Non-Business Book Recommendation Thread

[Roli]

Lolz, we are all so keyed in on this forum, that even when you ask for non business/non entrepreneurship books, you still get a load of business and entrepreneurship recommendations .

If you like sci-fi pretty much anything by Iain M. Banks is good. My faves are:

The Use Of Weapons
The Player Of Games
Transitions

Also love:

The Diceman - A story about a psychiatrist trying to break down his own ego, using dice to make his decisions, with sometimes hilarious, and often disastrous results.

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins - brilliant history of religion.

God Is Not Great by the Hitch - Extremely clever treatise on how religion has tried to hijack morality.

Homo Deus by Yoal Hurari (sorry for spelling) - he wrote Sapiens (first book), however I prefer this one.

Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson - The story of 2 guys getting very sweaty in the desert. Bloody hilarious, one of the funniest books I've ever read in my life, plenty of moments where you'll have to put the thing down in order to laugh your head off.

Ready Player One - back to sci-fi. Spielberg recently made a film about it, which I haven't seen, however the book's dynamite.

The Prince by Ncicolo Machiavelli - A treatise written in renaissance times on how to hold a principality. Written originally as a series of letters to Pope Leo X (Cesare Borge). The most fascinating thing about this book, is that you will be able to see parallels in the behaviour of modern "Princes", such as Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.

Machiavelli uses Italian/Roman history to beautifully illustrate how best to govern and lead. I've read this book many times, and never get bored of hearing these amazing stories.

Altered Carbon - Can't remember the author, they made a TV series out of it, which was actually quite good. Needless to say though, the book is way better. The story follows an "Envoy" (future soldier) called Takeshi Kovacs. Well worth the read!

Mike Tyson The Undisputed Truth by Mike Tyson - If you're a Tyson fan, and if you are old enough to remember his amazing run in boxing, then this book is definitely for you. A story of crime, dedication, glory and a shit ton of drugs.

Okay, hope that's given you a few ideas, I'll be checking back myself to hopefully get some good recommends!

 

[biophase]

So I haven't been able to get into reading business books at all lately. I've read a ton, and I feel I need to execute rather than read. That being said, I know I have a lot more to learn from them, but perhaps I need a break.

Recommend your favorite NON business book. Be it fiction, biography, whatever - as long as it's not related to business or entrepreneurship. List your favorite book, or max, top three.

One of my favorite reads that's under the radar:
Outer Bounds Books: Amazon.com: Fortune's Rising (Outer Bounds Book 1) eBook: Sara King, Lance MacCarty: Kindle Store

Had to go through my Audible to see what I've listened to:

I'm pretty sure that you read Open, about Andre Agassi which is one of my favorites.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307388409/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20

Here are some that are off the beaten business path.

The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon

This book is about these 2-3 people who are trying to break the record of rafting through the grand canyon. This can only be done during high rivers when the water is flowing fast. So they have to wait until a mega rain event where the Glen Canyon dam is about to burst to try it.

But the book is more about the history of the grand canyon. It is incredibly well written and goes through the grand canyon from its discovery to current day. It talks about the national park system and how it was formed, etc...

The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon: Kevin Fedarko: 9781439159866: Amazon.com: Books


Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship

This book is about 2 wealthy people that set out to find an old pirate ship. While most treasure hunters are looking for sunken Spanish galleons because of potential gold, these 2 guys decide to look for something that is much harder to find, and with no huge payoffs at the end in terms of treasure.

Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship: Robert Kurson: 9780812973693: Amazon.com: Books

 

[JAJT]

Some of my favorites with no connection to personal development / business:

Dune - Just great, classic sci-fi. A must read for anyone who loves sci-fi.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - The movie may very well be one of the most accurate book-to-movie adaptations I've ever seen but the book is still 100% worth a read.

Hell's Angels - By the same author as Fear and Loathing. Non-fiction. The author spent a year or so travelling with the Hell's Angels and writes about it as only Hunter S. Thompson can.

Catch-22 - An absurd war story. Another classic. Every single page is absolutely hilarious.

Ender's Game - More sci-fi but it's very, very good. What's really cool is the entire book series branches off in two directions as the result of how it ends (the "Ender" series and the "Shadow" series) where one follows Ender and gets further into the sci-fi direction and the other stays on Earth and gets into war and politics.

Slaughterhouse Five - I say this book but really ANYTHING by Kurt Vonnegut is just great reading.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Has nothing to do with either Zen or Bikes, funny enough. Great philosophical read about a father with split-personality disorder going on a cross country motorcycle trip with his son. The father dives deeply into the idea of quality and values.

Trust Me, I'm Lying - Nonfiction book about Ryan Holiday and his role as a media manipulator and how so much of what is considered news today is total bunk and possibly even entirely fabricated by people like him.

