86e29bc23a
These have certainly blown my mind. I've read all of them multiple times over my lifetime.
345 lines
37 KiB
Markdown
345 lines
37 KiB
Markdown
Mind Expanding Books [](https://github.com/sindresorhus/awesome)  [](http://makeapullrequest.com) [](https://gitter.im/hackerkid/Mind-Expanding-Books?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=badge&utm_campaign=pr-badge&utm_content=badge)
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> Curated list of mind expanding books.
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Table of Contents
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- [Startups and Business](#startups-and-business)
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- [Philosophy and Psychology](#philosophy-and-psychology)
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* [Autobiographies and Biographies](#autobiographies-and-biographies)
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* [History](#history)
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* [Evolution, Science and Medicine](#science-and-medicine)
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* [Logic and Problem Solving](#logic-and-problem-solving)
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* [Politics](#politics)
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* [Sexuality](#sexuality)
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* [Education](#education)
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* [Writing](#writing)
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* [Theater and Film](#theater-and-film)
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* [Humor](#humor)
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* [Fiction](#fiction)
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* [Health](#health)
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* [Design](#design)
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Books
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-----
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###Startups and Business
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* [Zero to One](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18050143-zero-to-one) by Peter Thiel, Blake Masters
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* [Hackers and Painters](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41793.Hackers_Painters) by Paul Graham
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* [Linchpin: Are You Indispensable](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7155145-linchpin) by Seth Godin
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* [The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242472.The_Black_Swan) by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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* [The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2612.The_Tipping_Point) by Malcolm Gladwell
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* [The Compound Effect](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9420697-the-compound-effect) by Darren Hardy
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* [Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap And Others Don't](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/76865.Good_to_Great) by Jim Collins
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* [The Four Steps to the Epiphany](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/762542.The_Four_Steps_to_the_Epiphany) by Steve Blank
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* [Contagious: Why Things Catch On](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15801967-contagious) by Jonah Berger
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* [David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15751404-david-and-goliath) by Malcolm Gladwell
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* [The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail--but Some Don't](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13588394-the-signal-and-the-noise) by Nate Silver
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* [The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18176747-the-hard-thing-about-hard-things) by Ben Horowitz
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* [The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10639.The_Paradox_of_Choice) by Barry Shwartz
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* [Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/914211.Influencer) by Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson
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* [The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37875.The_Art_of_the_Start) by Guy Kawasaki
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* [Founders At Work: Stories Of Startups Early Days](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/98233.Founders_at_Work) by Jessica Livingston
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* [The Lean Startup: How Constant Innovation Creates Radically Successful Businesses](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10127019-the-lean-startup) by Eric Ries
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* [ReWork: Change the Way You Work Forever](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6732019-rework) by David Heinemeier Hansson
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* [The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/81948.The_E_Myth_Revisited) by Michael E. Gerber
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* [Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6828896-delivering-happiness) by Tony Hsieh
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* [Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/211099.Losing_My_Virginity) by Richard Branson
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* [The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68985.The_Power_of_Full_Engagement) by Jim Loehr, Tony Schwartz
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* [The Checklist Manifesto: How To Get Things Right](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6667514-the-checklist-manifesto) by Atul Gawande
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* [The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12605157-the-100-startup) by Chris Guillebeau
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* [Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15815598-big-data) by Kenneth Cukier
