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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 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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