Susan Cain 4.04 2012
The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind Michio Kaku 4.04 2014
Every Thing Must Go: Metaphysics Naturalized James Ladyman, Don Ross, et al 4.04 2007
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (Incerto) Nassim Nicholas Taleb 4.04 2012
Mindset: The new psychology of success Carol S. Dweck,Ph.D. 4.04 2006
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life And Business Charles Duhigg 4.03 2012
The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic Dan Ariely 4.00 2010
Outsmarting IQ: The Emerging Science of Learnable Intelligence David Perkins 4.00 1995
The Art of War Sun Tzu 3.95 2005
Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength Ron P. Baumeister, John Tierney 3.95 2011
A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future Daniel H. Pink 3.95 2006
Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel Rolf Potts 3.92 2002
Supernormal: Science, Yoga, and the Evidence for Extraordinary Psychic Abilities Dean Radin 3.91 2013
Prisoner's Dilemma William Poundstone 3.91 1993
The Subtle Art Of Not Giving a F@ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life Mark Manson 3.91 2017
The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature Steven Pinker 3.90 2007
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge Edward O. Wilson 3.90 1999
Why We Make Mistakes: How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and Are All Pretty Sure We Are Way Above Average Joseph T. Hallinan 3.87 2009
You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation Deborah Tannen 3.86 2007
Just the Arguments: 100 of the Most Important Arguments in Western Philosophy Michael Bruce, Steven Barbone 3.85 2011
What the Dog Saw: and other adventures Malcolm Gladwell 3.82 2009
Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior Geoffrey Miller 3.82 2009
Games People Play: The Basic Handbook of Transactional Analysis Eric Berne. 3.81 1964
This Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking John Brockman 3.81 2012
Intuition Pumps And Other Tools for Thinking Daniel C. Dennett 3.80 2014
Jonathan Livingston Seagull Richard Bach 3.80 1970
Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story Jim Holt 3.77 2012
The Social Contract Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Maurice Cranston 3.75 2009
The Ethical Brain: The Science of Our Moral Dilemmas Michael S. Gazzaniga 3.70 2006
Why Smart People Can Be So Stupid Robert J Sternberg 3.68 2003
Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Others Sherry Turkle 3.62 2011
How to Win Every Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic Madsen Pirie 3.55 2006
Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life: Winifred Gallagher Winifred Gallagher 3.54 2009
Utilitarianism Geoffrey Scarre 3.50 1996
The Age of Em: Work, Love and Life When Robots Rule the Earth Robin Hanson 3.41 2016
The Fine Art of Small Talk: How To Start a Conversation, Keep It Going, Build Networking Skills -- and Leave a Positive Impression Debra Fine 3.36 2005
Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You: Sam Gosling Sam Gosling 3.33 2001

Autobiographies and Biographies

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Becoming Michelle Obama 4.53 2018
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption Laura Hillenbrand 4.39 2010
Everything Beautiful in Its Time: Seasons of Love and Loss Jenna Bush Hager 4.38 2020
Long Walk to Freedom Nelson Mandela 4.31 1995
My Life and My Work Henry Ford 4.29 1922
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character Richard Feynman 4.29 1997
The Autobiography of Malcolm X Malcolm X, Alex Haley 4.29 1965
The Third Door:The Wild Quest to Uncover How the World's Most Successful People Launched Their Careers Alex banayan 4.28 2018
Elon Musk: Inventing the Future Ashlee Vance 4.25 2015
The Last Lecture Randy Pausch 4.25 2008
Freedom in Exile Dalai Lama XIV 4.24 1991
Madame Curie: A Biography Marie Curie 4.22 2001
Autobiography of a Yogi Paramahansa Yogananda 4.21 1946
Wings of Fire A.P.J. Abdul Kalam 4.20 2011
Man Without Fear Rajat Gupta 4.20 2019
The Man Who Knew Infinity : A Life of the Genius Ramanujan Robert Kanigel 4.15 1991
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth Chris Hadfield 4.14 2013
The Diary of a Young Girl Anne Frank 4.10 1993
The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution Walter Isaacson 4.10 2014
A Sense of the World Jason Roberts 4.10 2005
Einstein: His Life and Universe Walter Isaacson 4.09 2007
Steve Jobs Walter Issacson 4.09 2011
My Experiments with Truth Mahatma Gandhi 4.07 1993
The Story of My Life Helen Keller 4.07 1990
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot 4.05 2010
Losing My Virginity: The Autobiography Richard Branson 3.97 1999
My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla Nikola Tesla 3.96 2006
Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker Kevin Mitnick 3.95 2011
An Autobiography: Toward Freedom Jawaharlal Nehru 3.85 1989
iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It Steve Wozniak 3.82 2007

