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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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This is my list of the 10 books that offer the most page-for-page wisdom. These books will make you smarter. They offer wisdom that has stood the test of time, provide ideas for managing the complexities and challenges of life, and foster a greater understanding of our world.
On This Page
- New and Notable
- 10 Books with the Most Page-for-Page Wisdom
- 10 Speeches with the Most Word-for-Word Wisdom
- Related Reading Lists
New and Notable
This section features recently released books that are worth your attention.
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness
by Erik Jorgensen
Print | eBook | Audiobook
Winning: The Unforgiving Race to Greatness (W1NNING)
by Tim Grover
Print | eBook | Audiobook
How to Get Rich: One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets
by Felix Dennis
Print | eBook | Audiobook
10 Books with the Most Page-for-Page Wisdom
If you can only read ten books, over and over, for the rest of your life you can't go wrong with these.
Principles: Life and Work
by Ray Dalio
Print | eBook | Audiobook
Man's Search for Meaning
by Viktor Frankl
Print | eBook | Audiobook
How Will You Measure Your Life
by Clayton Christensen and James Allworth
Print | eBook | Audiobook
The Lessons of History: The Most Important Insights from The Story of Civilization
by Will & Ariel Durant
Print | eBook | Audiobook
The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time
by Will Durant
Print | eBook | Audiobook
Meditations: A New Translation With an Introduction by Gregory Hays
by Marcus Aurelius
Print | eBook | Audiobook
A Manual for Living
by Epictetus
Print | eBook | Audiobook
How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going
by Vaclav Smil
Print | eBook | Audiobook
A Brief History of Time
by Stephen Hawking
Print Edition
The Misbehavior of Markets: A Fractal View of Financial Turbulence
by Benoit Mandelbrot
Print | eBook | Audiobook
10 Speeches with the Most Word-for-Word Wisdom
Want more timeless wisdom? Below are the ten speeches with the most word-for-wisdom, all of which have been transcribed so they're easily readable.
The Revised Psychology of Human Misjudgment
by Charlie Munger
Read the speech transcript →
The Multidisciplinary Approach to Thinking
by Peter Kaufman
Read the speech transcript →
A Lesson on Elementary, Worldly Wisdom
by Charlie Munger
Read the speech transcript →
How to Guarantee a Life of Misery
by Charlie Munger
Read the speech transcript →
Solitude and Leadership
by William Deresiewicz
Read the speech transcript →
Make Your Bed
by Admiral William H. McRaven
Read the speech transcript →
Seeking New Laws
by Richard Feynman
Read the speech transcript →
Creative Thinking
by Claude Shannon
Read the speech transcript →
Creativity in Management
by John Cleese
Read the speech transcript →
Personal Renewal
by John W. Gardner
Read the speech transcript →
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
Aug 15, 2023
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