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* [The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6342995-the-score-takes-care-of-itself) by Bill Walsh, Steve Jamison, Craig Walsh
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* [The Thank You Economy](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9203287-the-thank-you-economy) by Gary Vaynerchuk
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* [Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2601510-crowdsourcing) by Jeff Howe
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* [Where Good Ideas Come From](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8034188-where-good-ideas-come-from) by Steven Johnson
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* [The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing : A Guide to Move More Profitable](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/99919.The_Strategy_and_Tactics_of_Pricing) by Thomas Nagle, John Hogan, Joseph Zale
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* [Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/95429.Leaving_Microsoft_to_Change_the_World) by John Wood
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* [The 22 Immutable Laws Of Branding](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1565533.The_22_Immutable_Laws_of_Branding) by Laura Ries and Al Ries
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* [Rich Dad Poor Dad : What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That The Poor And Middle Class Don't](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/69571.Rich_Dad_Poor_Dad) by Robert T. Kiyosaki
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* [Outliers: Story of Success](https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/3364437-outliers-the-story-of-success) by Malcolm Gladwell
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* [The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/368593.The_4_Hour_Workweek) by Thomas Ferriss
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* [How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be : The 25 Principles of Success](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/96593.The_Success_Principles) by Jack Canfield, Janet Switzer
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* [Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1633.Getting_Things_Done) by David Allen
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* [SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6402364-superfreakonomics) by Steven D. Litt
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* [Strategy for Sustainability: A Business Manifesto](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6553353-strategy-for-sustainability) by Adam Werbach
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* [The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8032112-the-big-short) by Michael Lewis
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* [Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?: Leading a Great Enterprise through Dramatic Change](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/603985.Who_Says_Elephants_Can_t_Dance_) by Louis V Gerstner, Jr
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* [The Ten Faces of Innovation](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/95656.The_Ten_Faces_of_Innovation) by Tom Kelley
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* [Too Big to Fail](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6687247-too-big-to-fail) by Andrew Ross Sorkin
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* [The Innovator's Dilemma](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2615.The_Innovator_s_Dilemma) by clayton m. christensen
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* [The Paypal Wars](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4052.The_PayPal_Wars) by Eric M. Jackson
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* [Origin of Wealth](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22456.The_Origin_of_Wealth) by Eric D. Beinhocker
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* [One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon.com](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11223478-one-click) by Richard Brandt
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* [Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7614793-cognitive-surplus) by Clay Shirky
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* [Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers is the New Way To Be Smart](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1081413.Super_Crunchers) by Ian Ayres by Ian Ayres
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* [The Curse of the Mogul](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7162410-the-curse-of-the-mogul) by Jonathan A. Knee, Bruce C. Greenwald, Ava Seave
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* [The Accidental Billionaires : The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6326920-the-accidental-billionaires) by Ben Mezrich
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* [Lean In : Women, Work and the Will to Lead](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16071764-lean-in) by Sheryl Sandberg
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* [Capital in the Twenty-First Century](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18736925-capital-in-the-twenty-first-century) by Thomas Piketty
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###Philosophy And Psychology
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* [The Art of War](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10534.The_Art_of_War) by Sun Tzu
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* [Predictably Irrational](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1713426.Predictably_Irrational) by Dan Ariely
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* [Thinking, Fast and Slow](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11468377-thinking-fast-and-slow) by Daniel Kahneman
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* [What the Dog Saw: and other adventures](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6516450-what-the-dog-saw-and-other-adventures) by Malcolm Gladwell
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* [The Fine Art of Small Talk: How To Start a Conversation, Keep It Going, Build Networking Skills -- and Leave a Positive Impression](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/93409.The_Fine_Art_of_Small_Talk) by Debra Fine
