This is a follow-up to two previous posts:
Both of which you guys liked so without further ado, here are five more:
1) The Richest Man in Babylon (Amazon)
by George S. Clason
I heard about this one a while back from my friend Evan and more recently on a Ben Settle podcast, and just got around to reading it this week.
The Richest Man in Babylon is a compilation of short stories/parables written in the 1920s but set in ancient Babylon, all about the mindset behind money and financial success.
(These stories were actually used as pamphlets and promotional material by banks and insurance companies before the Great Depression.)
Growing up my understanding of money was underdeveloped to say the least and ‘money consciousness’ is always something I’m working on. Along with putting in the work to make money, I think you also need to hold the right beliefs/mindset and thought processes about money at the same time.
(The mental aspect alone is NOT a substitute for the work though… but it’s better to have both)
Many wealthy people throughout history have attributed much of their financial success to reading this book.
“As a young man, I came across George Samuel Clason’s classic 1926 book The Richest Man in Babylon, which offered common sense financial advice told through ancient parables. I recommend it to everyone.” –Tony Robbins
It is a complete disgrace that our entire society runs on money yet we learn literally nothing about managing money or personal finance in school – hence why these types of books can be so useful and enlightening for so many people.
If you are tempted just to find a summary of the book and read it in bullet form – I would encourage you NOT to do this and to actually read the entire book instead.
Although you can technically “get” the same information from reading a quick bullet-point summary, there’s something different about reading the full stories in parable format that really makes you get it. It’s a short book (~70 pages) and you can get it for free online, so there’s really no reason not to read it.
2) PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story (Amazon)
by Alexander Shulgin & Ann Shulgin
A fascinating and unique book – Alexander Shulgin was a chemist and ‘psychedelic explorer’ who personally discovered, synthesized and tested (on himself) over 230 novel psychoactive compounds. Most of Shulgin’s work was done in a private laboratory on his farm in California, and he is known as the “godfather of psychedelics”.
The first half of the book – ‘The Love Story’ – is written by Shulgin’s wife Ann and describes their meeting, falling in love, and experiences together and with a small group of friends experimenting with the various psychedelic creations.
The second half of the book – ‘The Chemical Story’ – is basically a set of detailed recipes for 179 of the compounds that Shulgin created, along with his notes and instructions. (Yes it is an instruction manual for how to make drugs)
Besides some brief commentary on the effects of the drugs this section isn’t particularly useful for someone without a chemistry background (like me), but I imagine it could be interesting if you understood the chemistry.
You’ll need to get the whole book to read the first half, but Shulgin has made the second half freely available on Erowid.com.
Is this book worth reading?
If you’re interested in psychedelics and exploring consciousness, then yes it probably is. If you’re into chemistry and/or experimenting with novel psychoactive compounds, then definitely.
I did find Ann Shulgin’s writing style a bit annoying – too self-involved and preoccupied with the details of her life, with too much of her own internal dialogue inserted into the story – but the subject matter of this book is so unique and interesting that it’s good enough to keep reading.
3) The War of Art (Amazon)
by Steven Pressfield
A short and excellent must-read book for anyone doing creative work of any kind. Pressfield covers:
- Practical advice on how to get started when you feel blocked
- The concept of ‘The Muse’ (Not really ‘real’ but still the best way to describe the feeling of being in a flow state)
- Resistance (the force preventing you from doing creative work) and how to overcome it
- The key differences between true ‘professionals’ at their craft and wannabe amateurs
This book is truly one-of-a-kind and you can’t get what it offers anywhere else.
(Apparently Joe Rogan used to keep a stack of these in his house and give away a copy of The War of Art to creatives who came over and hadn’t read it yet.)
This is straightforward read and it’s divided into short and digestible sections. Even if you don’t think of yourself as an artist in the traditional sense, there’s still a lot of value here for anyone doing any kind of entrepreneurship, creative work, or self-directed project.
4) Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future (Amazon)
by Peter Thiel
Peter Thiel was one of the founding members of Paypal (part of the ‘Paypal Mafia’ along with Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman & others) and has since gone on to be a wildly successful venture capitalist and entrepreneur. He was the first outside investor in Facebook and is worth over $2 billion.
In 2012 Thiel taught a class at Stanford on startups – a student named Blake Masters took lecture notes that were later circulated online and this book is compiled from those notes.
The book’s main focus is on the value of creating something new (going from zero to one) rather than copying or improving on old ideas (going from one to n).
Thiel asks the question, “What important truth do very few people agree with you on?” and answering this question is meant as an exercise to help come up with great/big ideas.
Zero to One also argues for some controversial points such as: why monopolies in capitalism are actually a good thing (it’s monopolies, not competition, that encourage innovation) as well as globalization vs. technology (globalization is ‘horizontal progress’ – again copying existing ideas vs. technology that is ‘vertical progress’ i.e. real innovation).
Thiel is a very smart guy and (I think) definitely someone worth learning from – you can go through this book fairly quickly (it’s ~200 pages) and in my opinion well worth the read.
5) The Man in the High Castle (Amazon)
by Philip K. Dick
What would the world look like if the Axis had won World War II?
That’s the setting of this book – imagine a post-war US that has been split into occupied territories by both Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. It’s a really incredible look at how aspects of culture might mesh and how history could have turned out.
The story follows several characters across Europe and the United States and involves an alternate history book (within the book) that’s written as if the Allies had won WWII (ha) and the mystery surrounding its reclusive author, ‘the man in high castle’.
The unique subject matter of this book alone makes it worth reading, but the writing is also really good. It’s a detailed and engaging exploration of an interesting thought experiment and I would highly recommend it.
Do Android’s Dream of Electric Sheep? (the basis for the movie Blade Runner, but better) is by the same author and also really, really good.
So that’s it – plenty to add to your reading list for the next while. Have you read any good books lately – any that you’d recommend? Let us know in the comments section below.
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