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Curated list of mind expanding books.

Table of Contents

Books

Startups and Business

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike Phil Knight 4.46 2016
The Compound Effect Darren Hardy 4.40 2010
High Output Management Andy Grove 4.38 1995
Outwitting the Devil: The Secret to Freedom and Success Napoleon Hill 4.38 2011
How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be : The 25 Principles of Success Jack Canfield, Janet Switzer 4.26 2007
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine Michael Lewis 4.26 2015
The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership Bill Walsh, Steve Jamison, Craig Walsh 4.21 2009
The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers Ben Horowitz 4.20 2014
Think and Grow Rich Napoleon Hill 4.17 1937
Outliers: Story of Success Malcolm Gladwell 4.11 2008
The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing : A Guide to Move More Profitable Thomas Nagle, John Hogan, Joseph Zale 4.09 2005
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action Simon Sinek 4.07 2009
Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children John Wood 4.07 2006
Hackers and Painters Paul Graham 4.06 2004
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap And Others Don't Jim Collins 4.05 2001
The Lean Startup: How Constant Innovation Creates Radically Successful Businesses Eric Ries 4.04 2011
The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal Jim Loehr, Tony Schwartz 4.03 2005
The Checklist Manifesto: How To Get Things Right Atul Gawande 4.03 2009
Where Good Ideas Come From Steven Johnson 4.03 2010
Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose Tony Hsieh 4.01 2010
The Innovator's Dilemma clayton m. christensen 4.00 1997
Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson 3.98 2007
The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It Michael E. Gerber 3.98 1995
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity David Allen 3.98 2001
Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way Richard Branson 3.97 1998
SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance Steven D. Litt 3.96 2009
The Ten Faces of Innovation Tom Kelley 3.96 2005
Rich Dad Poor Dad : What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That The Poor And Middle Class Don't Robert T. Kiyosaki 3.95 1997
Founders At Work: Stories Of Startups Early Days Jessica Livingston 3.94 2007
The Paypal Wars Eric M. Jackson 3.94 2010
Lean In : Women, Work and the Will to Lead Sheryl Sandberg 3.94 2013
ReWork: Change the Way You Work Forever David Heinemeier Hansson 3.93 2010
The 22 Immutable Laws Of Branding Laura Ries and Al Ries 3.93 1998
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner 3.93 2006
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference Malcolm Gladwell 3.92 2002
The Four Steps to the Epiphany Steve Blank 3.92 2005
The Curse of the Mogul Jonathan A. Knee, Bruce C. Greenwald, Ava Seave 3.91 2009
David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants Malcolm Gladwell 3.90 2013
Strategy for Sustainability: A Business Manifesto Adam Werbach 3.89 2009
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable Nassim Nicholas Taleb 3.88 2007
Contagious: Why Things Catch On Jonah Berger 3.88 2013
Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?: Leading a Great Enterprise through Dramatic Change Louis V Gerstner, Jr 3.88 2003
Linchpin: Are You Indispensable Seth Godin 3.87 2010
The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future Chris Guillebeau 3.85 2012
Too Big to Fail Andrew Ross Sorkin 3.85 2011
The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less Barry Shwartz 3.84 2005
The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything Guy Kawasaki 3.82 2004
Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business Jeff Howe 3.82 2008
Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age Clay Shirky 3.82 2010
Zero to One Peter Thiel, Blake Masters 3.75 2014
One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon.com Richard Brandt 3.75 2011
Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think Kenneth Cukier 3.70 2013
The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich Timothy Ferriss 3.61 2012
The Accidental Billionaires : The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal Ben Mezrich 3.50 2009

