Book List

I am a huge fan of literature. Literature is an author's way to expressing how they feel or believe using the written word, either explicitly or in the form of fiction. I believe there is a lot to be learned from it. Whether an author is right or wrong in their message, reading their works gives one an insight into that person's mind. Right or wrong, knowledge is knowledge, and understanding different perspectives of the world is key to understanding the world as a whole.

I have put together a list of books I would advise people read. Not all of them are books I agree with; many of them are. Feel free to take a look.

Fiction

  1. The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
  2. The Once and Future King by T.H. White
  3. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
  4. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
  5. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
  6. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
  7. Anthem by Ayn Rand
  8. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  9. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
  10. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
  11. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
  12. Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad

Politics, Philosophy, and Thought

  1. The Art of War by Sun Tsu
  2. The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
  3. On Liberty by John Stuart Mill
  4. The Republic by Plato
  5. Typecasting: On the Arts and Sciences of Human Inequality by Ewen and Ewen
  6. The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
  7. Capital by Karl Marx
  8. The Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith
  9. Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman
  10. Anatomy of a Lie by Diane Komp
  11. The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot by Robert MacFarlane
  12. Verily, Verily: The KJV - 400 Years of Influence and Beauty by Jon M. Sweeney
  13. The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  14. The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay
  15. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
  16. Incerto (Series) by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Current Events

  1. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
  2. Taxes in America by Leonard Burman, Joel Slemrod
  3. Creativity, Inc by Ed Catmull
  4. The Plague by Albert Camus
  5. The Monopolists by Mary Pilon
  6. It's Even Worse Than it Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism by Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein
  7. America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It by Mark Steyn
  8. Orwell's Revenge by Peter Huber
  9. Poor People by William T. Vollmann
  10. The Glass Cage: How Our Computers Are Changing Us by Nicholas Carr
  11. Financial Freedom by Dave Ramsey
  12. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt
  13. Under the Banner of Heaven: The Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer
  14. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
  15. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education by Diane Ravitch
  16. Shopcraft as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford
  17. Just My Type by Simon Garfield
  18. The Betrayal of the American Dream by Donald Bartlett
  19. The Muqaddimah by Ibn Khaldun
  20. Folks, This Ain't Normal by Joel Salatin
  21. In Defense of a Liberal Education by Fareed Zakaria
  22. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty
  23. Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism by Alvin Plantinga

Self-Help and Psychology

  1. The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
  2. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
  3. The 50th Law by Robert Green and 50 Cent
  4. How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships by Leil Lowndes
  5. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
  6. The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil by Philip Zimbardo
  7. Obedience to Authority by Stanley Milgram
  8. Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
  9. Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone (Especially Ourselves) by Dan Ariely