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The Best Books: Recommended Reading List
The page is a reading list sharing the best books to read in various categories based on many hours of reading and research. 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, excluding the rest, in each category. You can be sure that each will be worth your time.
Start Here: The Best Books of All-Time
Looking for the best books, speeches, talks, and letters of all-time? I've spent the last decade collecting the best writing from history so that you can browse it here.
- 10 Books with the Most Page-for-Page Wisdom
- The Greatest Speeches and Talks of All-Time
- The Greatest Letters of All-Time
The Best Books by Category
These are the best books to read, listed by category.
- Best Books on Creativity
- Best Books on Writing
- Best Business Books
- Best Investing Books
- Best Venture Capital Books
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 can read all of these notes on my book summaries page.
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Looking for good books on writing? This is my list of the best writing books of all-time. If you only have time to read one or two books, I recommend looking at the Top Writing 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 writing book on this page is worth your time. Enjoy!
On This Page
New and Notable
This section features recently released books that are worth your attention.
Snow Leopard: How Legendary Writers Create A Category Of One
by Nicolas Cole and Eddie Yoon
Print | eBook | Audiobook
Listen to my interview with the author →
Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t: And Other Tough-Love Truths to Make You a Better Writer
by Steven Pressfield
Print | eBook | Audiobook
Several Short Sentences About Writing
by Verlyn Klinkenborg
Print | eBook | Audiobook
Listen to my interview with the author →
The Top Writing Books
This section features the all-time best books written about writing and how to do it well. All written by history's greatest writers.
The Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing and Thinking
by Barbara Minto
Print Edition
Ogilvy on Advertising
by David Ogilvy
Print | eBook
Breakthrough Advertising
by Eugene Schwartz
Print Edition
The Boron Letters
by Gary C. Halbert
Print | eBook
The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers
by Christopher Vogler
Print Edition
Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t: And Other Tough-Love Truths to Make You a Better Writer
by Steven Pressfield
Print | eBook | Audiobook
Several Short Sentences About Writing
by Verlyn Klinkenborg
Print | eBook | Audiobook
Listen to my interview with Verlyn Klinkenborg →
Snow Leopard: How Legendary Writers Create A Category Of One
by Nicolas Cole and Eddie Yoon
Print | eBook | Audiobook
Listen to my interview with the author →
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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