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Philosophy And Psychology

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion Gregory Boyle 4.41 2010
Education and the Significance of Life Krishnamurti 4.38 2008
Man's Search for Meaning Viktor E. Frankl 4.33 2006
The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size Tor Norretranders 4.30 1999
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen Christopher McDougall 4.27 2009
Prometheus Rising Robert Anton Wilson 4.26 2010
The Concise 48 Laws of Power Robert Greene 4.25 2011
The Hero with a Thousand Faces Joseph Campbell 4.24 1972
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind Shunryu Suzuki, David Chadwick 4.23
The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain, from Vienna 1900 to the Present Eric Kandel 4.22 2012
Meditations Marcus Aurelius 4.21
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion Robert B. Cialdini 4.18 2006
Gifts of Imperfection Brene Brown 4.18
Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern Douglas Hofstadter 4.16 1996
The Truth About Everything: An Irreverent History of Philosophy : With Illustrations Matthew Stewart 4.15 1997
How to Win Friends and Influence People Dale Carnegie 4.14 1998
Creative Visualization: Use the Power of Your Imagination to Create What You Want in Your Life Shakti Gawain 4.13 2002
Bulfinch's Mythology Thomas Bulfinch 4.13 1998
Ego Is the Enemy Ryan Holiday 4.12 2016
Awaken the Giant Within: How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Destiny! Anthony Robbins 4.11
The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment Eckhart Tolle 4.11 1997
Predictably Irrational Dan Ariely 4.10 2008
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 4.10 1990
Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman 4.09 2011
Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy William Barrett 4.09
The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World David Deutsch 4.08
Metaphors We Live By George Lakoff, Mark Johnson 4.08 2003
Grit Angela Duckworth 4.08 2016
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto Michael Pollan 4.07 2008
The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature Steven Pinker 4.07 2003
The History of Western Philosophy Bertrand Russell 4.06 2008
Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them Joshua Greene 4.05 2013
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking Susan Cain 4.04 2012
The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind Michio Kaku 4.04 2014
Every Thing Must Go: Metaphysics Naturalized James Ladyman, Don Ross, et al 4.04 2007
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (Incerto) Nassim Nicholas Taleb 4.04 2012
Mindset: The new psychology of success Carol S. Dweck,Ph.D. 4.04 2006
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life And Business Charles Duhigg 4.03 2012
The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic Dan Ariely 4.00
Outsmarting IQ: The Emerging Science of Learnable Intelligence David Perkins 4.00 1995
The Art of War Sun Tzu 3.95 2005
Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength Ron P. Baumeister, John Tierney 3.95 2011
A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future Daniel H. Pink 3.95
Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel Rolf Potts 3.92
Supernormal: Science, Yoga, and the Evidence for Extraordinary Psychic Abilities Dean Radin 3.91 2013
Prisoner's Dilemma William Poundstone 3.91 1993
The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature Steven Pinker 3.90 2007
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge Edward O. Wilson 3.90 1999
Why We Make Mistakes: How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and Are All Pretty Sure We Are Way Above Average Joseph T. Hallinan 3.87 2009
You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation Deborah Tannen 3.86 2007
Just the Arguments: 100 of the Most Important Arguments in Western Philosophy Michael Bruce, Steven Barbone 3.85 2011
What the Dog Saw: and other adventures Malcolm Gladwell 3.82 2009
Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior Geoffrey Miller 3.82
Games People Play: The Basic Handbook of Transactional Analysis Eric Berne. 3.81
This Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking John Brockman 3.81 2012
Intuition Pumps And Other Tools for Thinking Daniel C. Dennett 3.80 2014
Jonathan Livingston Seagull Richard Bach 3.80
Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story Jim Holt 3.77 2012
The Social Contract Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Maurice Cranston 3.75
The Ethical Brain: The Science of Our Moral Dilemmas Michael S. Gazzaniga 3.70 2006
Why Smart People Can Be So Stupid Robert J Sternberg 3.68 2003
Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Others Sherry Turkle 3.62 2011
How to Win Every Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic Madsen Pirie 3.55 2006
Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life: Winifred Gallagher Winifred Gallagher 3.54
The Fine Art of Small Talk: How To Start a Conversation, Keep It Going, Build Networking Skills -- and Leave a Positive Impression Debra Fine 3.36 2005
Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You: Sam Gosling Sam Gosling 3.33

