Skip to content 
Here is the list of books I am planning to read for my 2021 Reading Challenge. Why am I doing this? Read it here. You can also find a list of my most recommended books here.
If you want to follow my journey, recommend books, or read interesting articles I stumble upon, subscribe to my newsletter. I share the best ideas from the web, twice a month.
Finally, if you’re interested in joining the challenge, the rules are simple – read 30 pages per day! You can add me on GoodReads to track progress. We also have a GoodReads group – let me know if you would like to be added!
Let’s begin.
🤔PHILOSOPHY
1. EGO IS THE ENEMY BY RYAN HOLIDAY
Book in one line: You can be aspiring to be successful, maintaining your success, or recently have been failed – in all three stages, the Ego is your worst enemy.
Favorite quote(s):
- If you start believing in your greatness, it is the death of your creativity – Marina Abramovic
- Facts are better than dreams – Winston Churchill
- Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know – Lao Tzu
- Silence is the respite of the confident and the strong
- The only relationship between work and chatter is that one kills the other
- To be or to do? – John Boyd
- One of the symptoms of approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important – Bertrand Russel
- He who indulges himself in empty fears indulges himself in real fears – Seneca
Important lessons learned:
- If your belief is not dependent on your actual achievement, then ask yourself if it is dependent on your ego?
- If you think you already know something, you will never learn. Tame your ego. Be a perpetual student.
- A fish stinks from the head. If you’re the manager, don’t drown your team because of your ego.
2. A GUIDE TO THE GOOD LIFE BY WILLIAM B. IRVINE
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 lessons learned: coming soon…
3. THE FOUR AGREEMENTS BY DON MIGUEL RUIZ
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
4. THE HEART OF BUDDHA’S TEACHING BY THICH NHAT HANH
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
🧠 PSYCHOLOGY, HUMAN BEHAVIOR, OR DECISION MAKING
5. COWS, PIGS, WARS, AND WITCHES BY MARVIN HARRIS
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
6. ALGORITHMS TO LIVE BY: THE COMPUTER SCIENCE OF HUMAN DECISIONS BY BRIAN CHRISTIAN AND TOM GRIFFITHS
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
7. FACTFULNESS BY HANS ROSLING
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
8. PREDICTABLY IRRATIONAL BY DAN ARIELY
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
✒ AUTOBIOGRAPHY, BIOGRAPHY, OR MEMOIR
9. MAN’S SEARCH FOR MEANING BY VIKTOR. E. FRANKL
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
10. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN: AN AMERICAN LIFE BY WALTER ISAACSON
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
11. CAN’T HURT ME BY DAVID GOGGINS
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
12. WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR BY PAUL KALANITHI
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
🏯 HISTORY
13. THE ORIGINS OF POLITICAL ORDER BY FRANCIS FUKUYAMA
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
14. THE STORY OF PHILOSOPHY BY WILL DURANT
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
15. THE SILK ROADS BY PETER FRANKOPAN
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
16. GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL BY JARED DIAMOND
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
💭 FICTION
17. FOUNTAINHEAD BY AYN RAND
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
18. A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW BY AMOR TOWLES
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
19. SOPHIE’S WORLD BY JOSTEIN GAARDER
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
20. CLOUD ATLAS BY DAVID MITCHELL
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
🗝 INDIA (NOT A GENRE BUT I WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT MY COUNTRY)
21. MAHABHARATA BY C. RAJAGOPALACHARI
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
22. INDIA AFTER GANDHI BY RAMACHANDRA GUHA
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
23. INDIA: A HISTORY BY JOHN KEAY
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
24. UPANISHADS BY EKNATH EASWARAN
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
😅 CLASSICS OR NON-FICTION
25. CIVILIZATION AND ITS DISCONTENT BY SIGMUND FREUD
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
26. THE BOOK OF FIVE RINGS BY MIYAMOTO MUSASHI, THOMAS CLEARY
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
27. AS A MAN THINKETH BY JAMES ALLEN
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
28. A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING BY BILL BRYSON
Book Summary in one line: As humans, we don’t know much about our existence; Bill Bryson tries to make sense of what we know till now.
Favorite quote(s):
- Fog are clouds that did not have the will to fly.
- If you were to pick yourself apart with tweezers, one atom at a time, you would produce a mound of fine atomic dust, none of which had ever been alive but all of which once been you.
Important Lessons Learned:
- It’s a miracle that everything fell into place and we all are alive. The probability of Earth was miniscule but yet here we are, against all odds.
- A lot of things that we know today was because of the work of a lot of people who spent their lives seeking answers, the truth.
29. THINK ON THESE THINGS BY JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
🤓 SELF-HELP
30. EVERYBODY WRITES BY ANN HANDLEY
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
31. STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST BY AUSTIN KLEON
Book in one line: None of the ideas are original, everything has been said before; great artists don’t know how to make these ideas into their own.
Favorite quote(s):
- When people give you advice, they’re really just talking to themselves in the past.
- Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light, and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work and theft will be authentic- Jim Jarmusch
- The work you do while you procrastinate is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life – Jessica Hische
- Avoiding work is the way to focus my mind – Maira Kalman
- You can’t connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backward – Steve Jobs
- Complain about the way other people make software by making software – Andre Torres
3 Lessons Learned:
- Be consistent in your creative pursuit
- Don’t copy or imitate; learn from your heroes and see how can you add your own authentic spin on it. In doing so, you will find your own style.
- Have a lot of side-projects and keep switching between them.
32. SHOW YOUR WORK BY AUSTIN KLEON
Book in one line: To be found you have to be findable; you need to be out there while honing your craft.
Favorite quote(s):
- In the beginners’ mind, there are many possibilities. In the expert’s mind only a few – Shunry Suzuki
- If you work on something a little bit every day, you end up with something massive – Kenneth Goldsmith
- Whatever excites you, go do it. Whatever drains you, stop doing it – Derek Sivers
- Originality of ideas depends on the obscurity of sources – John Hegarty
3 Lessons Learned:
- Share something small every day: don’t wait to publish the perfect thing, publish daily what you can.
- Open up your cabinet of curiosities: before you become a creator, you become a curator. Share what influences you.
- Stick around: harness the power of compounding and consistency. Ideas for the next project come from the previous project. When you finish a project, think about the weak links in the project and work on those next.
33. INFLUENCE: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PERSUASION BY ROBERT CIALDINI
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
34. THE LAWS OF HUMAN NATURE BY ROBERT GREENE
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
💰 FINANCE AND ECONOMICS
35. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING BY HOWARD MARKS
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
36. MONEY MASTER THE GAME BY TONY ROBBINS
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
37. WHY NATIONS FAIL BY DARON ACEMOGLU, JAMES ROBINSON
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
38. GOOD ECONOMICS FOR HARD TIMES BY ABHIJIT BANERJEE, ESTHER DUFLO
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
39. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MONEY BY MORGAN HOUSEL
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
💼 BUSINESS AND LEADERSHIP
40. RANGE BY DAVID EPSTEIN
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
41. THE HARD THING ABOUT HARD THINGS BY BEN HOROWITZ
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
42. LEAN IN BY SHERYL SANDBERG
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
43. THE EFFECTIVE EXECUTIVE BY PETER F. DRUCKER
Book in one line: coming soon…
Favorite quote(s): coming soon…
3 Lessons Learned: coming soon…
Note: Some items listed above are Amazon affiliate links. This means I receive a very small commission if you make a purchase after clicking through any of the images (links) above, at no additional cost to you (i.e. the prices don’t change).