History

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Yuval Noah Harari 4.42 2014
Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder 4.36 2010
How the Internet Happened: From Netscape to the iPhone Brian McCullough 4.36 2018
The Discoverers Daniel J. Boorstin 4.34 2012
Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow Yuval Noah Harari 4.27 2017
One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War Michael Dobbs 4.20 2008
The Codebreakers: The Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet David Kahn 4.18 1996
Blindness José Saramago 4.13 1995
From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present Jacques Barzun 4.12 2001
The Soul of a New Machine Tracy Kidder 4.12 1981
Why the West Rules--for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future Ian Morris 4.09 2010
The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide Robert Jay Lifton 4.07 1986
God Created The Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs that Changed History Stephen Hawking 4.06
Churchill's Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging of India during World War II Madhusree Mukerjee 4.05 2010
El Tiempo Entre Costuras María Dueñas 4.04 2009
Guns, Germs, And Steel : The Fates Of Human Societies Jared M. Diamond 4.00 2005
Discovery of India Jawaharlal Nehru 3.98 1946
The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves (P.S.) Matt Ridley 3.98 2010
Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground Kevin Poulson 3.96 2011
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World Steven Johnson 3.91 2006
The Rise and Fall of the British Empire Lawrence James 3.89 1997
The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires Tim Wu 3.89 2010
Spycraft Robert Wallace, H. Keith Melton, Henry R. Schlesinger 3.81 1987
Civilization: The West and the Rest: Niall Ferguson Niall Ferguson 3.78 2011
The UNIX-HATERS Handbook Simson Garfinkel, Daniel Weise, Steven Strassmann 3.78 1994
The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate Robert D. Kaplan 3.68 2012
The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century Thomas L. Friedman 3.66 2006