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* [Gifs of Immperfection](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7015403-the-gifts-of-imperfection) by Brene Brown
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* [Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8520610-quiet) by Susan Cain
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* [Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6289283-born-to-run) by Christopher McDougall
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* [The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7815744-the-upside-of-irrationality) by Dan Ariely
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* [Why Smart People Can Be So Stupid](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/300300.Why_Smart_People_Can_Be_So_Stupid) by Robert J Sternberg
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* [Creative Visualization: Use the Power of Your Imagination to Create What You Want in Your Life](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/582533.Creative_Visualization) by Shakti Gawain
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* [In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/315425.In_Defense_of_Food) by Michael Pollan
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* [Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life: Winifred Gallagher](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6262510-rapt) by Winifred Gallagher
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* [You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/147222.You_Just_Don_t_Understand) by Deborah Tannen
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* [How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4865.How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influence_People)
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* [Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17707599-moral-tribes) by Joshua Greene
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* [Why We Make Mistakes: How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and Are All Pretty Sure We Are Way Above Average](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5040579-why-we-make-mistakes) by Joseph T. Hallinan
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* [Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7090193-tattoos-on-the-heart) by Gregory Boyle
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* [Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/66354.Flow) by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
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* [The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17978489-the-future-of-the-mind) by Michio Kaku
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* [Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story]() by Jim Holt
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* [Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Others]() by Sherry Turkle
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* [Supernormal: Science, Yoga, and the Evidence for Extraordinary Psychic Abilities](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8694125-alone-together) by Dean Radin
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* [Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/83321.Irrational_Man) by William Barrett
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* [The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life And Business](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12609433-the-power-of-habit) by Charles Duhigg
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* [The Concise 48 Laws of Power](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18224060-the-concise-48-laws-of-power) by Robert Greene
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* [Prisoner's Dilemma](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29506.Prisoner_s_Dilemma) by William Poundstone
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* [The Ethical Brain: The Science of Our Moral Dilemmas](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/328734.The_Ethical_Brain) by Michael S. Gazzaniga
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* [Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You: Sam Gosling](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1581330.Snoop) by Sam Gosling
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* [The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/373969.The_Stuff_of_Thought) by Steven Pinker
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* [The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature]() by Steven Pinker
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* [Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5752.The_Blank_Slate) by Robert B. Cialdini
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* [The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain, from Vienna 1900 to the Present](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12263681-the-age-of-insight) by Eric Kandel
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* [A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/99315.A_Whole_New_Mind) by Daniel H. Pink
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* [Games People Play: The Basic Handbook of Transactional Analysis](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49176.Games_People_Play) by Eric Berne.
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* [How to Win Every Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/112731.How_to_Win_Every_Argument) by Madsen Pirie
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* [Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/402843.Zen_Mind_Beginner_s_Mind) by Shunryu Suzuki, David Chadwick
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* [The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10483171-the-beginning-of-infinity) by David Deutsch
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* [This Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13035774-this-will-make-you-smarter) by John Brockman
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* [Intuition Pumps And Other Tools for Thinking](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18378002-intuition-pumps-and-other-tools-for-thinking) by Daniel C. Dennett
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* [Just the Arguments: 100 of the Most Important Arguments in Western Philosophy](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12838972-just-the-arguments) by Michael Bruce, Steven Barbone