Autobiographies and Biographies

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption Laura Hillenbrand 4.39 2010
Long Walk to Freedom Nelson Mandela 4.31 1995
My Life and My Work Henry Ford 4.29
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character Richard Feynman 4.29 1997
The Autobiography of Malcolm X Malcolm X, Alex Haley 4.29
Elon Musk: Inventing the Future Ashlee Vance 4.25 2015
The Last Lecture Randy Pausch 4.25 2008
Freedom in Exile Dalai Lama XIV 4.24 1991
Madame Curie: A Biography Marie Curie 4.22 2001
Wings of Fire A.P.J. Abdul Kalam 4.20 2011
The Man Who Knew Infinity : A Life of the Genius Ramanujan Robert Kanigel 4.15 1991
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth Chris Hadfield 4.14 2013
The Diary of a Young Girl Anne Frank 4.10 1993
Einstein: His Life and Universe Walter Isaacson 4.09 2007
Steve Jobs Walter Issacson 4.09 2011
My Experiments with Truth Mahatma Gandhi 4.07 1993
The Story of My Life Helen Keller 4.07 1990
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot 4.05 2010
Losing My Virginity: The Autobiography Richard Branson 3.97 1999
Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker Kevin Mitnick 3.95 2011
An Autobiography: Toward Freedom Jawaharlal Nehru 3.85 1989
iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It Steve Wozniak 3.82 2007

History

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Yuval Noah Harari 4.42 2014
The Discoverers Daniel J. Boorstin 4.34 2012
One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War Michael Dobbs 4.20 2008
The Codebreakers: The Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet David Kahn 4.18 1996
From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present Jacques Barzun 4.12 2001
Why the West Rules--for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future Ian Morris 4.09 2010
The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide Robert Jay Lifton 4.07 1986
God Created The Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs that Changed History Stephen Hawking 4.06
Churchill's Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging of India during World War II Madhusree Mukerjee 4.05 2010
El Tiempo Entre Costuras María Dueñas 4.04 2009
Guns, Germs, And Steel : The Fates Of Human Societies Jared M. Diamond 4.00 2005
Discovery of India Jawaharlal Nehru 3.98
The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves (P.S.) Matt Ridley 3.98 2010
Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground Kevin Poulson 3.96 2011
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World Steven Johnson 3.91
The Rise and Fall of the British Empire Lawrence James 3.89 1997
The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires Tim Wu 3.89 2010
Spycraft Robert Wallace, H. Keith Melton, Henry R. Schlesinger 3.81
Civilization: The West and the Rest: Niall Ferguson Niall Ferguson 3.78 2011
The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate Robert D. Kaplan 3.68 2012
The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century Thomas L. Friedman 3.66 2006