Science and Medicine

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst Robert M. Sapolsky 4.42 2017
Asimov's New Guide to Science Isaac Asimov 4.36 1985
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think Hans Rosling 4.36 2018
The Gene: An Intimate History Siddhartha Mukherjee 4.35 2016
Origins of Form: The Shape of Natural and Man-Made Things Christopher Williams 4.31 2013
The Body: A Guide for Occupants Bill Bryson 4.31 2019
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid Douglas R. Hofstadter 4.30 1979
The Little Schemer Daniel P. Friedman, Matthias Felleisen, Duane Bibby, Gerald J. Sussman 4.27 1995
Scientific Genius: A Psychology of Science Dean Keith Simonton 4.25 1988
Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World Kevin Kelly 4.24 1995
The Brain: The Story of You David Eagleman 4.20 2015
A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson 4.19 2003
Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension Matt Parker 4.19 2014
The Symbolic Species: The Co-evolution of Language and the Brain Terrence W. Deacon 4.17 1998
A Brief History of Time Stephen Hawking 4.12 1998
The Selfish Gene Richard Dawkins 4.11 1976
Figments of Reality: The Evolution of the Curious Mind Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen 4.11 2009
The New Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes in a Complex World Elkhonon Goldberg 4.07
The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene Richard Dawkins 4.07 1999
Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe Peter D. Ward, Donald Brownlee 4.06 2003
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers Mary Roach 4.05 2004
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for A Hat and Other Clinical Tales Oliver Sacks 4.05 1998
Darwin's Dangerous Idea Daniel C. Dennett 4.03 1995
The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future Kevin Kelly 4.02 2016
The Outer Limits of Reason: What Science, Mathematics, and Logic Cannot Tell Us Noson S. Yanofsky 4.00 2013
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: 50th Anniversary Edition Thomas S. Kuhn 3.99 1996
At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity Stuart Kauffman 3.97 1996
The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom Yochai Benkler 3.95 2006
Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence Hans Moravec. 3.95 1990
Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible Arthur C. Clarke 3.94 1962
How to Find a Habitable Planet James Kasting 3.93 2010
The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution Gregory Cochran, Henry Harpending 3.91 2009
The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements Sam Kean 3.91 2010
Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives David Sloan Wilson 3.90 2007
Life at the Speed of Light: From the Double Helix to the Dawn of Digital Life J. Craig Venter 3.87 2013
The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains Nicholas Carr 3.85 2011
Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human Richard Wrangham 3.83 2009
Heaven in a Chip: Fuzzy Visions of Society and Science in the Digital Age Bart Kosko 3.82 2000
The Quark and the Jaguar: Adventures in the Simple and the Complex Murray Gell-Mann 3.81 1994
Tomorrowland: Our Staggering Journey from Science Fiction to Science Fact Steven Kotler 3.80 2015
Origins of Genius: Darwinian Perspectives on Creativity Dean Keith 3.74 1999
Waters of the World: the story of the scientists who unravelled the mysteries of our seas, glaciers, and atmosphere and made the planet whole Sarah Dry 3.65 2019
Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense Jonathan D. Moreno 3.45 2007

Logic and Problem Solving

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
What Is the Name of This Book?: The Riddle of Dracula and Other Logical Puzzles Raymond M. Smullyan 4.24 2011
A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science even If You Flunked Algebra Barbara Oakley 4.22 2014
How to Solve It: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method George Polya 4.16 2015
Guide to Competitive Programming: Learning and Improving Algorithms Through Contests Antti Laaksonen 4.15 2016
Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction Philip E. Tetlock, Dan Gardner 4.10 2015
Problem Solving 101: A Simple Book Ken Watanabe 4.10 2009
Labyrinths of Reason: Paradox, Puzzles, and the Frailty of Knowledge William Poundstone 4.05 1989
Mazes for the Mind: Computers and the Unexpected Clifford A. Pickover 4.05 1992
Outnumbered: Exploring the Algorithms That Control Our Lives David Sumpter 3.99 2018
Thinking Forth: A Language and Philosophy for Solving Problems Leo Brodie 3.96 1984

Politics

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness Michelle Alexander 4.49 2010
Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? Michael J. Sandel 4.25
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century Timothy Snyder 4.20 2017
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion Jonathan Haidt 4.16 2012
Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right Arlie Russell Hochschild 4.15 2016
Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime John Heilemann, Mark Halperin 4.10 2010
Bolo'bolo P.M. 4.05 1984
The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies Bryan Caplan 3.96 2007
The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security Kevin D. Mitnick 3.76 2003
Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict Michael Klare 3.73 2001
The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream Barack Obama 3.70 2006

Economics

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
The Simple Path to Wealth: Your road map to financial independence and a rich, free life J.L. Collins 4.47 2016
Origin of Wealth Eric D. Beinhocker 4.23 2006
Every Shot Counts: Using the Revolutionary Strokes Gained Approach to Improve Your Golf Performance and Strategy Mark Broadie 4.23 2014
Economic Facts and Fallacies Thomas Sowell 4.18 2008
Debt - Updated and Expanded: The First 5,000 Years David Graeber 4.17 2011
Capital in the Twenty-First Century Thomas Piketty 4.01 2014
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner 3.98 2006
23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism Ha-Joon Chang 3.97 2010
The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail--but Some Don't Nate Silver 3.96 2012
Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis James Rickards 3.96 2011
The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World Niall Ferguson 3.88 2008
The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It Paul Collier 3.85 2007
The Thank You Economy Gary Vaynerchuk 3.83 2011
Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers is the New Way To Be Smart Ian Ayres 3.70 2007
A Farewell to Alms : A Brief Economic History of the World Gregory Clark 3.67 2007

