Here’s a list of the best books I’ve read. These books have played a large part in my personal development, inner journey, and path to self-actualization. I’ve curated this running list of the most influential books I’ve read on this journey.

Each of these books gave me answers to life without me even knowing I was seeking them in the first place. Their messages seemed to arrive at just the right time. This list will continue to grow and I’ll update it annually.

Despite the rise of social media, 24/7 news, YouTube videos, and podcasts, books remain just as relevant as ever, both in written and audio format. The streamlined and organized thought of these books is unmatched. There’s something special about thinking ideas through to their conclusion.

Anyway, here’s the list of my favorite 20+ game-changing books divided into categories. I hope you’ll enjoy them as much as I did.

20+ Books Across the Following Categories:

• Life-Purpose & Big Picture (6)
• Happiness & Philosophy (2)
• Business & Marketing (2)
• Meditation & Enlightenment (3)
• Minimalism, Travel & Lifestyle (2)
• Writing & Reading (3)
• Self-Publishing (2)
• Favorite Fiction Reads (3)

Learn more about these books by clicking the images below. Happy reading. (Last updated: 9/15/18). Disclaimer: There are Amazon affiliate links below. Any purchases through these links will support this blog’s content.

LIFE PURPOSE & BIG PICTURE

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less but Better, Greg McKeown

Re-align to your life purpose by renouncing busyness and focusing on what’s important. Outlines the foundational principles of aiming for less but better. The author shares a powerful story of missing his daughter’s birth for a work meeting. Use these strategies to build a purpose-driven life and continue to eliminate everything that’s not essential. How do you know your purpose? Eliminate everything that is not your purpose and see what remains. This book will aid you in that journey.

Spiral Dynamics, Don Beck & Christopher Cowan

A bio/psycho/social model and systems thinking approach for understanding the stages of human values. A study of memes, worldviews, and change. This book changed how I saw myself and the world around me. Each stage of human development is neither good nor bad but rather part of a larger process unfolding. This allows us to release judgments and learn to see the bigger picture. I also wrote a fun blog post about the ideas contained within this book.

The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers

A paradigm-shifting interview on mythology, religion, and story. The Power of Myth is a transcripted discussion between Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers (you can watch the interview on YouTube). Campbell is a comparative mythologist and proponent of the monomyth, the idea that a common thread runs through most religions and stories. He finds it particularly interesting how similar creation myths arose from entirely separate cultures of early humans who never came into contact with one another. He also details the Hero’s Journey, the path of embarking into chaos and pursuing what is difficult.

Notable past favorites:

• 12 Rules to Life: An Antidote to Chaos, Jordan Peterson: a series of archetypal rules to bring order to our lives. Peterson is a wizard at cross-discipline analysis, pulling from fields like psychology, religion, philosophy, biology, neuroscience, fairy tales, and personal experience to instantiate and validate his rules. His theory: the more fields of study in which a claim is found true, the more truth the claim carries. He presents examples of how psychological interventions can solve what were historically once believed to be societal problems. Change begins at the level of the individual. This book is both deeply philosophical and immensely practical.
• Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari: Harari managed to condense the entire history of our species into less than four hundred pages. Homo sapien’s rise to power was rooted in our ability to create and cooperate around imagined stories. The most successful stories to date are money, corporations, and religion. The author also dispels popular myths about how the industrial age sparked the ruining of our planet. It turns out homo sapiens have been destroying since our origin hundreds of thousands of years ago. A fascinating and enlightening read for those looking to learn about the past and what this means for the future of humanity.

HAPPINESS & PHILOSOPHY

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

A psychological study of the “optimal human experience”. This was an early game-changer for me. Mihaly does a fantastic job of framing the problems of humanity, that we’ve excelled in creating order in the external world, but internally, are we any happier? It doesn’t seem the “contents of our consciousness” have improved. Mihaly digs deep into why, stating that the natural state of the mind is chaos, differentiating between pleasure and enjoyment, and offers the theory that extends well beyond flow states such as creating meaning and purpose and using them to create a life that’s one long flow experience. Highly recommend.

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead, Brené Brown

Brene explains the importance of vulnerable transparency and honesty as the gateways to personal healing. We are imperfect humans. There’s no way around this. Seeking perfection is actually hindering our growth and taking away what makes us lovable. “Vulnerability is the last thing I want you to see in me but the first thing I look for in you.” We are already “enough”. But there are a few things keeping us from being wholehearted and vulnerable. Too often we dig into our “armory” and use tools that block our vulnerability like shame, foreboding joy, and numbing.  May we allow ourselves to be seen. I also posted an in-depth review of the book, here.

BUSINESS & MARKETING

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, Tim Ferriss

A book that questions the current paradigm of life deferral–working a job you don’t like only to one day retire–while providing a framework for how to turn your passions, interests, and ideas into a full-time business. This book is a wonderful resource for knowing that this is indeed possible and for understanding concepts like automation, outsourcing, and elimination. By walking this path, you become rich in time, which you can then reinvest in yourself and more easily actualize as a human being. For those who have begun to see the limitations of materialism and are ready for the next step.

Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future, Peter Thiel

A book that will inspire you to think big. The author, a successful venture capitalist and wealthy businessman, reveals a shocking and counter-intuitive secret to thinking: the bigger our ideas, the less competition we face, and the greater the potential reward for all of society. So many people think small, but that’s where all the competition is waiting! He also shatters the myth that all the best ideas have been taken. In fact, there’s never a better time than now to start! This book will get you in the right mindset when planning your business, personal development, and self-actualization.