Science and Medicine

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Asimov's New Guide to Science Isaac Asimov 4.36 1985
Origins of Form: The Shape of Natural and Man-Made Things Christopher Williams 4.31 2013
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid Douglas R. Hofstadter 4.30 1979
The Little Schemer Daniel P. Friedman, Matthias Felleisen, Duane Bibby, Gerald J. Sussman 4.27 1995
Scientific Genius: A Psychology of Science Dean Keith Simonton 4.25 1988
Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World Kevin Kelly 4.24 1995
The Brain: The Story of You David Eagleman 4.20 2015
A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson 4.19
The Symbolic Species: The Co-evolution of Language and the Brain Terrence W. Deacon 4.17 1998
A Brief History of Time Stephen Hawking 4.12 1998
The Selfish Gene Richard Dawkins 4.11
Figments of Reality: The Evolution of the Curious Mind Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen 4.11 2009
The New Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes in a Complex World Elkhonon Goldberg 4.07
The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene Richard Dawkins 4.07 1999
Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe Peter D. Ward, Donald Brownlee 4.06 2003
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers Mary Roach 4.05 2004
Darwin's Dangerous Idea Daniel C. Dennett 4.03
The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future Kevin Kelly 4.02 2016
The Outer Limits of Reason: What Science, Mathematics, and Logic Cannot Tell Us Noson S. Yanofsky 4.00 2013
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: 50th Anniversary Edition Thomas S. Kuhn 3.99 1996
At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity Stuart Kauffman 3.97 1996
The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom Yochai Benkler 3.95 2006
Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence Hans Moravec. 3.95 1990
How to Find a Habitable Planet James Kasting 3.93 2010
The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution Gregory Cochran, Henry Harpending 3.91
Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives David Sloan Wilson 3.90 2007
Life at the Speed of Light: From the Double Helix to the Dawn of Digital Life J. Craig Venter 3.87 2013
The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains Nicholas Carr 3.85 2011
Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human Richard Wrangham 3.83 2009
Heaven in a Chip: Fuzzy Visions of Society and Science in the Digital Age Bart Kosko 3.82 2000
The Quark and the Jaguar: Adventures in the Simple and the Complex Murray Gell-Mann 3.81
Tomorrowland: Our Staggering Journey from Science Fiction to Science Fact Steven Kotler 3.80 2015
Origins of Genius: Darwinian Perspectives on Creativity Dean Keith 3.74 1999
Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense Jonathan D. Moreno 3.45 2007

Logic and Problem Solving

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
What Is the Name of This Book?: The Riddle of Dracula and Other Logical Puzzles Raymond M. Smullyan 4.24 2011
A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science even If You Flunked Algebra Barbara Oakley 4.22 2014
How to Solve It: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method George Polya 4.16 2015
Labyrinths of Reason: Paradox, Puzzles, and the Frailty of Knowledge William Poundstone 4.05 1989

Politics

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness Michelle Alexander 4.49 2010
Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? Michael J. Sandel 4.25
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion Jonathan Haidt 4.16 2012
Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right Arlie Russell Hochschild 4.15 2016
Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime John Heilemann, Mark Halperin 4.10 2010
Bolo'bolo P.M. 4.05 1984
The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies Bryan Caplan 3.96 2007
Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict Michael Klare 3.73
The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream Barack Obama 3.70 2006

Economics

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Origin of Wealth Eric D. Beinhocker 4.23 2006
Every Shot Counts: Using the Revolutionary Strokes Gained Approach to Improve Your Golf Performance and Strategy Mark Broadie 4.23 2014
Economic Facts and Fallacies Thomas Sowell 4.18 2008
Debt - Updated and Expanded: The First 5,000 Years David Graeber 4.17 2011
Capital in the Twenty-First Century Thomas Piketty 4.01 2014
23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism Ha-Joon Chang 3.97
The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail--but Some Don't Nate Silver 3.96
Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis James Rickards 3.96 2011
The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World Niall Ferguson 3.88
The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It Paul Collier 3.85 2007
The Thank You Economy Gary Vaynerchuk 3.83 2011
Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers is the New Way To Be Smart Ian Ayres 3.70
A Farewell to Alms : A Brief Economic History of the World Gregory Clark 3.67 2007

Gender

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference Cordelia Fine 4.15 2010

Sexuality

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Christopher Ryan, Cacilda Jetha 4.02 2010
The Ethical Slut: A Guide to Infinite Sexual Possibilities Dossie Easton, Catherine A. Liszt. 3.83 2004
The Sex Myth Brooke Magnanti 3.50 2015

