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285 books.

A decade of reading. Leadership, philosophy, neuroscience, economics, fiction — and a lot of margin in between. Click any title: 181 of the 285 open a full review on Substack, the rest a Substack search. Or browse the two original Medium round-ups linked at the bottom of the page.

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285 books, one spine each A bookcase with one spine per book: Part I, 100; Part II, 182; Part III, 3. Spine tone follows the book's type; 181 books carry a sticker for a published review. Anthro-Vision — Gillian TettWanting — Luke BurgisFour Thousand Weeks — Oliver BurkemanRead Write Own — Chris DixonCompany Of One — Paul JarvisChip War — Chris MillerRestoring the Soul of Business — Rishad TobaccowalaThe Parasitic Mind — Gad SaadThe Righteous Mind — Jonathan HaidtSapiens — Yuval Noah HarariThe Goodness Paradox — Richard WranghamThe Brothers Karamazov — Fyodor DostoevskyOn Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous — Ocean VuongThe Red Book — C. G. JungThe Hard Thing About Hard Things — Ben HorowitzNoise — Daniel KahnemanCrime and Punishment — Fyodor DostoevskyYou Are the Placebo — Dr. Joe DispenzaThe Prophet — Kahlil GibranNotes from Underground — Fyodor DostoevskyNudge — Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. SunsteinHoney Blood — Kirsty EverettSkin in the Game — Nicholas TalebThe Best American Essays 2023 — Vivian Gornick, Robert AtwanFast Forward — Wendy Leshgold, Lisa McCarthyImmortal Poems of the English Language — Oscar WilliamsThe Best American Science and Nature Writing 2023 — Carl ZimmerIf I Survive You — Jonathan EscofferyMycelium Running — Paul StametsZero to One — Peter ThielKnowledge Is Beautiful — David McCandlessThe Best American Essays 2022 — Alexander Chee8 Rules of Love — Jay ShettyRange — David EpsteinThe Ego Is Your Enemy — Maynard McBrideStumbling on Happiness — Daniel GilbertThe War of Art — Steven PressfieldGiving Voice to Values — Mary C. GentileDeFi and the Future of Finance — Campbell R. HarveySuperintelligence — Nick BostromThe Greatest Story Ever Told — Lawrence M. KraussSurely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! — Richard P. FeynmanInterdependence — Kriti SharmaAncient Secrets of a Master Healer — Clint G. RogersBurnout — Emily Nagoski PhD, Amelia Nagoski DMAThe 48 Laws of Power — Robert GreeneThe Sales Acceleration Formula — Mark RobergeStorytelling with Data — Cole Nussbaumer KnaflicNeoliberalism, Management and Religion — Edward Wray-BlissThe Origins and History of Consciousness — Erich NeumannA Universe from Nothing — Lawrence M. KraussDear Haiti — Martine HarrisProof of Heaven — Eben AlexanderPredictive Analytics — Eric Siegel12 Rules for Life — Jordan B. PetersonThe Ride of a Lifetime — Robert IgerThe First 90 Days — Michael D. WatkinsMaster Your Next Move — Michael D. WatkinsCreative Visualization — Shakti GawainBeyond Order — Jordan B. PetersonThe Overstory — Richard PowersThe End of Faith — Sam HarrisThe Madness of Crowds — Douglas MurrayShamanism — Mircea EliadeRun Fast — Hal HigdonSurrounded by Idiots — Thomas EriksonThe Prince — Niccolò MachiavelliThe 10X Rule — Grant CardoneRembrandt Is in the Wind — Russ RamseyOh Yes, Oh Yes! — Carl CoxEgo Is the Enemy — Ryan HolidayThink and Grow Rich — Napoleon HillAnimal Farm + 1984 — George OrwellWhy Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria — Beverly Daniel TatumWhat I Talk About When I Talk About Running — Haruki MurakamiBuilt to Last — Jim Collins, Jerry I PorrasThe Glass Bead Game — Hermann HesseOnly the Paranoid Survive — Andrew S. GroveMan's Search for Meaning — Viktor E. FranklLeading Change — John P. KotterThe Boy Crisis — Warren Farrell Ph.D., John GrayThink Again — Adam GrantEnlightenment Now — Steven PinkerFlow — Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiThe Obstacle Is the Way — Ryan HolidayEnchiridion — EpictetusThe New One Minute Manager — Ken Blanchard, Spencer JohnsonHigh Output Management — Andrew S. GroveMeditations — Marcus