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* [The History of Western Philosophy](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/243685.A_History_of_Western_Philosophy) by Bertrand Russell
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* [The Truth About Everything: An Irreverent History of Philosophy : With Illustrations](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18528861-the-truth-about-everything) by Matthew Stewart
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* [Bulfinch's Mythology](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/588147.Bulfinch_s_Mythology)by Thomas Bulfinch
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* [Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55981.Consilience) by Edward O. Wilson
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* [Every Thing Must Go: Metaphysics Naturalized](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/757403.Every_Thing_Must_Go) by James Ladyman, Don Ross, et al
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* [Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (Incerto)](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13530973-antifragile) by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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* [Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/181239.Metamagical_Themas) by Douglas Hofstadter
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* [Education and the Significance of Life](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/353435.Education_and_the_Significance_of_Life) by Krishnamurti
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* [Metaphors We Live By](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34459.Metaphors_We_Live_By) by George Lakoff, Mark Johnson
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* [The Hero with a Thousand Faces](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/588138.The_Hero_With_a_Thousand_Faces) Joseph Campbell
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* [The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/106732.The_User_Illusion) by Tor Norretranders
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* [Outsmarting IQ: The Emerging Science of Learnable Intelligence](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1008488.Outsmarting_Iq) by David Perkins
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* [Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6283340-spent) by Geoffrey Miller
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* [The Social Contract](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12651.The_Social_Contract) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Maurice Cranston
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* [Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/100247.Vagabonding) by Rolf Potts
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* [Jonathan Livingston Seagull](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71728.Jonathan_Livingston_Seagull) by Richard Bach
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* [Man's Search for Meaning](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4069.Man_s_Search_for_Meaning) by Viktor E. Frankl
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* [Awaken the Giant Within: How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Destiny!](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/180116.Awaken_the_Giant_Within) by Anthony Robbins
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###Autobiographies and Biographies
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* [Elon Musk: Inventing the Future](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22543496-elon-musk) by Ashlee Vance
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* [My Experiments with Truth](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/112803.The_Story_of_My_Experiments_With_Truth) by Mahatma Gandhi
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* [The Diary of a Young Girl](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48855.The_Diary_of_a_Young_Girl) by Anne Frank
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* [Wings of Fire](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/634583.Wings_of_Fire) by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
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* [An Autobiography: Toward Freedom](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/322939.An_Autobiography) by Jawaharlal Nehru
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* [The Story of My Life](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/821611.The_Story_of_My_Life) by Helen Keller
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* [Long Walk to Freedom](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/318431.Long_Walk_to_Freedom) by Nelson Mandela
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* [Freedom in Exile](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/567720.Freedom_in_Exile) by Dalai Lama XIV
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* [Steve Jobs](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11084145-steve-jobs) by Walter Issacson
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* [My Life and My Work](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1122054.My_Life_And_Work) by Henry Ford
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* [Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5544.Surely_You_re_Joking_Mr_Feynman_) by Richard Feynman
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* [The Autobiography of Malcolm X](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92057.The_Autobiography_of_Malcolm_X) by Malcolm X, Alex Haley
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* [Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8664353-unbroken) by Laura Hillenbrand
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* [Madame Curie: A Biography](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/341166.Madame_Curie) by Marie Curie
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* [iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/798635.iWoz) by Steve Wozniak
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* [The Last Lecture](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2318271.The_Last_Lecture) by Randy Pausch
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###History