Education

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Mindstorms: Children, Computers, And Powerful Ideas Seymour A. Papert 4.32 1993
How Children Fail John Holt 4.22 1995
Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, Mark A. McDaniel 4.20 2014
Teaching as a Subversive Activity Neil Postman, Charles Weingartner 4.19 1971
Summerhill School: A New View of Childhood A. S. Neill, Albert Lamb 4.09 1995
The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance Josh Waitzkin 4.08 2016
Wounded by School: Recapturing the Joy in Learning and Standing Up to Old School Culture Kirsten Olson, Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Parker J. Palmer 3.92 2009
Curious Minds: How a Child Becomes a Scientist John Brockman 3.72 2005

Writing

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Hat Box: The Collected Lyrics of Stephen Sondheim Stephen Sondheim 4.77
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft Stephen King 4.31 2002
Clear and Simple as the Truth Francis-Noël Thomas, Mark Turner 4.06 1996
The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century Steven Pinker 4.03 2014

Theater and Film

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Different Every Night: Putting the play on stage and keeping it fresh Mike Alfreds 4.69 2008
Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre Keith Johnstone 4.27
The Actor and the Target Declan Donnellan 4.25 2006
In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing Walter Murch 4.24 1995
Notes on Directing: 130 Lessons in Leadership from the Director's Chair Frank Hauser, Russell Reich 4.21
How to Stop Acting Harold Guskin 4.17 2003
A Practical Handbook for the Actor Melissa Bruder, Lee Michael Cohn, Madeleine Olnek, Nathaniel Pollack, Robert Previtio, Scott Zigler, David Mamet 3.87 1986

Shakespeare

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Thinking Shakespeare: A How-to Guide for Student Actors, Directors, and Anyone Else Who Wants to Feel More Comfortable With the Bard Barry Edelstein. 4.62
Hamlet and Revenge Eleanor Prosser 4.50 1971
Shakespeare's Metrical Art George T. Wright 4.39 1991
Hamlet in Purgatory Stephen Greenblatt 3.98 2002

Fiction

Classics

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov 4.32 1996
Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 4.31 1995
The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoevsky, Richard Pevear, Larissa Volokhonsky 4.30 2002
Pride And Prejudice Jane Austen 4.24 2000
A Prayer for Owen Meany John Irving 4.22 1990
Letters From The Earth Mark Twain 4.22 2004
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey 4.18 1963
Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky 4.18 2002
Steppenwolf: A Novel Hermann Hesse, Basil Creighton 4.11 1999
The Glass Bead Game Hermann Hesse, Richard and Clara Winston 4.11 2002
War and Peace Leo Tolstoy 4.11 1998
Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë 4.10 1847
Germinal Emile Zola 4.10 2004
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler Italo Calvino and William Weaver 4.08 1982
The Wall: (Intimacy) and Other Stories Jean-Paul Sartre, Lloyd Alexander 4.07 2010
Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen 4.06 2003
The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde 4.06 1998
Watership Down: A Novel Richard Adams 4.05 1975
One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Gregory Rabassa 4.04 2003
The Death of Ivan Ilych Leo Tolstoy 4.04
Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy 4.02 2012
Bleak House Charles Dickens 4.00 2006
J'accuse Emile Zola 3.99 1998
Catch 22 Joseph Heller 3.98 2004
The House of Mirth Edith Wharton 3.94 2006
Confessions of a Mask Yukio Mishima 3.91 1998
De L'esprit Des Lois Montesquieu 3.91 1995
Love in the Time of Cholera Gabriel García Marquéz 3.9 1985
Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes 3.85 2003
Mansfield Park Jane Austen 3.84 2003
Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte 3.82 2002
Père Goriot Honoré de Balzac 3.82 1997
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain 3.80 2002
The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger 3.79 2001
Eugénie Grandet Honoré de Balzac 3.79 2003
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values Robert M. Pirsig 3.76 1974
Candide Voltaire 3.76 1991
Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand 3.68 1957
Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert 3.65 2004
Confessions Jean-Jacques Rousseau 3.61 2003
Lettres persanes Montesquieu 3.54
The Director David Ignatius 3.43 2015