Gender

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Cemetary Boys Aiden Thomas 4.48 2020
Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference Cordelia Fine 4.15 2010
Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl Andrea Lawlor 4.00 2017
Becoming A Man P. Carl 3.95 2020

Sexuality

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Christopher Ryan, Cacilda Jetha 4.02 2010
The Ethical Slut: A Guide to Infinite Sexual Possibilities Dossie Easton, Catherine A. Liszt. 3.83 2004
The Sex Myth Brooke Magnanti 3.50 2015

Race

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
So You Want to Talk About Race Ijeoma Oluo 4.53 2018
The Origin of Others Toni Morrison 4.22 2017

Education

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Educated: A Memoir Tara Westover 4.47 2018
Mindstorms: Children, Computers, And Powerful Ideas Seymour A. Papert 4.32 1993
The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 4.31 1943
How Children Fail John Holt 4.22 1995
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World Cal Newport 4.20 2016
Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, Mark A. McDaniel 4.20 2014
Teaching as a Subversive Activity Neil Postman, Charles Weingartner 4.19 1971
Limitless: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life Jim Kwik 4.09 2020
Summerhill School: A New View of Childhood A. S. Neill, Albert Lamb 4.09 1995
The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance Josh Waitzkin 4.08 2016
Wounded by School: Recapturing the Joy in Learning and Standing Up to Old School Culture Kirsten Olson, Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Parker J. Palmer 3.92 2009
Curious Minds: How a Child Becomes a Scientist John Brockman 3.72 2005

Writing

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Hat Box: The Collected Lyrics Stephen Sondheim 4.77
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft Stephen King 4.31 2002
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life Anne Lamott 4.23 1995
Clear and Simple as the Truth Francis-Noël Thomas, Mark Turner 4.06 1996
The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century Steven Pinker 4.03 2014

Theater and Film

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Different Every Night: Putting the play on stage and keeping it fresh Mike Alfreds 4.69 2008
Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre Keith Johnstone 4.27
The Actor and the Target Declan Donnellan 4.25 2006
In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing Walter Murch 4.24 1995
Notes on Directing: 130 Lessons in Leadership from the Director's Chair Frank Hauser, Russell Reich 4.21
How to Stop Acting Harold Guskin 4.17 2003
A Practical Handbook for the Actor Melissa Bruder, Lee Michael Cohn, Madeleine Olnek, Nathaniel Pollack, Robert Previtio, Scott Zigler, David Mamet 3.87 1986

Shakespeare

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Thinking Shakespeare: A How-to Guide for Student Actors, Directors, and Anyone Else Who Wants to Feel More Comfortable With the Bard Barry Edelstein. 4.62
Hamlet and Revenge Eleanor Prosser 4.50 1971
Shakespeare's Metrical Art George T. Wright 4.39 1991
Hamlet in Purgatory Stephen Greenblatt 3.98 2002