AureliusWoke Racism — John McWhorterBehave — Robert M. SapolskyThe Biology of Belief — Bruce H. LiptonAtomic Habits — James ClearBoyd — Robert CoramEye and Brain — Richard L. GregoryNever Split the Difference — Chris Voss, Tahl RazArt of Seduction — Robert GreeneMaps of Meaning — Jordan B. PetersonDark Psychology and Manipulation — William CooperBlindness — José Saramago Part I100 Good to Great — Jim CollinsThe 7 Habits of Highly Effective People — Stephen R. CoveyLegacy — James KerrFirms of Endearment — Rajendra SisodiaThinking, Fast and Slow — Daniel KahnemanWhat Got You Here Won't Get You There — Marshall GoldsmithDark Pools — Scott PattersonOutliers — Malcolm GladwellOn Fridays We Fast — Dr. Michael L WoosleyThe Gulag Archipelago — A. SolzhenitsynLeaders Eat Last — Simon SinekHow To Win Friends and Influence People — Dale CarnegieMany Lives, Many Masters — Brian L. WeissThe Power of Now — Eckhart TolleNo Rules Rules — Reed HastingsThe Three Pillars of Zen — Philip Kapleau RoshiAutobiography of a Yogi — Paramahansa YoganandaThe Surrender Experiment — Michael A. SingerThe Celestine Prophecy — James RedfieldThe 5 Love Languages — Gary ChapmanThe Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck — Mark MansonPower vs. Force — David R. Hawkins M.D. Ph.DMorphic Resonance — Rupert SheldrakeMoonwalking with Einstein — Joshua FoerFree Speech And Why It Matters — Andrew DoyleThe 4-Hour Body — Timothy FerrissFaust — Johann Wolfgang von GoetheThe Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious — C. G. JungThe 4-Hour Workweek — Timothy FerrissThe Fiat Standard — Saifedean AmmousData Science for Business — Foster Provost, Tom FawcettThe Laws of Human Nature — Robert GreeneThe User Illusion — Tor NorretrandersDrift — Rachel MaddowThe Mind Is Flat — Nick ChaterHow Brands Grow — Byron SharpThe Sacred Mushroom and the Cross — John M. AllegroParadise Lost — John MiltonThe 33 Strategies of War — Robert GreeneBreath — James NestorInto the Impossible — Brian KeatingLosing the Nobel Prize — Brian KeatingThe Alchemist — Paulo CoelhoThe Art of War — Sun TzuMilk and Honey — Rupi KaurGrow — Jim StengelMoment of Lift — Melinda GatesJourney — Andrew ZimmermanPaid Attention — Faris YakobDune Saga 6-Book Boxed Set — Frank HerbertDemonic Males — Dale Peterson, Richard WranghamDubliners — James JoyceThe Road to Eleusis — R. Gordon Wasson, Albert HofmannThe Immortality Key — Brian C. MurareskuThe Great Gatsby — F. Scott FitzgeraldA Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century — Heather Heying, Bret WeinsteinTools Of Titans — Timothy FerrissThe War on the West — Douglas MurrayInfluence — Robert B Cialdini PhDKnow Thyself — Mitchell S. GreenIncerto — Nassim Nicholas TalebThe Pushcart Prize XLVI — Bill HendersonHomo Deus — Yuval Noah HarariThe Forty Rules of Love — Elif ShafakHelp Them Grow or Watch Them Go — Beverly Kaye, Julie Winkle GiulioniThe Way of the Superior Man — David DeidaThe Great Mother — Erich NeumannAries — Sally KirkmanThe Daily Stoic — Ryan Holiday, Stephen HanselmanSex Talks — Vanessa Marin, Xander MarinThe Body Keeps the Score — Bessel van der Kolk M.D.Orlando — Virginia WoolfWhen Men Behave Badly — David Buss PhDThe Master and His Emissary — Iain McGilchristThe Language Instinct — Steven PinkerThe Master and Margarita — Mikhail BulgakovWar and Peace — Leo TolstoyThe Anatomy of Human Destructiveness — Erich FrommFreud's Requiem — Matthew Von UnwerthOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest — Ken KeseyLife at the Bottom — Theodore DalrympleIsland — Aldous HuxleyLord of the Flies — William GoldingFear and Loathing in Las Vegas — Hunter S. ThompsonExistence — Rollo MayAion — C. G. JungGenius — H. J. EysenckThe Denial of Death — Ernest BeckerThe Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat — Oliver SacksThe New Executive Brain — Elkhonon GoldbergThe Emotional Brain — Joseph LedouxA Farewell to Arms — Ernest HemingwayFor Whom the Bell Tolls — Ernest HemingwayBeyond Good & Evil — Friedrich NietzscheBrave New World — Aldous HuxleyCancer Ward — Aleksandr