The 99 Best Business Books - Recommended Reading List

Business Creation

• Go It Alone by Bruce Judson (review)
• The Lean Startup by Eric Ries (review)
• The Knack by Norm Brodsky & Bo Burlingham (review, audio)
• Ready, Fire, Aim by Michael Masterson (review, audio)
• Escape from Cubicle Nation by Pamela Slim (review, audio)
• Bankable Business Plans by Edward Rogoff (review)

Value-Creation & Testing

• Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson (review, audio)
• The New Business Road Test by John Mullins (review)
• How to Make Millions with Your Ideas by Dan Kennedy (review)

Marketing

• All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin (review, audio)
• Permission Marketing by Seth Godin (review, audio)
• The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries & Jack Trout (review, audio)
• Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got by Jay Abraham (review)

Sales

• The Psychology of Selling by Brian Tracy (review)
• Pitch Anything by Oren Klaff (review)
• The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes (review, audio)
• Value-Based Fees by Alan Weiss (review)
• SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham (review, audio)

Value-Delivery

• Indispensable by Joe Calloway (review)
• The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu Goldratt (review, audio)
• Lean Thinking by James Womack and Daniel Jones (review, audio)

Finance & Accounting

• Financial Intelligence for Entrepreneurs by Karen Berman and Joe Knight (review)
• Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits by Greg Crabtree (review)
• The 1% Windfall by Rafi Mohammed (review)
• Accounting Made Simple by Mike Piper (review)
• How to Read a Financial Report by John A. Tracy (review)
• Venture Deals by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson (review)

The Human Mind

• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (review)
• Brain Rules by John Medina (summary, review, audio)
• Making Sense of Behavior by William T. Powers (summary, review)
• Driven by Paul Lawrence and Nitin Nohria (summary, review, audio)
• Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzales (review, audio)

Productivity & Effectiveness

• Getting Things Done by David Allen (summary, review, audio)
• The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr & Tony Schwartz (summary, review, audio)
• StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath (summary, review)
• Bit Literacy by Mark Hurst (summary, review)
• 10 Days to Faster Reading by Abby Marks-Beale (summary, review)

Problem Solving

• The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch (summary, review, audio)
• Accidental Genius by Mark Levy (review)
• Learning from the Future by Liam Fahey & Robert Randall (review)

Behavioral Change

• The Power of Less by Leo Babauta (summary, review, audio)
• The Path of Least Resistance by Robert Fritz (review)
• Re-Create Your Life by Morty Lefkoe (review)
• Self-Directed Behavior by David L. Watson & Roland G. Tharp (review)

Decision-Making

• Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions by Gary Klein (review)
• Smart Choices by John S. Hammond et al (review)
• Ethics for the Real World by Ronald Howard & Clinton Korver (review)

Communication

• On Writing Well by William Zinsser (review, audio)
• Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds (review)
• Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath (review, audio)
• The Copywriter’s Handbook by Robert Bly (review)
• Show Me The Numbers by Stephen Few (review)

Influence

• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini (review)
• How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (review, audio)
• Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson et al (review, audio)
• The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene (review, audio)

Negotiation

• Bargaining For Advantage by G. Richard Shell (review)
• 3-D Negotiation by David A. Lax and James K. Sebenius (review, audio)
• The Partnership Charter by David Gage (review, audio)

Management

• First, Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman (review)
• 12: The Elements of Great Managing by Rodd Wagner & James Harter (review, audio)
• Growing Great Employees by Erika Andersen (review)
• The Essential Drucker by Peter F. Drucker (review)

Leadership

• Tribes by Seth Godin (review, audio)
• Total Leadership by Stewart Friedman (review, audio)
• What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith (review, audio)
• The New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan by George Bradt et al (review)
• The Halo Effect by Phil Rosenzweig (review, audio)

Project Management

• Making Things Happen by Scott Berkun (review)
• Results Without Authority by Tom Kendrick (review, audio)

Systems

• Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows (review)
• Work the System by Sam Carpenter (review)

Analysis

• Turning Numbers Into Knowledge by Jonathan Koomey (review)
• Marketing Metrics by Paul W. Farris et al (review)
• The Economist Numbers Guide by Richard Stuteley (review)

Statistics

• Thinking Statistically by Uri Bram (review)
• How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff (review)

Corporate Skills

• The Unwritten Laws of Business by W.J. King (review, audio)
• The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker (review, audio)
• The Simplicity Survival Handbook by Bill Jensen (review)
• Hire With Your Head by Lou Adler (review)

Corporate Strategy

• Purpose: The Starting Point of Great Companies by Nikos Mourkogiannis (review)
• Competitive Strategy by Michael Porter (review, audio)
• Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne (review, audio)
• Seeing What’s Next by Clayton M. Christensen et al (review, audio)

Creativity & Innovation

• The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp (review)
• Myths of Innovation by Scott Berkun (review)
• Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter F. Drucker (review, audio)

Design

• The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman (review, audio)
• Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell et al (review)

Consulting

• Getting Started in Consulting by Alan Weiss (review)
• Secrets of Consulting by Gerald M. Weinberg (review)

Personal Finance

• Your Money or Your Life by Joel Dominguez & Vicki Robin (review, audio)
• The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley & William Danko (review, audio)
• I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi (review, audio)
• Fail-Safe Investing by Harry Browne (review)

Personal Growth

• Lead the Field by Earl Nightingale (review, audio)
• The Art of Exceptional Living by Jim Rohn (review, audio)
• A Guide to the Good Life by William Braxton Irvine (review)