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* [23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8913542-23-things-they-don-t-tell-you-about-capitalism) by Ha-Joon Chang
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* [Discovery of India](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/154126.The_Discovery_of_India) by Jawaharlal Nehru
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* [The Rise and Fall of the British Empire](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/143980.The_Rise_and_Fall_of_the_British_Empire) by Lawrence James
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* [The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2714607-the-ascent-of-money) by Niall Ferguson
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* [The Codebreakers: The Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29608.The_Codebreakers) by David Kahn
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* [The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves (P.S.)](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7776209-the-rational-optimist) by Matt Ridley
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* [One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2606779-one-minute-to-midnight) by Michael Dobbs
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* [The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/173187.The_Nazi_Doctors) by Robert Jay Lifton
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* [Civilization: The West and the Rest: Niall Ferguson](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10475421-civilization) by Niall Ferguson
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* [The Discoverers](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/714380.The_Discoverers) by Daniel J. Boorstin
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* [From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58233.From_Dawn_to_Decadence) by Jacques Barzun
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* [The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8201080-the-master-switch) by Tim Wu
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* [Debt - Updated and Expanded: The First 5,000 Years](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6617037-debt) by David Graeber
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* [The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36086.The_Ghost_Map) by Steven Johnson
|
|
* [Guns, Germs, And Steel : The Fates Of Human Societies](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1842.Guns_Germs_and_Steel) by Jared M. Diamond
|
|
* [Why the West Rules--for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9491855-why-the-west-rules-for-now) by Ian Morrisage
|
|
* [A Farewell to Alms : A Brief Economic History of the World: A Brief Economic History of the World](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10799.A_Farewell_to_Arms) by Gregory Clark
|
|
* [Churchill's Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging of India during World War II](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8890989-churchill-s-secret-war) by Madhusree Mukerjee
|
|
* [The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13330422-the-revenge-of-geography) by Robert D. Kaplan
|
|
* [God Created The Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs that Changed History](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2096.God_Created_The_Integers) by Stephen Hawking
|
|
* [The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/<1911 class="The_World_Is_Flat"></1911>) by Thomas L. Friedman
|
|
|
|
###Science and Medicine
|
|
|
|
* [The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: 50th Anniversary Edition](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61539.The_Structure_of_Scientific_Revolutions) by Thomas S. Kuhn
|
|
* [Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24113.G_del_Escher_Bach) by Douglas R. Hofstadter
|
|
* [The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9778945-the-shallows) by Nicholas Carr
|
|
* [A Brief History of Time](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3869.A_Brief_History_of_Time) by Stephen Hawking
|
|
* [A Short History of Nearly Everything](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21.A_Short_History_of_Nearly_Everything) by Bill Bryson
|
|
* [Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32145.Stiff) by Mary Roach
|
|
* [Asimov's New Guide to Science](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/977262.Asimov_s_New_Guide_To_Science) by Isaac Asimov
|
|
* [The Symbolic Species: The Co-evolution of Language and the Brain](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/733691.The_Symbolic_Species) by Terrence W. Deacon
|
|
* [The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6033964-the-10-000-year-explosion) by Gregory Cochran, Henry Harpending
|
|
* [Origins of Genius: Darwinian Perspectives on Creativity](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/254489.Origins_of_Genius) by Dean Keith
|
|
* [At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/319006.At_Home_in_the_Universe) by Stuart Kauffman
|
|
* [The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14721.The_Wealth_of_Networks) by Yochai Benkler
|
|
* [Heaven in a Chip: Fuzzy Visions of Society and Science in the Digital Age](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/172645.Heaven_in_a_Chip) by Bart Kosko
|
|
* [The Outer Limits of Reason: What Science, Mathematics, and Logic Cannot Tell Us]() by Noson S. Yanofsky
|
|
* [The Selfish Gene]() by Richard Dawkins
|
|
* [Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense]() by Jonathan D. Moreno
|
|
* [Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives]() by David Sloan Wilson
|
|
* [Darwin's Dangerous Idea](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2068.Darwin_s_Dangerous_Idea) Daniel C. Dennett
|
|
* [The New Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes in a Complex World](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6745893-the-new-executive-brain) by Elkhonon Goldberg
|
|
* [Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11148989-catching-fire) by Richard Wrangham
|
|
* [The Quark and the Jaguar: Adventures in the Simple and the Complex](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/270881.The_Quark_and_the_Jaguar) by Murray Gell-Mann
|
|
* [Figments of Reality: The Evolution of the Curious Mind](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/164560.Figments_of_Reality) by Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen
|
|
* [How to Find a Habitable Planet](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7551498-how-to-find-a-habitable-planet) by James kasting
|
|
* [Scientific Genius: A Psychology of Science](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1752295.Scientific_Genius) Dean Keith Simonton
|
|
* [The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61538.The_Extended_Phenotype) Richard Dawkins
|
|
* [Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/88552.Rare_Earth) Peter D. Ward, Donald Brownlee
|
|
* [Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/648195.Mind_Children) by Hans Moravec.
|
|
* [The Little Schemer](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/548914.The_Little_Schemer) by Daniel P. Friedman, Matthias Felleisen, Duane Bibby, Gerald J. Sussman
|
|
* [Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16080353-out-of-control) by Kevin Kelly
|
|
* [The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future] (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27209431-the-inevitable)by Kevin Kelly
|
|
* [Tomorrowland: Our Staggering Journey from Science Fiction to Science Fact] (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25060233-tomorrowland) by Steven Kotler
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
###Logic and Problem Solving
|
|
|
|
* [What Is the Name of This Book?: The Riddle of Dracula and Other Logical Puzzles](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/493576.What_Is_the_Name_of_This_Book_) by Raymond M. Smullyan
|
|
* [How to Solve It: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/192221.How_to_Solve_It) by George Polya
|
|
* [Labyrinths of Reason: Paradox, Puzzles, and the Frailty of Knowledge](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55436.Labyrinths_of_Reason) by William Poundstone
|
|
|
|
###Politics
|
|
|
|
* [Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/149206.Resource_Wars) by Michael Klare
|
|
* [The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/493371.The_Bottom_Billion) by Paul Collier
|
|
* [The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/698866.The_Myth_of_the_Rational_Voter) by Bryan Caplan
|
|
* [Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6452731-justice) by Michael J. Sandel
|
|
* [Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6694937-game-change) by John Heilemann, Mark Halperin
|
|
* [Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11515298-currency-wars) by James Rickards
|
|
* [The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9742.The_Audacity_of_Hope) by Barack Obama
|
|
* [The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11324722-the-righteous-mind) by Jonathan Haidt
|
|
* [Economic Facts and Fallacies](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2064279.Economic_Facts_and_Fallacies) by Thomas Sowell
|
|
|
|
###Sexuality
|
|
|
|
* [Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7640261-sex-at-dawn) by Christopher Ryan, Cacilda Jetha
|
|
* [The Sex Myth](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13569582-the-sex-myth) by Brooke Magnanti
|
|
|
|
###Education
|
|
|
|
* [The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/857333.The_Art_of_Learning) by Josh Waitzkin
|
|
* [How Children Fail](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/573009.How_Children_Fail) by John Holt
|
|
* [Wounded by School: Recapturing the Joy in Learning and Standing Up to Old School Culture](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6425208-wounded-by-school) by Kirsten Olson, Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Parker J. Palmer
|
|
* [Summerhill School: A New View of Childhood](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/178734.Summerhill) by A. S. Neill, Albert Lamb
|
|
* [Mindstorms: Children, Computers, And Powerful Ideas](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/703532.Mindstorms) by Seymour A. Papert
|
|
* [Curious Minds: How a Child Becomes a Scientist](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/409588.Curious_Minds) by John Brockman
|
|
* [Teaching as a Subversive Activity](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/79681.Teaching_as_a_Subversive_Activity) by Neil Postman, Charles Weingartner
|
|
|
|
###Writing
|
|
|
|
* [Hat Box: The Collected Lyrics of Stephen Sondheim](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12909101-hat-box) by Stephen Sondheim
|
|
* [Clear and Simple as the Truth](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/120549.Clear_and_Simple_as_the_Truth) by Francis-Noël Thomas, Mark Turner
|
|
* [The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20821371-the-sense-of-style) by Steven Pinker
|
|
|
|
###Theater and Film
|
|
|
|
* [In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2141.In_the_Blink_of_an_Eye) by Walter Murch
|
|
* [Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/306940.Impro) by Keith Johnstone
|
|
* [A Practical Handbook for the Actor](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/166207.A_Practical_Handbook_for_the_Actor) by Melissa Bruder, Lee Michael Cohn, Madeleine Olnek, Nathaniel Pollack, Robert Previtio, Scott Zigler, David Mamet
|
|
* [The Actor and the Target](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/611466.The_Actor_and_the_Target) by Declan Donnellan
|
|
* [How to Stop Acting](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/808735.How_to_Stop_Acting) by Harold Guskin
|
|
* [Different Every Night: Putting the play on stage and keeping it fresh](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3493241-different-every-night) by Mike Alfreds
|
|
* [Notes on Directing: 130 Lessons in Leadership from the Director's Chair](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/254808.Notes_on_Directing) by Frank Hauser, Russell Reich
|
|
|
|
###Shakespeare
|
|
|
|
* [Thinking Shakespeare: A How-to Guide for Student Actors, Directors, and Anyone Else Who Wants to Feel More Comfortable With the Bard](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1334872.Thinking_Shakespeare) by Barry Edelstein.
|
|
* [Hamlet in Purgatory](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33179.Hamlet_in_Purgatory) by Stephen Greenblatt
|
|
* [Hamlet and Revenge](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/625956.Hamlet_Revenge_) by Eleanor Prosser
|
|
* [Shakespeare's Metrical Art](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/428615.Shakespeare_s_Metrical_Art) George T. Wright
|
|
|
|
###Humor
|
|
|
|