Fiction

Classics

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov 4.32 1966
Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 4.31 1996
The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoevsky, Richard Pevear, Larissa Volokhonsky 4.30 1880
Pride And Prejudice Jane Austen 4.24 1813
A Prayer for Owen Meany John Irving 4.22 1989
Letters From The Earth Mark Twain 4.22 1962
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey 4.18 1963
Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky 4.18 1866
1984 George Orwell 4.17 1949
The Giver Lois Lowry 4.13 1993
Steppenwolf: A Novel Hermann Hesse, Basil Creighton 4.11 1927
The Glass Bead Game Hermann Hesse, Richard and Clara Winston 4.11 1943
War and Peace Leo Tolstoy 4.11 1867
Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë 4.10 1847
Germinal Emile Zola 4.10 1885
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler Italo Calvino and William Weaver 4.08 1979
Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 4.08 1969
The Wall: (Intimacy) and Other Stories Jean-Paul Sartre, Lloyd Alexander 4.07 1948
Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen 4.06 1811
The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde 4.06 1890
Watership Down: A Novel Richard Adams 4.05 1972
One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Gregory Rabassa 4.04 1967
The Death of Ivan Ilych Leo Tolstoy 4.04 1886
Siddhartha Hermann Hesse 4.03 1922
Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy 4.02 1878
Bleak House Charles Dickens 4.00 1853
J'accuse Emile Zola 3.99 1898
Catch 22 Joseph Heller 3.98 1961
The House of Mirth Edith Wharton 3.94 1905
Confessions of a Mask Yukio Mishima 3.91 1949
De L'esprit Des Lois Montesquieu 3.91 1748
Love in the Time of Cholera Gabriel García Marquéz 3.9 1985
Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes 3.85 1605
Mansfield Park Jane Austen 3.84 1814
Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte 3.82 1847
Père Goriot Honoré de Balzac 3.82 1834
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain 3.80 1884
The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger 3.79 1951
Eugénie Grandet Honoré de Balzac 3.79 1833
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values Robert M. Pirsig 3.76 1974
Candide Voltaire 3.76 1759
Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand 3.68 1957
Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert 3.65 1856
Confessions Jean-Jacques Rousseau 3.61 1782
Lettres persanes Montesquieu 3.54 1721
The Director David Ignatius 3.43 2015

Fantasy

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
The Stormlight Archive Brandon Sanderson 4.81 2007
The Kingkiller Chronicle Patrick Rothfuss 4.55 2007
The Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien 4.47 1954
A Song of Ice and Fire George R.R. Martin 4.45 2005
Harry Potter J.K. Rowling 4.44 1997
Mistborn Brandon Sanderson 4.43 2006
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality Eliezer Yudkowsky 4.38 2015
Discworld Terry Pratchett 4.32 2001
The Dark Tower Stephen King 4.27 1982
His Dark Materials Philip Pullman 4.25 1995
The Last Wish Andrzej Sapkowski 4.2 1993
The Chronicles of Narnia Clive Staples Lewis 4.24 2002
The Wheel of Time Robert Jordan 4.19 1990
The City & The City China Mieville 3.91 2009
The Broken Empire Mark Lawrence 3.87 2011
Of Fire and Stars Book Audrey Coulthurst 3.76 2016

Historical Fiction

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Lonesome Dove Larry McMurtry 4.47 1985
The Help Kathryn Stockett 4.45 2009
A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini 4.4 2007
The Book Thief Markus Zusak 4.36 2005
All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr 4.31 2014
The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini 4.3 2003
The Pillars of the Earth Ken Follett 4.29 1989
Kane and Abel Jeffrey Archer 4.27 1979
Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden 4.12 1997
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 4 1962
Emma Jane Austen 3.99 1815
Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy Jostein Gaarder and Paulette Moller 3.88 1991

Humor

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell Tucker Max 3.51 2006

Mystery

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle 4.30 1998
And Then There Were None Agatha Christie 4.26 1939
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Agatha Christie 4.20 2006
The Eight Katherine Neville 4.17
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Stieg Larsson 4.14 2005
Memory Man David Baldacci 4.05 2015
The Turn of the Key Ruth Ware 3.94 2019
Angels & Demons Dan Brown 3.93 2000
The Girl on the Train Paula Hawkins 3.88 2015
The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown 3.79 2006

