A list of the most notable, important books I’ve read

I’ve read a lot of books (like that time I read 442 books in three years). Not all of them are great. Most are okay, many are forgettable, some are painfully bad. But every now and again, I come across a gem that makes me feel like either my brain or my heart is literally expanding; and if I’m very lucky, both. They teach me something, and above all, they are just a joy to read.

Here is a shortlist of some of those I’ve read in recent years.

Business, Management & Startup Life

Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future - Peter Thiel

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future - Ashlee Vance

The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers - Ben Horowitz

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking - Susan Cain

Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike - Phil Knight

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games are Made - Jason Schreier

Psychology, Science, History

Don’t Think of An Elephant: Know Your Values & Frame the Debate - George Lakoff

Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahnemann

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Yuval Noal Harari

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow - Yuval Noal Harari

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals - Michael Pollan

Biography, Memoir

The Complete Maus - Art Spiegelman

The Right Stuff - Tom Wolfe

Educated - Tara Westover

The Sorcerer’s Apprentices - Lisa Abend

Fiction

Pachinko - Min Jin Lee

The Housekeeper + the Professor - Yoko Ogawa

Nothing to See Here - Kevin Wilson

Circe - Madeline Miller

Honourable mentions:

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup - John Carreyrou

This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor - Adam Kay

Living With a SEAL: 31 Days Training with The Toughest Man On the Planet - Jesse Itzler

Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It) - William Poundstone

Chaos Monkeys: Inside the Silicon Valley Money Machine - Antonio Garcia Martinez

Black Box Thinking: Why Some People Never Learn from Their Mistakes, But Some Do - Matthew Syed

Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One’s Looking) - Christian Rudder

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void - Mary Roach

Eat Me: A Natural and Unnatural History of Cannibalism - Bill Schutt

Lab Girl: A Story of Trees, Science and Love - Hope Jahren

First Bite: How We Learn to Eat - Bee Wilson

Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood - Trevor Noah

Girt (The Unauthorised History of Australia, #1) - David Hunt