 

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[ShamanKing]

Where the Red Fern Grows.
Hatchet
My side of the Mountain

 

[Kak]

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight is a good bio

I read a LOT of Bios... They are sometimes better business books than traditional business books.

I have read all of the turn of the century industrialists. I have read Warren Buffet, Charles Koch, T Boone Pickens, JP Morgan... As many as possible.

Like business role models.

 

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[allen0879]

• The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
• Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
• Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday
• Average is Over by Tyler Cowen
• So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport

 

[EvanOkanagan]

1-Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
2-Around the World in 50 Years by Albert Podell
3-Salt, Sugar, Fat by Michael Moss

2nd that for Sapiens, one of the most interesting books I’ve read.

 

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[Primeperiwinkle]

I relax with fantasy books. I recommend "The name of the wind" by Patrick Rothfuss

Except you’ll get sucked in and he won’t write the next one for twenty years... ugh!!

 

[JasonR]

So I haven't been able to get into reading business books at all lately. I've read a ton, and I feel I need to execute rather than read. That being said, I know I have a lot more to learn from them, but perhaps I need a break.

Recommend your favorite NON business book. Be it fiction, biography, whatever - as long as it's not related to business or entrepreneurship. List your favorite book, or max, top three.

One of my favorite reads that's under the radar:
Outer Bounds Books: Amazon.com: Fortune's Rising (Outer Bounds Book 1) eBook: Sara King, Lance MacCarty: Kindle Store

 

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[Vadim26]

“The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho, if you haven’t read it yet

 

[Bearcorp]

“I Am Pilgrim” amazing fiction book, couldn’t put it down.

 

[srodrigo]

I remember The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People feeling like a life-changing book.

 

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[ZCP]

Pick up a couple of Feng Shui books. Incredibly interesting.
Great for mindset and a really good break from all the business book reading.

 

[Kak]

I just added several of these to my reading list. Thanks @JasonR

I can add the following reccommendations:
-One Second After series for fun.

-Legacy Journey by Dave Ramsey is definitely a good life book.

-The Wright Brothers by McCullough

-The Blessed Life by Robert Morris

 

[allen0879]

Definitely the Alchemist by Pauolo Coelho

I honestly just don't understand why everyone thinks this book is so great. I read it and it did nothing for me. I must be missing something.

We're all different I guess.

 

[allen0879]

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight is a good bio

 

[Conscripted]

.Ready Player One - back to sci-fi. Spielberg recently made a film about it, which I haven't seen, however the book's dynamite.

I really liked the book. I didn't like the movie.

I relax with fantasy books. I recommend "The name of the wind" by Patrick Rothfuss

 

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[advantagecp]

These two are IMO timeless literature and unlike most of the recommended books in this thread are not business books.

Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
The Periodic Table - Primo Levi

Neal Stephenson is truly next level writer. I put little tabs on passages that I like and may want to refer back to. My copy of a great book like Little Big Man may have 5 or 6 tabs. Cryptonomicon has 60+.

 

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[NMdad]

Endurance by Alfred Lansing
The Old Man And The Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Time of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen

And like @Kak mentioned, biographies of early industrialists: Rockefeller, Carnegie, etc.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

A book I'm currently finding fascinating...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07896SMRB/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20

 

[Ocean Man]

The Way of the Superior Man,
Speak to Win by Brian Tracy,
Extreme Ownership

 

[EricFromCanada]

1-Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
2-Around the World in 50 Years by Albert Podell
3-Salt, Sugar, Fat by Michael Moss

 

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[SeanLewis]

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, You can listen to it on audible by the man himself.

 

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[broswoodwork]

Candide, The Stranger, and Thus Spoke Zarathustra are three I've been recommending more and more lately. They're fun and approachable but have a lot of underlying substance.

 

[Draperism]

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

This is not a book about business, its THE BUSINESS BOOK

 

[allen0879]

I read a LOT of Bios... They are sometimes better business books than traditional business books.

I have read all of the turn of the century industrialists. I have read Warren Buffet, Charles Koch, T Boone Pickens, JP Morgan... As many as possible.

Like business role models.

In addition to Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, some other good bios I'd recommend are:
- The Autobiography of Ben Franklin
- The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Time of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen
- The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
- Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger

 

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[MiloszR]

Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead

 

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[Legacyy]

If you dont want anything learning related I'd recommend anything from Ken Follet. All of his books are impossible to put down. Especially "The pillars of the Earth"

 

[Yusufkolawole]

I recommend essentialism by Greg Mckown and Digital minimalism by Cal newport

 

[Draperism]

Stephen Duneier - AlphaBrain