SolzhenitsynFlowers For Algernon — Daniel KeyesAnna Karenina — Leo TolstoyFactfulness — Hans RoslingProgress — Johan NorbergHow to Spend $75 Billion to Make the World a Better Place — Bjørn LomborgThe Rise and Fall of the Third Reich — William L. ShirerThe Rise of Statistical Thinking — Theodore M. PorterThe Mystery of Capital — Hernando De SotoStalin — Edvard RadzinskySystemantics — John GallLittle Science, Big Science… and Beyond — D. De Solla PriceEarth in Human Hands — David GrinspoonThe Great Escape — Angus DeatonThe Rational Optimist — Matt RidleyThe World's Religions — Huston SmithWords with Power — Northrop FryeThe Sacred and The Profane — Mircea EliadeThe Great Code — Northrop FryeThe Forge and the Crucible — Mircea EliadeThe Crisis of Islam — Bernard LewisMyths Dreams and Mysteries — Mircea EliadeMyth and Reality — Mircea EliadeMephistopheles — Jeffrey Burton RussellThe Bible — Ernest Sutherland BatesA History of Religious Ideas, Volume 1 — Mircea EliadeA History of Religious Ideas, Volume 3 — Mircea EliadeThe Neuropsychology of Anxiety — Jeffrey A. GrayThe Ecological Approach to Visual Perception — James J. GibsonAffective Neuroscience — Jaak PankseppAn Anthropologist On Mars — Oliver SacksBrain Architecture — Larry W. SwansonAwakenings — Oliver SacksAn Outline of Psycho-Analysis — Sigmund FreudA Way Of Being — Carl RogersAnswer to Job — C. G. JungModern Man In Search Of A Soul — C.G. JungMysterium Coniunctionis — C. G. JungPlay, Dreams & Imitation in Childhood — Jean PiagetPsychology and Alchemy — C. G. JungThe Moral Judgment of the Child — Jean PiagetSymbols of Transformation — C. G. JungPsychology and Religion: West and East — C. G. JungThe Interpretation of Dreams — Sigmund FreudThe Symbolic Life: Miscellaneous Writings — C. G. JungThe Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Vol. 7 — C. G. JungThe Charterhouse of Parma — StendhalZen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance — Robert M. PirsigTolstoy — Henri TroyatThe Old Man and The Sea — Ernest HemingwayWuthering Heights — Emily BrontëThe Will to Power — Friedrich NietzscheTo Kill a Mockingbird — Harper LeeThe Stone Angel — Margaret LaurenceZorba the Greek — Nikos KazantzakisThe House of God — Samuel ShemThe Long Goodbye — Raymond ChandlerThe Maltese Falcon — Dashiell HammettThe Horse's Mouth — Joyce CaryThe Gay Science — Friedrich NietzscheThe Road To Wigan Pier — George OrwellSometimes a Great Notion — Ken KeseyThe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test — Tom WolfeFratricides — Nikos KazantzakisThe First Circle — Aleksandr SolzhenitsynThe Big Sleep — Raymond ChandlerI, Claudius — Robert GravesEast of Eden — John SteinbeckDemons — Fyodor DostoevskyThe Anti-Christ — Friedrich NietzscheOn the Genealogy of Morals and Ecce Homo — Friedrich NietzscheOur Culture, What's Left of It — Theodore DalrymplePoint Counter Point — Aldous Huxley21 Lessons for the 21st Century — Yuval Noah HarariThe Experience Machine — Andy ClarkAgent of Influence — Jason HansonCall Sign Chaos — General MattisThe Score Takes Care of Itself — Bill WalshThe Fish That Ate the Whale — Rich CohenDeep Survival — Laurence GonzalesThe Master Switch — Tim WuIt Takes What It Takes — Trevor MarwordCold Start Problem — Andrew ChenThe Accidental Superpower — Peter ZeihanLet My People Go Surfing — Yvon ChouinardFive Generations at Work — Rebecca Robins, Patrick DunneI, Enoch — Steve Stine Part II182 Everything You Want Is on the Other Side of Hard — Ken RideoutReshuffle: Who Wins When AI Restacks the Knowledge Economy — Sangeet Paul ChoudaryWe Who Wrestle with God: Perceptions of the Divine — Jordan B. Peterson Part III3
  • 285Books logged
  • 100Part I (2023)
  • 182Part II (2024–2025)
  • 3Part III (2026)
  • 10+Years of reading
The Orrery · 285 books in orbit Launch ✦ Hover a star to read its spine
285 BOOKS Business51 books Mind61 books Philosophy38 books Science29 books History46 books Literature58 books Other2 books
Recurring authors · 31 appear 2+ times · 24 shownShow cloudClick any author to filter ↓
Operator shelf