Science Fiction

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Project Hail Mary Andy Weir 4.52 2021
The Martian Andy Weir 4.40 2012
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams 4.38 1979
Champion Marie Lu 4.32 2013
Ready Player One Ernest Cline 4.31 2011
11/22/63 Stephen King 4.31 2011
Ender's Game - Saga Orson Scott Card 4.30 1994
The Player of Games Iain M. Banks 4.26 1997
The Fifth Sacred Thing Starhawk 4.25 1994
Prodigy Marie Lu 4.24 2013
Hyperion Dan Simmons 4.21 1989
Cosmicomics Italo Calvino 4.2 1965
The Diamond Age Neal Stephenson 4.19 2000
Dune Chronicles Frank Herbert 4.19 2006
Roadside Picnic Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky 4.16 1972
The Forever War Joe Haldemann 4.15 1974
Contact Carl Sagan 4.14 1985
Foundation Isaac Asimov 4.13 2004
Snow Crash Neal Stephenson 4.02 2000
Brave New World Aldous Huxley 3.99 1932
Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury 3.97 2006
Little Brother Cory Doctorow 3.94 2008
The Time Machine H.G Wells 3.89 1895

Horror

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
It Stephen King 4.24 1986
House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski 4.13 2000
If it bleeds Stephen King 4.10 2020
Rosemary's Baby Ira Levin 4.00 1967
Dracula Bram Stoker 3.98 1986
London (Surviving The Evacuation #1) Frank Tayell 3.86 2013
Frankenstein Mary Shelley, Maurice Hindle 3.75 2003

Miscellaneous

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
The Queen's Gambit Walter Tevis 4.11
The Bone People Keri Hulme 4.06 1986
Cat's Eye Margaret Atwood 3.92 1998
Xeelee Sequence Stephen Baxter 3.69 1992
Ghost Fleet P.W. Singer and August Cole 3.62 2015
Future Crimes Marc Goodman 3.42 1990

Health

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease Michael Greger, M.D. 4.54 2015
Overcoming Gravity: A Systematic Approach to Gymnastics and Bodyweight Strength (2nd edition) Steven Low 4.3 2016
Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art James Nestor 4.15 2020
Convict Conditioning Paul Wade 4.13 2012
Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness Scott Jurek, Steve Friedman 3.95 2012
Brain Food: The Surprising Science of Eating for Cognitive Power Lisa Mosconi 3.92 2018
Super Human: The Bulletproof Plan to Age Backward and Maybe Even Live Forever Dave Asprey 3.86 2019
8 Weeks to Optimum Health Andrew Weil 3.86
Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers David Perlmutter 3.89 2013

Design

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein, Max Jacobson, Ingrid Fiksdahl-King and Shlomo Angel 4.38 1977
Data visualization handbook Juuso Koponen, Jonatan Hildén 4.33 2019
How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built Stewart Brand 4.32 1995
Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability Steve Krug 4.24 2014
The Design of Everyday Things Donald Norman 4.18 2002
Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design Kat Holmes, John Maeda 4.14 2018
The Art of Looking Sideways Alan Fletcher 4.10 2001
Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation Tim Brown 3.88 2009

Travel

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Atlas Obscura: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Hidden Wonders Joshua Foer 4.24 2016

Language

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Le Ton beau de Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language Douglas R. Hofstadter 4.22 1997
The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language Steven Pinker 4.02 2000

Nature

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
The Wild Places Robert Macfarlane 4.27 2007
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History Elizabeth Kolbert 4.13 2014
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Annie Dillard 4.11 1974
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trai Bill Bryson 4.06 2006
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming David Wallace-Wells 4.06 2019

Art

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Betty Edwards 3.86 1989
Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative Austin Kleon 3.92 2012
Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered Austin Kleon 4.10 2014

Credits

  • @hackerkid for starting the list.
  • @geritol for building the framework for maintaining the list.
  • All the contributors for keeping the list updated by adding new books.

License

CC0

To the extent possible under law, Vishnu Ks has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work.