MEDITATION & ENLIGHTENMENT

Mindfulness, Ellen J. Langer

The foundational principles of Western Mindfulness. The author admits her ignorance to Eastern Mindfulness, but oh how valuable this book can be in the realms of cultivating open-mindedness and awareness! She shatters the paradigms that old age means poor health, that creativity has any limitations, categories are set in stone, and that boredom is a phenomenon that’s happening to you. It is all a construct of the mind! Your limitations and opportunities are defined and set by the mind, so it’s worth your time fully understanding this state of mindfulness.

10% Happier, Dan Harris

The journey of a rationalist skeptic discovering meditation. The author is a news anchor who details his struggles with anxiety, his panic attacks on live television, attending his first silent meditation retreat, and its life-changing result. Since that time, Dan has since incorporated meditation into his life and livelihood by launching a podcast, a smartphone app, and even a second how-to book. This book is for new or inspiring meditators or skeptics who believe meditation is woo-woo, airy-fairy nonsense. Get ready to change yo’ life!

Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, Daniel Ingram

A secular, rational, westernized guide to developing morality, concentration, and wisdom. Written by an enlightenment-experienced author, this well-written and “unusually hardcore” book is for serious meditators looking to progress on the path, grow awareness and consciousness, and aim for the attainment of the Big “E”. This book continues to inspire my on- and off-cushion meditative journey, and to aim for insight, as the practice can so easily become mechanic. A useful, straight forward book for anyone interested in deepening their practice.

A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, Eckhart Tolle 

A follow-up to Tolle’s first book The Power of Now (I haven’t read it yet but I’ve heard it’s equally as powerful), A New Earth hit me particularly hard at just the right time. Tolle says his main goal is to help you to put down this book and to be in the present moment. Herein lies the great awakening happening across the globe at this very moment: the cultivation of present-moment awareness, dis-identification with form, and the shedding of the ego. Here are my review and favorite quotes from this book. Tolle also has endless YouTube videos that are quite interesting. He seems like the real deal to me.

WRITING & READING

How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas Foster

An entertaining guide for understanding and analyzing themes, archetypes, characters, story arcs, and plot devices. This book teaches you how to read properly. It deepens appreciation for literature, improves your abilities as a writer and reader, and provides tools and frameworks for seeking the meaning behind any story element. One key insight: it’s likely most story you’ve heard has sprouted out from the foundation: Shakespeare, fairy tales, The Bible, and Greek mythology. This book was a huge break-through for me early on in my writing journey as it connected perfectly with Joseph Campbell’s idea of the mono-myth and the Hero’s Journey. Learn how Victorian writers are excellent at subtlety and every trip is a quest. I’d recommend this one to everyone.

The Elements of Style, William Strunk & E.B. White

The writer’s pocket handbook for understanding grammar, punctuation, and style. This book teaches you how to write properly. It was one of the first books recommended to me and I now carry it with me wherever I go. It’s slim, clear, and concise, and a timeless reference to have by your side while writing. It provides a set of rules for proper writing, and while that seems counter-intuitive for a creative endeavor, and it’s useful to know the rules before breaking them. You’re doing yourself and your readers a favor by picking up this book.

FICTION READS

Narcissus & Goldmund, Herman Hesse

My favorite fiction book. A boy named Goldmund leaves behind his dear friend Narcissus in favor of a life of adventure. Roaming the countryside as a vagabond, he falls in love, learns artistry under the eye of a master sculptor, and faces disease and death. I can’t speak much more of it without wanting you to feel the same novelty I had felt during this read, but the ending left me speechless. I have never read a book so complete. This is the book I wish I had written. Thank you, Hesse.

Siddhartha, Herman Hesse

If you can’t tell already, Hesse is my favorite author. This is the story of Siddhartha Gautama the Buddha on his search for the truth and enlightenment. Siddhartha leaves his village and encounters love, death, and truth. This is one of the first books I ever fell in love with. I recommend starting with this book if you’re new to Hesse then moving onto other favorites of mine including Narcissus and Goldmund, Demian, Steppenwolf, and The Fairy Tales of Herman Hesse.

Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami

This book is just plain fun. Alien abductions, talking cats, mysterious forests, magic rocks and mushrooms! And don’t get me started on Murakami’s storytelling ability and writing style. The chapters flip between two amazing tales, one of a young boy named Kafka who runs away from home and boards a train to nowhere in particular and the other of an old, simple man named Nakata. As their paths unfold, are their destinies intertwined? This book is both entertaining and insightful. Plus, any book with the setting as a library is an instant favorite of mine. Once you read this book, you’ll be ready for the great Murakami works like my other all-time favorites, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, and A Wild Sheep Chase.

The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

The story of a young shepherd boy who follows his personal legend. A dream leads young Santiago on a journey through the desert where he eventually comes face to face with the alchemist. This book had a profound effect on me. I first read this book after hiking for six months on the Pacific Crest Trail. It’s a quick and inspiring read. Coelho’s style is beautifully simplistic and no words are wasted. Be warned: you will likely want to quit your job and follow your dreams.

Thanks for reading. I’ll revisit this list in the future to keep it updated. If you enjoyed, please share this post with a close friend and consider following the journey: