Here are some top books across a variety of fields that are highly recommended for a well-rounded understanding:
Literature
- “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee
- “1984” by George Orwell
- “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen
- “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- “Moby Dick” by Herman Melville
Science Fiction & Fantasy
- “Dune” by Frank Herbert
- “The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien
- “Foundation” by Isaac Asimov
- “Neuromancer” by William Gibson
- “The Left Hand of Darkness” by Ursula K. Le Guin
History
- “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” by Yuval Noah Harari
- “The Guns of August” by Barbara W. Tuchman
- “A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn
- “The Silk Roads: A New History of the World” by Peter Frankopan
- “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Philosophy
- “The Republic” by Plato
- “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius
- “Beyond Good and Evil” by Friedrich Nietzsche
- “Critique of Pure Reason” by Immanuel Kant
- “Being and Time” by Martin Heidegger
Psychology
- “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman
- “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor E. Frankl
- “The Interpretation of Dreams” by Sigmund Freud
- “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Robert B. Cialdini
- “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking” by Susan Cain
Science
- “A Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawking
- “The Selfish Gene” by Richard Dawkins
- “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot
- “The Elegant Universe” by Brian Greene
- “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson
Economics
- “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” by Thomas Piketty
- “The Wealth of Nations” by Adam Smith
- “Freakonomics” by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
- “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman (also psychology)
- “Nudge” by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein
Business
- “Good to Great” by Jim Collins
- “The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries
- “The Innovator’s Dilemma” by Clayton M. Christensen
- “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman (also psychology and economics)
- “Shoe Dog” by Phil Knight
Technology
- “The Innovators” by Walter Isaacson
- “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson
- “Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products” by Nir Eyal
- “The Second Machine Age” by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee
- “Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software” by Charles Petzold
Self-Help & Personal Development
- “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie
- “Atomic Habits” by James Clear
- “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg
- “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey
- “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” by Carol S. Dweck
Biography & Memoir
- “The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank
- “Long Walk to Freedom” by Nelson Mandela
- “Becoming” by Michelle Obama
- “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson (also technology)
- “Educated” by Tara Westover
Health & Wellness
- “The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest” by Dan Buettner
- “Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams” by Matthew Walker
- “The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma” by Bessel van der Kolk
- “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto” by Michael Pollan
- “The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss” by Dr. Jason Fung
Political Science
- “The Federalist Papers” by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay
- “The Prince” by Niccolò Machiavelli
- “Democracy in America” by Alexis de Tocqueville
- “The Road to Serfdom” by Friedrich Hayek
- “On Liberty” by John Stuart Mill
Art & Culture
- “Ways of Seeing” by John Berger
- “The Story of Art” by E.H. Gombrich
- “The Lives of the Artists” by Giorgio Vasari
- “The Letters of Vincent van Gogh” by Vincent van Gogh
- “Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art” by Scott McCloud
These books provide a comprehensive overview of each field, offering deep insights and fostering a broader understanding of the world.