Stand in the shoulder of giants.
I read on average 3 books a month. I’m listing below some of the most inspiring, life-changing or thrilling readings I had so far.
I make my own book summary and collect some of the most striking passages, you can see those summaries using the below access:
Don’t read or learn successful people’s habits to copy or become like them. Read, absorb, learn, embrace ideas but adapt or check they fit to your own personality. Be genuine and authentic. Reading is a great way of acquiring skills, knowledge, ideas. But also to a good way to exercise your brain and keep the curiosity levels up.
Don’t read a book expecting it will change your life. You and you alone can change your life. A book can be the sparkle, the igniter to impulse your action, to changing habits. Otherwise it will just another good book on the shelf, the one that you’ll refer as “once I read a book…”
Entrepreneurship/Business:
- The Great Game of business / Jack Stack (This is a business book on how to manage a company by grabbing people’s interests and motivation as an important part of the organization and not as simple assets that are supposed to do what they are told).
- E-Myth / Michael Berger (a must for all those who want to understand or become entrepreneurs. the basics of how to build and run a business)
- Traction / Gabriel Weinberg (a must for entrepreneurs. Product Risks vs Market risks and how they should go hand in hand)
- Zero to one / Peter Thiel (The need to step out of the ordinary and create niche or non existent business)
- the 4 hour work week / Tim Ferris (Put aside the cubicle and 9/5 mentality. Work smarter, from anywhere)
- Think and Grow Rich / Napoleon Hill (an absolute must. Not about getting rich in money but mainly living a rich life)
- From good to great / Jim Collins (Why some companies remain average whilst others jump ahead and stay there at the top)
- The Lean startup / Eric Ries (How to create/run a business tackling myths and mistakes often disregarded)
- The Innovator’s dilemma / Clayton Christensen (Why big companies disappeared in a few years? when to shift an existing business model?)
- Influence and persuasion / Robert Cialdini (the automatic responses we have in our inner-selves and how they can be used or manipulated by others)
- The effective Executive / Peter Drucker (the importance of not doing things right but having the right things done)
- All marketers are
liarsstorytellers / Seth Godin (People don’t buy based on facts but based on a story. The path to profitable growth is satisfying wants, not needs). - The Rules of management / Richard Templar (very pragmatic approach with brutal insights on how to move from a reporting job to a managerial one)
Personal development/Psychology/spirituality:
- The Laws of human nature / Robert Greene (A bit in the line of books like “Predictably irrational” or “Thinking fast and slow”, this book is a dictionary of human behaviour, not from a “thinking” process but behavioural and most of the time unconscious)
- Start with the why / Simon Sinek (You might know him from some viral video, but the book is about the crucial foundation of any corporation to focus not on their products or their processes (the what and the how) but why you’re taking a journey in first place).
- Sapiens: A brief history of humankind / Yuval Harari (an absolute must – written in plain and current English – putting in perspective the current society model and how did we got here)
- The Subtle Art of not giving a f*uck / Mark Manson (it’s not about shaking responsability or interest, it’s about doing it on things that really matter)
- The obstacle is the way / Ryan Holiday (What stands in the way becomes the way. Earlier generations faced worse problems with fewer tools and safety nets).
- Meditations / Marcus Aurelius (Amazing how a book written about 2000 years remains a reference. Maybe because life in itself is the same, we just have different distractions)
- Man’s search for meaning / Viktor Frankl (An absolute must read. How can man find meaning even under the most critical and depriving situations to survive. Survivor of the holocaust. It’s not just another book of an holocaust survivor. It’s the book of the holocaust survivor).
- 7 habits of highly effective people / Stephen Covey (a must in this field, the habit change process that can boost your personal and professional life)
- How to win friends and influence people / Dale Carnegie (another must in the field of human relations. Can be applied at personal and professional levels)
- As a man thinketh / James Allen (We are what we think, remarkable book initially published more than 100 years ago)
- Choose yourself / James Altucher (Life is a rollercoaster, we always have the possibility to rebound)
- Miracle Morning / Hal Elrod (Self discipline and commitment, start your day early and with energy)
- Awake the Giant within / Tony Robbins (Touching different areas as positive thinking, habit changing and self improvement)
- Outliers / Malcolm Gladwell (why some people excel, do they have something we don’t?)
- Are you fully charged / Tom Rath (energize yourself to get the best out of your day)
- You can if you think you can / Norman Vincent Peale (Positive thinking and power of attraction)
- Your Erroneous zones / Dr Wayne Dyer (change your “script”, change your thoughts to become a happier person)
- Wishes fulfilled / Dr Wayne Dyer (finding your true spiritualism and role during this human experience)
- Lucky or smart / Bo Peabody (How to be aware Lucky is at the door and open it without standing in the way)
- Walden / Henry David Thoreau (the experience of 2 years lived in the nature, a spiritual journey and introspective vision of how man is getting distracted, absorbed and imprisoned by all kind of self imposed habits and routines)
Fiction/Novel/Sci-Fi
- The fountainhead / Ayn Rand (Actually this is a philosophical fiction. For me, one the the best books ever. Should you follow the society of your own path and live your life regardless the good or bad opinion of others)
- The Foundation Novels / Isaac Asimov
- Inferno / Dan Brown
- Notte buia niente stelle / Stephen King
- 11/23/63 / Stephen King
- Et Aprés / Guillaume Musso
- N’oubliez Jamais / Michel Bussi
- Sauve Moi / Guillaume Musso
- The Lost Symbol / Dan Brown
- Seras-tu la / Guillaume Musso
- Il Libro segreto de Shakespeare / John Underwood
- Que serais Je sans toi / Guillaume Musso
- Central Park / Guillaume Musso
- Le jour ou la mort nous separe / Harlan Cobben
- Echo Park / Michal Connely
- Six ans deja / Harlan Cobben