I love reading books.
I didn't use to, but since buying a Nook reader, the amount of books I've read has increased significantly. I read non-fiction almost exclusively, mostly books about psychology, productivity, and philosophy.
Here's the list of my favorite books, which I hope you will enjoy as much as I did.
A must read for anyone dealing with people in their day to day work (everyone). Packed with great advice for effective work relationships. Although its title might suggest so, this isn't a self-help book.
This book explores how brains work and how we reach our peek performance in both sports and art. Sheds some light on reasons behind talent pools like Brazil in soccer, Renaissance Florence in art, Russia in woman tennis etc.
Great critique of our current education system and how it's obsolete for the modern age. Explores history behind modern schools and lays out the problems they cause.
The best productivity book I've read. Made me quit working in a co-working space, stop using social media so heavily and be more focused and deliberate about my work. It's an excellent critique against the "always available" and instant work communication, which is so prevalent today.
Although my first thought about this book was that it's going to lay out the differences between painters and programmers, this book explores the similarities between them. Interesting read for any programmer out there, although some chapters are mildly annoying with extreme libertarian agenda.
If I had to pick one book for every programmer to read, it would be this book. Packed with great advice from people that spent decades in software development.
To say that this is a mind-blowing book, would be an understatement. Hands down, one of the best books I've read, if not the best. The way the author explains the entire history of humankind is fascinating, and I never knew history could be so exciting. His arguments are based on the science of evolution, and it makes so much sense. If I had to suggest only one book on this list, this would be that book.
Exploration of what it takes to become a master. In this book, the author describes lives of famous masters of their craft like Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein and explains how finding your niche is key to becoming master.
This book describes how most people are only interested in what talented people are like and completely ignore the fact of their environment and the time they were born at. It explores how the environment affected the success of many people we consider talented like Bill Gates and the Beatles.
Great book that describes two modes of existence: the being and the having mode. It lays out the problem of the pointlessness of having mode and just acquiring things and suggests to reader to focus more on the being mode. A must read for anyone displeased with consumerism of our age.
If you're looking for an introduction to Stoicism, start with this book. It explains how Stoics view obstacles in life as opportunities and how many successful people in history followed the Stoic philosophy to get through difficult times in their lives.