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In a previous post, I said that “the things you’ve read and your experiences” are the two most valuable inputs to any writer. “
People often ask for book suggestions, and I am always asking for them. Today I want to share some books that changed my life. I hope you enjoy it.
The Search for Meaning
Amazon.com: Man’s Search for Meaning eBook : Frankl, Viktor E., Kushner, Harold S., Winslade, William J.: Kindle Store
All can be taken away from man, except for one thing: The last human freedom–the ability to choose your attitude under any set of circumstances.
Viktor Frankl
Period, the most important book that I have ever read. When I was in Budapest, I read The Search for Meaning. What was the reason? The reason?
From history books we know about , but until you read an account from a camp inmate you won’t be able to fully understand the horrors of the camps.
You watch your friends and family die every day.
The guards treat you in a grotesque, dehumanizing manner.
Your body is deteriorating while it struggles to survive with a few bites of stale stale bread every day.
The experiences of survivors are not recorded in the history books. Only survivors’ accounts can be used to understand these experiences.
Frankl’s book has many shocking aspects, but the most shocking is not the horrors of Holocaust. It is the human ability to overcome the horrors that occurred during the Holocaust.
This book is a must read for everyone. The resilience of man in the face of such horrific circumstances, and Frankl’s comments on finding meaning make it a great read.
Greenlights
Greenlights – Kindle edition by McConaughey, Matthew. Religion & Spirituality Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.
Our life is our resume. Our story is to be told, and our choices are the chapters. Can we live so that we can look back with joy?
Matthew McConaughey
McConaughey has always been one of my favorite actors. Dazed And Confused. Dallas Buyers Club. The Lincoln Lawyer. These are all phenomenal films. When McConaughey published a book, why not read an autobiography by one of my favourite actors?
I was blown away.
Greenlights is a memoir. A comedy. A love story A philosophical work. Book on life, death and everything between.
Matthew McConaughey is the best person I have ever met when it comes to life and living. Greenlights invites you along for the ride.
Greenlights was a great resource for me as I struggled with the question “what do I want to do with my life?” that is common among young people. It provided clarity and inspiration.
The Psychology of Money
The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness: Housel, Morgan: 9780857197689: Amazon.com: Books
When you have thought of all the possible outcomes, risk is what remains.
Morgan Housel
Morgan Housel’s The Psychology of Money has been the best finance book I have read to date. The field of finance is heavily dominated by books that are quantitative. Housel’s magnum oper flipped this dynamic.
The Psychology of Money Isn’t just a book about stock picking or market behavior. It isn’t even a book that teaches you “how to earn more money” as many finance books do.
Housel shares 18 stories that illustrate our relationship with money. The Psychology of Money doesn’t deal with finance. This is a book that’s about you, me and other people. He happens to deliver his messages from the perspective of investors and markets.
Housel’s style has inspired me to write in a similar manner. He’s really good.
Vagabunding
The story comes from an ancient tradition about the Desert Fathers. They were a group of Christian monks living in the deserts of Egypt around 17 centuries ago. Theodore, Lucius, and other monks were unable to travel because they had taken vows to contemplate. Theodore, Lucius, and their companions learned to “mock” their wanderlust by deferring their travels into the future. They would say, when summer came, “we will leave in winter.” And, when winter came, “we will leave in summer.” This went on for more than fifty years without ever leaving the monastery. We haven’t taken vows like this, but we still choose to live as monks, rooted to our careers or homes, and justifying the present with a phony ritual. We spend (as Thoreau said) “the most valuable part of life working to earn money to enjoy a questionable freedom during the least important part of it.” We’d love it if we could drop everything and travel the world, but it never feels right. We make no choices when we have an infinite number of options.
Rolf Potts
This book is what made me live in a backpack for over a year, traveling to 20+ countries.
All of us are born with a desire to explore and travel. We all have a desire to explore the world. Can there be a more common dream than to explore foreign lands without rushing back home?
