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Non-Business Book Recommendation Thread

JasonR

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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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Ocean Man

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

Bearcorp

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

Roli

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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!
 

ZCP

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

DuPont

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The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
 
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broswoodwork

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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.
 

EvanOkanagan

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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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Kak

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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
 

MetalGear

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Definitely

The Alchemist by Pauolo Coelho

Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman

Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon's Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart by James Doty
 
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Kak

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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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biophase

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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
 

MetalGear

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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.

Which books on Buffet, Koch, and Pickens do you recommend?
 

allen0879

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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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AnneC

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Learning about my Enneagram personality type has been really helpful. I’m not sure there’s one book that stands out, since I’ve read so many, and they start to run together. I like the ones by Don Richard Riso.

Two random, entertaining non-business books: “Emergency” (Neil Strauss), “American Kingpin” (Nick Bilton).
 

socaldude

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.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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MTF

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Currently reading "How Not to Diet: The Groundbreaking Science of Healthy, Permanent Weight Loss" by Michael Greger. It's an extremely extensive overview of scientific discoveries regarding how to lose weight and optimize your health (I'm lean and I still find it very interesting).
  • "Socialism Sucks: Two Economists Drink Their Way Through the Unfree World by Robert Lawson and Benjamin Powell" - it's as fun as the subtitle suggests (though IMO too short).
  • "Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves" by James Nestor - super interesting and well-written narrative non-fiction.
  • "Living With a Seal: 31 Days Training with the Toughest Man on the Planet" by Jesse Itzler - the Seal is David Goggins. Pretty funny.
  • "The Push: A Climber's Journey of Endurance, Risk, and Going Beyond Limits" by Tommy Caldwell - a nice autobiography on how he became one of the best climbers in the world.
  • "The Book of Joy" by Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu - heart-warming.
  • "The Epistulae morales ad Lucilium (Moral letters to Lucilius)" by Seneca the Younger - IMO the best book about Stoicism.
Fiction
  • Everything by Brandon Sanderson (sci-fi/fantasy)
  • Everything by Joe Abercrombie (grimdark fantasy with a lot of humor and sarcasm, it's pretty much "anti-fantasy")
 

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