What shaped the advisory.

A curated starter path through the 285-book shelf. 6 themes, two to three books each — the ones that recur most in advisory work across GTM, operating-model, data, and decision-making engagements.

Strategy & GTM

Where commercial choices come from — and what they cost when you defer them.

Leadership & scaling

Building the team, cadence, and operating system that turn a plan into repeatable execution.

Decision-making

How forecasts, bets, and operating reads actually land in fast-moving systems.

AI, data, infrastructure

The terrain advisory work runs on — chip stacks, data narratives, alignment problems.

Operator mindset

The psychological ground that compounds across roles, regions, and companies.

Sense-making

Anthropology, history, and the long arc of how humans organize value.

Recommend

Read something
I haven't?

Drop a title, an author, and a sentence on why. The best recommendations land in the next round of reading — and the standout ones get reviewed publicly.

Anonymous if you want · response only if you ask.

Source

The full Medium round-ups.

This page condenses two long-form Medium articles, plus the books added since, into a single searchable bookshelf. The originals — written for friends asking for the list — include reading order suggestions and the occasional digression. Worth a click if you like that sort of thing.

01
Medium · 2024
Great Books — Part I
Read on Medium ↗
02
Medium · 2024
The Great Books — Part II
Read on Medium ↗
03
Substack · 2024
Per-book reviews
Read reviews ↗
Where the shelf meets the work

From shelf to advisory surface.

Each shelf maps to a live advisory surface — strategy + GTM → Audit, decision-making → method, AI/data → Data Collaboration + Building, operator mindset → Org Design.

Read the thinking See advisory services