Best Books for Men - My Essential Reading List
Reading is a valuable habit to develop so here are some excellent books for men to get you started. If you've had enough of watching the same repetitive content on YouTube, guess what? Books and audio books are thing you should totally give them a chance.
I enjoy reading, but I've grown to appreciate audio books as I can go to the gym and listen to them like a podcast. Anyways, here is my ever growing reading list:
12 Rules For Life – Dr Jordan Peterson is a highly verbal person and the audio version of his book is simply outstanding. If you’ve not listened to this book, get it. It’s worth every penny if you're a young man.
The Rational Male | Preventative Medicine – This books teaches you how female behavior is and how to act accordingly. There are two books by Rollo, The Rational Male and his follow up, Preventative Medicine. I found that latter to be an excellent read.
I Will Teach You To Be Rich – By Ramit Sethi. The best personal finance book for those just getting started with making and managing money.
How To Get Rich – By billionaire Felix Dennis who founded a bunch of successful magazines. This is a book about what it really takes to achieve great things and the painful sacrifices that you will end up making. In Mr Dennis’s case, children and a wife. Much better than the name implies.
4 Hour Work Week – This was brilliant stuff when it came out. Now people are on to the concept of not having jobs, doing what you want. It’s an excellent read if you’re young and will motivate you to forego the dreams of mansions and lambos (so 90’s) and instead do what I do. Make a western income and travel on your terms.
Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder – Yea it’s a book by Schwarzenegger, how good can it be? This is easily the most inspiring and motivational book I’ve read to date. It’s Arnold’s story about how he came from the country side in the middle of nowhere Austria to being a real estate millionaire, actor and world champion body builder.
The Dip – By Seth Godin. A short truthful book about the struggle you will face when doing any creative endeavor and why most never achieve anything of real value because they don’t work to get past the dip. How long does it take to get past the dip? It's unknown, it took me 5 years.
Linchpin (audio) – By Seth Godin. A book more relevant than ever. Safe is not safe. Safe is found in your ability to adapt and be incredibly helpful and useful at something.
Sapiens – By Yuval Noah Harari. A classic and for good reason. This explains how humans made a deal with the devil and traded a nomadic life for farming and how wheat tamed us conversely.
Meditations – By Marcus Aurelius (Ceasar). Made popular by Ryan Holiday. This is an excellent book and you can get it for free as a PDF on the internet or as proper book on Amazon. The most powerful man in the world reflects on his life and shares some profound wisdom that will enable you to re-wire your mindset, behavior and outlook on life.
Atomic Habits – By James Clear. James Clear originally founded a personal finance website called Passive Panda. But has since gone on to build a massive personal brand around his name based on his work of forming habits. He narrates the audio version which I suggest getting.
The Alchemist - Your standard novel written in a poetic and beautiful way. Mixes in moral lessons, the nature of god as well as ethics into a captivating story that will capture your attention.
American Desperado - A book on true crimes. This book, like Felix's book (how to get rich) was simply a book I could not put down. The writing and story telling of what actually happens within criminal organizations makes this a must read.
Journey of Souls - Stories of past life regressions and the commonalities between them from unrelated people. The premise is that the author helps each person regress to their after life before they reincarnated to their current life and records what the "other side" is life. A really interesting, fun read.
Frankenstein - By Mary Shelly from 1818. I read this in college for an English class to be honest but was deeply impressed with how beautifully written is was. Also the story is from the perspective of the creature and is much better than any movie would convey.
Can't Hurt Me - By David Goggins. It's his story about the pain and struggles he endured as a child and young man and how he transformed himself into the man you see today. Deep, emotional and gut wrenching.
War of Art (audio) - This book inspired Seth Godin's Linchpin book. In it you'll learn about the "resistant" you have in your head to getting creative, important work done. Sometimes that resistance is positive, sometimes negative. To be honest, the book is a dry read but the audible is excellent.
Psycho-Cybernatics - A classic book on habits and how to manage your thoughts. Pretty basic if you're older and experienced but a great read if you're young.
How to Not be a Millennial - The audio version of this is great. It statistically shows in part how the millennial generation got screwed over by the poor parenting of the boomer generation as well as the dire failing and poor choices made by this generation.
Unplugged Alpha - Written by Richard Cooper. His book is excellent for young men because if teaches them the right mindset to have to navigate the reality of the world so they get great results in life and with women.
Gorilla Mindset - This is a great book by Mike Cernovich. I've been reading Mike since his Danger and Play days and appreciate how he has evolved as both a writer and person over time. This book covers the essentials for managing your life and emotions well.
The Fiat Standard - The Fiat Standard, a new work by world-renowned economist Saifedean Ammous, applies his innovative analytical lens to the fiat monetary system, exploring it as a feat of engineering and technology just as he did for bitcoin in his worldwide best seller The Bitcoin Standard.
This time he examines how the world moved from the gold standard to today's government-backed fiat money system—explaining the aims and shortcomings of fiat currency; discussing its wider economic, political, and social consequences; and assessing how bitcoin will impact it over time.
The Bitcoin Standard - Saifedean takes a fascinating look at the consequences of voluntary free market money through his grasp of technological possibilities as well as historical facts about monetary progress. Bitcoin, by challenging one of government's most hallowed privileges, is shifting sovereignty away from governments and toward individuals, offering us a revolutionary insight into a world where money is totally divorced from politics.
The Compound Effect - A complicated book on success that breaks everything down in an easy to understand process to move forward and multiply your success. No gimics, no lazy shortcuts. Just a clear how to.
The Molecule of More - Why you can't focus and you're addicted to dopamine hits. A bit heavy on the story telling side but still an interesting explanation of how our minds work.