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Great Books Distilled: Books by History's Greatest Innovators, Founders, and Investors
The page is a reading list sharing the best books written by history's greatest innovators, founders, and investors. You’ll find more than 100 good books to read, organized by category. This is a reading list for people who don’t have time for unimportant books — which should be everyone. I only list the best books I've read and recommend. So you can be sure that each will be worth your time.
Great Books by Category
These are the best books to read, listed by category. Along with a few collections of rare and hard-to-find speeches, lectures, talks, interviews, letters, and memos that are a great way to go deeper.
- Best Books on Creativity
- Best Books on Writing
- Best Business Books
- Best Investing Books
- Best Venture Capital Books
- 10 Books with the Most Page-for-Page Wisdom
- Rare and Hard-to-Find Speeches, Lectures, and Talks
- Rare and Hard-to-Find Interviews
- Rare and Hard-to-Find Letters and Memos
All Book Summaries
For the best books that I read, I go through the painstaking effort to put together and publish my personal notes including highlights, excerpts, and takeaways. You get the best 5% of the ideas in these books in a form that takes 20 minutes at most to read.
- Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger
- A Few Lessons from Sherlock Holmes: Learn to Think Like the Famous Detective
- Cable Cowboy: John Malone and the Rise of the Modern Cable Business
- Damn Right! Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger
- Designed by Apple in California
- Double Your Profits In Six Months or Less: 78 Ways to Cut Costs, Increase Sales, and Dramatically Improve Your Bottom Line
- Finding the Next Steve Jobs: How to Find, Keep, and Nurture Creative Talent
- I, Steve: Steve Jobs in His Own Words
- In the Company of Giants: Candid Conversations with the Visionaries of the Digital World
- Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success
- Make Something Wonderful: Steve Jobs in His Own Words
- Memos from the Chairman: The Famous Memos of Alan C. Greenberg
- Poor Richard's Almanack: Benjamin Franklin's Incredibly Popular Book of Aphorisms, Forecasts, and More
- Special Operations Mental Toughness: The Invincible Mindset of Delta Force Operators, Navy SEALs, & Army Rangers
- The Essays of Warren Buffett: Warren's Ideas from 50+ Years of Shareholder Letters Grouped by Topic
- The Laws of Creativity: How to Unlock Your Originality and Awaken Your Creative Genius
- The Making of the Godfather: The Real Story Behind the Iconic Film
- The Official Walt Disney Quote Book: Walt Disney's Best Quotes to Celebrate Disney's 100th Anniversary
- The Richest Man in Babylon: The Success Secrets of the Ancients
- The Science of Hitting: The Batting Strategies of the Last Baseball Player to Break the Magic .400 Barrier
- The Tao of Charlie Munger: Wisdom on Life, Business, and the Pursuit of Wealth
- The Warrior Ethos: Lessons from the Greatest Warriors in History Including the Spartans
- The Women of Berkshire Hathaway: Lessons from Warren Buffett's Female CEOs and Directors Including Rose Blumkin
- To Pixar and Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History
- Turning the Flywheel: Why Some Companies Build Momentum and Others Don't - A Monograph from Good to Great
- Winning Methods of the Market Wizards: Common Traits and Techniques of the Super Traders
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Looking for good books on business and entrepreneurship? This is my list of the best page-for-page business books of all-time. If you only have time to read one or two books, I recommend looking at the Top Business Books section below.
You can also find recently released books that are worth your attention in the New and Notable section. I try to carefully curate all of my reading lists and you can be sure that any venture capital book on this page is worth your time. Enjoy!
On This Page
- New and Notable
- Top 10 Business Books
- Book Books on Growth and Scaling
- Best Books on Decision Making
- Related Reading Lists
New and Notable
This section features recently released books that are worth your attention.
No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention
by Reed Hastings & Erin Meyer
Print | eBook | Audiobook
Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity
by Frank Slootman
Print | eBook | Audiobook
The Top 10 Business Books
Not sure where to start? These top business books are essential reading.
The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership
by Bill Walsh
Print | eBook | Audiobook
High Output Management
by Andrew Grove
Print | eBook | Audiobook
Principles: Life and Work
by Ray Dalio
Print | eBook | Audiobook
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
by Peter Thiel with Blake Masters
Print | eBook | Audiobook
Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity
by Frank Slootman
Print | eBook | Audiobook
The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success
by William Thorndike
Print | eBook | Audiobook
The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement
by Eliyahu Goldratt & Jeff Cox
Print | eBook | Audiobook
Only the Paranoid Survive
by Andrew Grove
Print | eBook | Audiobook
No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention
by Reed Hastings & Erin Meyer
Print | eBook | Audiobook
Mastering the Rockefeller Habits: What You Must Do to Increase the Value of Your Growing Firm
by Verne Harnish
Print | eBook | Audiobook
Best Books on Growth and Scaling
Every company has to overcome the initial hurdles to growth and then lean into scaling to build a big business. These the top growth focused books are essential reading.
High Growth Handbook: Scaling Startups from 10 to 10,000 People
by Elad Gil
Print | eBook | Audiobook
Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies
by Andrew Chen
Print | eBook | Audiobook
The Cold Start Problem: How to Start and Scale Network Effects
by Andrew Chen
Print | eBook | Audiobook
Best Books on Decision Making
Building anything is a relentless exercise in making decisions with incomplete information and insufficient time. These books will help you make sound decisions under stress.
Mistakes Were Made But Not By Me: Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts
by Carol Tavris & Elliot Aronson
Print | eBook | Audiobook
Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts
by Annie Duke
Print | eBook | Audiobook
Related Reading Lists
If you enjoyed this collection of book recommendations, don't miss exploring my other collections.
Read next
About the author
Daniel Scrivner is an award-winner designer turned founder and investor. He's led design work at Apple and Square. He is an early investor in Notion, Public.com, and Good Eggs. He's also the founder of Ligature: The Design VC and Outlier Academy. Daniel has interviewed the world’s leading founders and investors including Scott Belsky, Luke Gromen, Kevin Kelly, Gokul Rajaram, and Brian Scudamore.
Last updated
Sep 16, 2023
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