We begin to suppress that desire somewhere along the line. We say “We cannot go yet!” “The timing isn’t good.”
We have commoditized travel to fit our work-centric culture, and instead of traveling for long periods and experiencing new places we try to squeeze as much as we can into a week. Our work-centric culture has commoditized our travel, so that our trips overseas are simply another item on our to-do lists.
The Vagabonding experience taught me that timing is always wrong and that it’s not that expensive to travel. We should also spend more time abroad and travel for the sake of travel.
Traveling shouldn’t just be for those in their golden years. Travel should be a part of our lives at every stage.
The book Vagabonding has been read three or more times.
This book is for those who want to explore but are unable to do so.
The War of Art
The War of Art – Kindle edition by Pressfield, Steven, Coyne, Shawn. Self-Help Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.
Do you feel paralyzed by fear? This is a positive sign. Fear is a good thing. Fear is a good indicator, just like self-doubt. Fear is a signal. Remember this rule: The more afraid we are about a job or calling, we will be more certain that we must do it.
Stephen Pressfield
This book is a must-read for anyone who creates, whether they are an artist, a writer, an entrepreneur or an athlete. Pressfield illustrates the inner battle we all go through when creating: The struggle against Resistance.
The invisible force that is always lurking in the shadows. It’s that unnamed person who conspires to prevent your success. Resistance is known by many names such as “fear”, procrastination, and doubt. All of these negative forces, however, are just different faces of Resistance.
Pressfield’s The War of Art has helped me define the word “Resistance”, and to continue working despite it.
Models
I thought I would hate this book. I thought I was going to hate Mark Manson.
Can you blame my actions? Can you blame me?
I was wrong. I thought the self-help material that is so cringe-worthy and in your face would be what was on social media.
But I’m wrong.
Manson’s Blog was the first blog I discovered in June. I was immediately captivated. He has written about more topics than anyone else, including relationships, travel, self-confidence and internal demons.
Manson’s blog is not the most fascinating thing about him. The F-bomb-loving author of self-help books got his start by giving advice to guys in online dating forums. In bro-speak: He helped guys get chicks.
He quit after six weeks of his first and only job at a prestigious Boston bank. Around this time his girlfriend had cheated on her. Manson tried to deal with the breakup in a healthy way by sleeping as much as possible. He began posting on online dating forums and men paid him to accompany them to bars to learn how he did this.
No? That’s a pretty wild career change from investment banking.
Manson eventually compiled all that he learned about dating, guys, and girls into a book called Models: Attract Woman Through Honesty.
Manson’s history intrigued me. Manson’s guide clearly defined that the most effective “dating advice” for guys is based on shallow tricks and gimmicks to “get girls.”
This book is interesting for everyone, whether you’re single or married, man or woman.
The Alchemist
Amazon.com: The Alchemist eBook : Coelho, Paulo: Kindle Store
The possibility of achieving a goal is what makes life exciting.
Paulo Coelho
Unexpected romance, foreign mentors, and countless conflicts almost that prevent our protagonist from reaching the destination.
The stereotypical Hero’s Journey
Coelho’s narrative is so compelling that the “stereotypes” are swept away. From the first page, I was absorbed in the story. The Alchemist is the gold standard of “Hero’s Journey fiction”.
The 48 Laws of Power
The 48 Laws of Power – Kindle edition by Greene, Robert, Elffers, Joost. Politics & Social Sciences Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.
You cannot waste your time worrying about other people’s feelings.
Robert Greene
Many people find this book controversial. Others see it as manipulative while some view it as simply describing power dynamics and human interactions.
The 48 Laws of Power fascinated me.
Greene uses stories from history to explain the dynamics of power, and how it moves from one person to another.
Greene, a master storyteller and historian, taught me as much about human nature as he did about Napoleon, the rise and collapse of the Chinese empires and the fatal mistakes of Italian and French kings.
I was left wanting more after each chapter.
Order of Time
The Order of Time , Rovelli, Carlo – Amazon.com
All things that begin must come to an end. The cause of our suffering is not the past nor the future, but the present, our memories, and our expectations. We suffer the passing of time, we long for timelessness and we endure it. Time suffers.
Carlo Rovelli
This book is still a mystery to me. Rovelli, an Italian theoretical physicist, uses this book to explain the reality of “time” for readers such as myself. It’s hard to decide what is more impressive: his grasp of time, or his ability explain this insane phenomenon to a mere mortal like myself.
Takeaways
- Time is not linear.
- All that was to happen is now happening.
- Our perception of time is the only thing that can be considered linear.
This is a book that will blow your mind.
100M Dollar Offers
Amazon.com: $100M Offers: How To Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No eBook : Hormozi, Alex: Kindle Store
Hormozi law: The more you delay, the larger the request you can make. The longer the runway is, the larger the plane can take off.
Alex Hormozi
100M Deals , is the most important business book that any entrepreneur should read. Hormozi has written a masterclass on how to maximize the profitability of a product, service or business, by clearly communicating its value to clients.
Does this sound easy? It’s probably easy in theory, but it is excruciating to execute.
Hormozi went from being a broke gym owner to a multi-millionaire within a few short years, thanks to his ability of clearly communicating value to his clients. 100M Deals is his platform to share with the world.
This book costs only $1. You would be insane not to read this.
A Cook’s Tour
Amazon.com
I wanted adventure. I wanted to travel up the Nung River to the center of darkness in Cambodia. I wanted to ride a camel into the desert, with sand dunes all around, and eat whole roasted meat with my fingertips. I wanted to kick the snow off my boot in a Mafiya club in Russia. I wanted to experience the thrill of playing with automatic weapons in Phnom Penh. I also wanted to relive my past in an oyster village in France and step into a neon-lit pulqueria located in rural Mexico. I wanted to blow past angry militia in the middle night with a handful thrown Marlboro packs. I wanted to experience fear, excitement and wonder. I wanted thrills, the melodramatic thrills that I had yearned for ever since I was a child. I also wanted the adventure I found in my Tintin comics as a boy. I wanted to travel the world and see it as I had seen in the movies.
Anthony Bourdain
It’s a shame I didn’t read/watch Bourdain’s stuff more while he was alive (RIP). I didn’t realize that food could tell stories about the world, but Bourdain showed me that there is no other way.
Bourdain’s willingness to go to the ends on the earth, share a meal, or even take a shot, with anyone, is what I want in my life.
His blunt, humorous, and sometimes condescending writing style makes you feel as if you were sitting with him at a table on the opposite side of the globe.
How to Live
How to Live | Derek Sivers
Please read the following carefully.
One line at a Time
Derek Sivers
I don’t remember how I came across Sivers’ book How to Live,but, I do recall when I did. I was traveling from Naples, Italy, to London, England, and I remember seeing someone mention this book on Twitter.
I visited Derek’s site, became intrigued and purchased his latest work. Between a few train rides and an early morning McDonald’s at rural Switzerland, I read every page for the next six-plus hours.
How to Live is a collection of 27 poems, or stories, that show different ways to live your life.
The book was a revelation. Each chapter revealed a new layer of my life.
Shoe Dog
I would tell women and men in their mid-twenties to not settle for a career, a job, or even a profession. Seek a calling. You can still find your calling, even if you’re not sure what it is. You will find it easier to cope with fatigue, disappointments and highs if you are following your calling.
Phil Knight
Phil Knight, a former college track star who just graduated from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business with a degree in Business Administration, had no idea what to do with his future. There was nothing but a half-baked notion for some Japanese shoes and the desire to travel.
He then set off on a world tour, stopping in Japan to present his crazy shoe idea.
You know the ending if you have ever worn sneakers with the white Nike Swoosh.
Knight’s entrepreneurial story is my favorite, as the reader can see the entire progression of a 24-year-old who has a wanderlust and ends up changing the whole world.