* [I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9010.I_Hope_They_Serve_Beer_in_Hell) by Tucker Max
|
|
* [The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11.The_Hitchhiker_s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy) by Douglas Adams
|
|
|
|
|
|
###Fiction
|
|
|
|
* [The Book Thief](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19063.The_Book_Thief) by Markus Zusak
|
|
* [A Prayer for Owen Meany](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4473.A_Prayer_for_Owen_Meany) by John Irving
|
|
* [The Help](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4667024-the-help) by Kathryn Stockett
|
|
* [Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10959.Sophie_s_World) by Jostein Gaarder and Paulette Moller
|
|
* [All the Light We Cannot See](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18143977-all-the-light-we-cannot-see) by Anthony Doerr
|
|
* [If on a Winter's Night a Traveler](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/374233.If_on_a_Winter_s_Night_a_Traveler) by Italo Calvino and William Weaver
|
|
* [The Eight](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/113310.The_Eight) by Katherine Neville
|
|
* [Snow Crash](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/830.Snow_Crash) by Neal Stephenson
|
|
* [Sense and Sensibility](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14935.Sense_and_Sensibility) by Jane Austen
|
|
* [The Catcher in the Rye](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5107.The_Catcher_in_the_Rye) by J.D. Salinger
|
|
* [Steppenwolf: A Novel](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16631.Steppenwolf) by Hermann Hesse, Basil Creighton
|
|
* [The Glass Bead Game](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16634.The_Glass_Bead_Game) by Hermann Hesse, Richard and Clara Winston
|
|
* [The Wall: (Intimacy) and Other Stories](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10031.The_Wall) by Jean-Paul Sartre, Lloyd Alexander
|
|
* [The Brothers Karamazov](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4934.The_Brothers_Karamazov) Fyodor Dostoevsky, Richard Pevear, Larissa Volokhonsky
|
|
* [Pride And Prejudice](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1885.Pride_and_Prejudice) by Jane Austen
|
|
* [Emma](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6969.Emma) by Jane Austen
|
|
* [Mansfield Park](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45032) by Jane Austen
|
|
* [Wuthering Heights](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6185.Wuthering_Heights) by Emily Bronte
|
|
* [The House of Mirth](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17728.The_House_of_Mirth) by Edith Wharton
|
|
* [The Fifth Sacred Thing](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/80689.The_Fifth_Sacred_Thing) by Starhawk
|
|
* [The Bone People](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/460635.The_Bone_People) by Keri Hulme
|
|
* [Confessions of a Mask](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62794.Confessions_of_a_Mask) by Yukio Mishima
|
|
* [The City & The City](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4703581-the-city-the-city) by China Mieville
|
|
* [Letters From The Earth](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37813.Letters_from_the_Earth) by Mark Twain
|
|
* [One Hundred Years of Solitude](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/320.One_Hundred_Years_of_Solitude) byGabriel Garcia Marquez, Gregory Rabassa
|
|
* [One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/332613.One_Flew_Over_the_Cuckoo_s_Nest) by Ken Kesey
|
|
* [Watership Down: A Novel](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/76620.Watership_Down) by Richard Adams
|
|
* [Cat's Eye](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51019.Cat_s_Eye) by Margaret Atwood
|
|
* [Bleak House](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31242.Bleak_House) by Charles Dickens
|
|
* [Lonesome Dove](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/256008.Lonesome_Dove) by Larry McMurtry
|
|
* [The Queen's Gambit](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62022.The_Queen_s_Gambit) by Walter Tevis
|
|
* [War and Peace](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/656.War_and_Peace) by Leo Tolstoy
|
|
* [The Death of Ivan Ilych](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18386.The_Death_of_Ivan_Ilych) by Leo Tolstoy
|
|
* [Anna Karenina](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15823480-anna-karenina) by Leo Tolstoy
|
|
* [The Picture of Dorian Gray](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5297.The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray) by Oscar Wilde
|
|
* [The Player of Games](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18630.The_Player_of_Games) by Iain M. Banks
|
|
* [Kane and Abel](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/78983.Kane_and_Abel) by Jeffrey Archer
|
|
* [Catch 22](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4610.Catch_22)
|
|
* [His Dark Materials](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18116.His_Dark_Materials)
|
|
* [Ender's Game - Saga](https://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=ender%27s+saga&search_type=books&search%5Bfield%5D=on)
|
|
* [Foundation](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29579.Foundation)
|
|
* [Dune Chronicles](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=dune)
|
|
|
|
###Health
|
|
|
|
* [8 Weeks to Optimum Health](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37124.8_Weeks_to_Optimum_Health) by Andrew Weil
|
|
* [Convict Conditioning](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7305111-convict-conditioning) by Paul Wade
|
|
|
|
###Design
|
|
|
|
* [Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/79766.A_Pattern_Language) by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein, Max Jacobson, Ingrid Fiksdahl-King and Shlomo Angel
|
|
* [Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18197267-don-t-make-me-think-revisited) by Steve Krug
|
|
* [The Design of Everyday Things](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/840.The_Design_of_Everyday_Things) by Donald Norman
|
|
|
|
## License
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[](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
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To the extent possible under law, [Vishnu Ks](http://www.vishnuks.com) has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work.
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