175 Books To Keep You Busy For The Next 3 Years!
In my last 28 years of life, I have read over 175 books, however I read them all in the last 3 years. The average adult in the US reads less than 1 book a year, so if you are reading at least 2 books a year you are in the top 1%, however at that pace it will take you the rest of your life to learn what I have in the last 3 years. Now I am not saying that to make you feel bad, you should care less what I have read quite frankly. My experience with books was like most, reading? Boring, that's for nerds! In the beginning it was a process to even read a page, now if I don’t read a chapter a day I feel off. Some mediate, some sit in the sauna and sweat it out, my method is reading. Below are a few simple tactics I use to stay consistent and some of the 175 books I have read in the last 3 years. In 2019 my goal is to read 75 books, what is yours?
Reading Tips
- Keep the same goal of 1 page a day, however work towards completing 1 chapter a day
The average book is around 200 to 250 pages long and the average chapter is 10 to 20 pages, if you read 1 chapter a day, you will finish the average book in 2 weeks. It's really that simple. Eventually you should be able to finish a book in a week. Hence why you always see the click bait stories of the 50 books Bill Gates reads a year, he reads about a 1 book a week.
The odds of most completing a book are extremely low, the odds of someone rereading the book is dramatically lower, rip the fucking page out so you can review the gem that stood out to you!
Why? Very simple:
You retain about 12% of what you read
You retain about 23% of what you write down
You retain about 33% of what you read, write down and review within 2 days
There is nothing worse than reading a book only to forget what you learned, trust me it will happen. If you start off on the right path the time spend reading will have that much of a bigger impact.
You will eat food at some point during the day, start reading during those times, I first started reading during lunch, than I started to read during lunch and in the evenings, now I read when I get up, during lunch, and during the evening. Now before you hit me with your lazy excuse of “I’m busy, blah, blah, blah” read the next bullet point.
- Use “If/When Then” statements to stay accountable daily
If/when I want to sit down and watch TV, then I will ready 1 page first.
This statement can work on any area you are trying to improve as well. Say it's working out.
If/when I want to have that bowl of ice cream after I eat, first I will do 100 pushups/go to the gym/etc.
Guess where I learned all these tips from? The list of books below, before you ask which book should you read or the laziest question of all “should I read XYZ?” know the answer is always yes, read the damn book, there are books on this list I hated, however in every book there is usually 1 main gem that you take away from it, however, you have to invest the time to uncover it. If I told you in Never Split The Difference, the main phrase from the book to use on someone asking you a ridiculous request:
Hey can I borrow $10,000 for my new startup that will beat Facebook? (ridiculous request)
Response “How am I supposed to do that?
Even right now, you don't value that lesson, spend 250 pages of reading the book and you will see how powerful that statement is. Below I listed all the books I have read in a few key categories however in no real specific order, as what I find important, you might not, however out of the 5,000,000 plus books out their at least we narrowed the list down to less than 200. One last thing, don't be a sucker and buy the books new like a rookie, Amazon used you prima donna, the average book should cost you $4 to $8, $20 max. Each category is listed in my order of favorite to least.
Personal Favorites
The Go Giver
Stone Soup
Persuasion
Man's Search Of Meaning
Way of the Peaceful Warrior
Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive
Mr Shmooze
Principles
Never Split The Difference
The Way of the Superior Man
Make Your Bed
Give and Take
Rejection Proof
Raving Fans
Classics
How to Win and Influence Friends
The Secret
The 48 Laws of Power
Rich Dad, Poor Dad
The Alchemist
Trading
Pitbull
How I made $2,000,000 In The Stock Market
How to Make Money with Stocks
Unshakeable
Money master the game
Trading In The Zone
The Wealth Elite
One Good Trade
Hedge Fund Market Wizards
Rules Of The Trade
The Modern Trade
The Big Secret for the Small Investor
The Little Book That Beats The Market
The Collapse of the Dollar and How to Profit from it
Financial Advising/Money
Wealth management unwrapped
The Million Dollar Advisor
You Are a Badass at Making Money
Dollar and Sense
Sales
The Ultimate Sales Machine
Way of the Wolf
Little Red Book of Selling
The Go Giver Sell More
Pushing the Envelope
Just Sell The Damn Thing
When Buyers Say No
Getting to yes
Soft selling
Why We Buy
Buyology
No Thanks I’m Just Looking
Million Dollar Bedroom
Business
The Mackay Mba of Selling in the Real World
Dig Your Well Before You're Thirsty
Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt
Zero to One
The Dip
The Art of the Deal
I’ll Make You An Offer You Can’t Refuse
The 4 Hour Work Week
The 10 pillars of Wealth
Automate and Grow
The Ultimate Sales Letter
99 Negotiating Strategies
The Membership Economy
Buy It Rent It, Profit
The Automatic Customer
Business Adventures
Subscription Marketing
The E Myth Revisited
Subscription marketing
Subscribed
The Tax and Legal Playbook
Tribe of Mentors
Tools of Titans
Driven
Marketing
The Go Giver Leader
The Go Giver Influencer
The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding
All Marketers are Liars
Trust Me I’m lying
Brand Washed
The Consuming Instinct
Overdress
Marketing Blueprint
Purple Cow
Branding is sex
The Power of Visual Storytelling
Jab jab right Hook
Contagious
Made to Stick
Lipstick on a Pig
Bio’s
Gucci mane
Mike Bloomberg
Stories
The Great Beanie Baby Bubble
Billion Dollar Whale
Molly’s game
Blow
Bad blood
BMF
How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars
The House Jack Ma Built
Cityboy
The Wolf of World Street
Rothstein
For the Love of Money
Happy Money
Catching the Wolf of Wall St
Don’t You Know Who I Think I am
Eleven rings
Cartel wives
Fire and fury
Dangerous odds
The Art and Science of Respect
Goodbye Gordon hello
The Billionaire's Apprentice
The Way of the Knife
The Upstarts
The Big Short
Black Edge
The Spider Network
Psychology
Methods of persuasion
Misbehaving
Predictably irrational
Subliminal
Yes!
The Small Big
Side Tracked
Funny
Assholes finish first
Hilarity ensues
Straight to hell
The Rest
Narconomics
Perennial seller
Payoff
Rock Paper Scissors
Hopping Over The Rabbit
Think like a Freak
How to Talk to Anyone
Take the Stairs
Tiger Virtues
Magic of Impromptu Speaking
The Like Switch
Only the Paranoid Survive
Fooled by Randomness
Nudge
Decade of Change
The One Minute Manager
Flip
Fiasco
The Book of 5 Rings
We Got Fired
Superfreakonomics
Ponzi Factor
Deduct Everything
Growth Hacker
Mastery
The Art of Execution
Switch on Your Brain
A Buglers Guide to the City
Ted Talks
Discipline Equals Freedom
Wheelbarrow Profits