Fantasy

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
The Kingkiller Chronicle Patrick Rothfuss 4.55 2007
The Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien 4.47 1954
A Song of Ice and Fire George R.R. Martin 4.45 2005
Harry Potter J.K. Rowling 4.44 1997
Mistborn Brandon Sanderson 4.43 2006
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality Eliezer Yudkowsky 4.38 2015
Discworld Terry Pratchett 4.32 2001
The Dark Tower Stephen King 4.27
His Dark Materials Philip Pullman 4.25
The Last Wish - Saga Andrzej Sapkowski 4.2 1993
The Chronicles of Narnia Clive Staples Lewis 4.24 2002
The City & The City China Mieville 3.91 2009
The Broken Empire Mark Lawrence 3.87 2011

Historical Fiction

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Lonesome Dove Larry McMurtry 4.47 1999
The Help Kathryn Stockett 4.45
The Book Thief Markus Zusak 4.36
All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr 4.31 2014
The Pillars of the Earth Ken Follett 4.29 2002
Kane and Abel Jeffrey Archer 4.27 2004
Emma Jane Austen 3.99 2003
Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy Jostein Gaarder and Paulette Moller 3.88 1996

Humor

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell Tucker Max 3.51 2006

Mystery

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle 4.30 1998
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Agatha Christie 4.20 2006
The Eight Katherine Neville 4.17
Memory Man David Baldacci 4.05 2015
The Girl on the Train Paula Hawkins 3.88 2015
The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown 3.79 2006

Science Fiction

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
The Martian Andy Weir 4.40 2012
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams 4.38 1979
Ready Player One Ernest Cline 4.31 2011
Ender's Game - Saga Orson Scott Card 4.30 1994
The Player of Games Iain M. Banks 4.26 1997
The Fifth Sacred Thing Starhawk 4.25 1994
Hyperion Dan Simmons 4.21 1989
Cosmicomics Italo Calvino 4.2 1965
The Diamond Age Neal Stephenson 4.19 2000
Dune Chronicles Frank Herbert 4.19 2006
Foundation Isaac Asimov 4.13 2004
Snow Crash Neal Stephenson 4.02 2000
Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury 3.97 2006
Little Brother Cory Doctorow 3.94 2008

Horror

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski 4.13 2000
Dracula Bram Stoker 3.98 1986
Frankenstein Mary Shelley, Maurice Hindle 3.75 2003

Miscellaneous

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
The Queen's Gambit Walter Tevis 4.11
The Bone People Keri Hulme 4.06 1986
Cat's Eye Margaret Atwood 3.92 1998
Xeelee Sequence Stephen Baxter 3.69 1992
Ghost Fleet P.W. Singer and August Cole 3.62 2015
Future Crimes Marc Goodman 3.42 1990

Health

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease Michael Greger, M.D. 4.54 2015
Overcoming Gravity: A Systematic Approach to Gymnastics and Bodyweight Strength (2nd edition) Steven Low 4.3 2016
Convict Conditioning Paul Wade 4.13 2012
Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness Scott Jurek, Steve Friedman 3.95 2012
8 Weeks to Optimum Health Andrew Weil 3.86

Design

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein, Max Jacobson, Ingrid Fiksdahl-King and Shlomo Angel 4.38 1977
How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built Stewart Brand 4.32 1995
Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability Steve Krug 4.24 2014
The Design of Everyday Things Donald Norman 4.18 2002
The Art of Looking Sideways Alan Fletcher 4.10 2001

Travel

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Atlas Obscura: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Hidden Wonders Joshua Foer 4.24 2016

Language

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Le Ton beau de Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language Douglas R. Hofstadter 4.22 1997

Nature

Name Author Goodreads Rating Year Published
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Annie Dillard 4.11 1974

Credits

  • @hackerkid for starting the list.
  • @geritol for building the framework for maintaining the list.
  • All the contributors for keeping the list updated by adding new books.

License

CC0

To the extent possible under law, Vishnu Ks has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work.