Best Biography Books: 200 Books List

Recommended by Sir Martin Sorrell (CEO/WPP)

Source: Books CEOs Will Be Reading This Summer

"Collins briefed Amazon executives on his seminal management book before its publication. Companies must confront the brutal facts of their business, find out what they are uniquely good at, and master their fly wheel, in which each part of the business reinforces and accelerates the other parts," Stone writes.

Jeff Bezos

CEO/Amazon

It’s unusual for modern biographies to be this good. It’s especially unusually for the subject of the biography to approach the biographer in the way that Steve Jobs did (thinking that he was the intellectual heir of Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein). But despite those two things, this bio is and will likely forever be a classic. It shows Jobs at his best–determined, creative, prophetic–and at his worst–petty, selfish, tyrannical and vicious. You can learn just as much about what kind of leader you probably don’t want to be from this book as you can from anything else. That’s what is so strange about Jobs and this biography. You read it and you’re blown away and impressed but I think very few of us think: yeah, I want to be that guy. I want to treat my kids that way, I want to be obsessed with trivial design things that way, I want to hate that way, and so on. You admire him but you also see him as a tragic figure. That’s how you know that Isaacson did an amazing job with this book. TC mark

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

I encourage you to read his autobiography “Losing My Virginity” as well as his book “Business Stripped Bare” if you haven’t gone through them yet. Uber-inspiring. For people who want to become Remarkable Entrepreneurs – and express their absolute best.

Robin Sharma

Founder/Sharma Leadership International

I really enjoyed Brad Stone's The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon. Anyone who wants to better understand the dynamics of disruption or just gain a better understanding of the website we've come to love, must read this book.

Shane Parrish

Founder/Syrus Partners

My professional path – copywriting – somehow intertwines with my unprofessional (hahaha) path – writing so I would recommend reading literature for both. Somehow reading and writing are two ways of doing the same thing: storytelling (even when you read you tell yourself a story in your own voice, bringing your personal emotion and empathy to the story you’re reading). The only difference is that when I’m reading, panic is far away from me, in a safe place. Nevertheless, the words below helped me rewrite and think twice before adding an exclamation point: On Writing by Stephen King.

Alina Varlanuta

Creator/The Hole in Your Head

I don’t read “business books”. I may read books which were classified as “Business”, “Leadership”, etc; but, if I do, I do so in spite of the category they’ve been deemed to belong to, not because of it.

I generally split books into three main categories. Here are the titles –sorry, but I simply can’t pick just one– that currently hold the top spots in each:

[...]

Biography/Memoir: Andre Agassi’s and J. R. Moehringer’s “Open“; Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat, Pray, Love“; and Salman Rushdie’s “Joseph Anton“.

Gabriel Coarna

Founder/Readable

A biography has to be really good to make read you all 800 pages. To me, this was one of those books. Since reading it earlier this year, I’ve since found out it is the favorite book of a lot of people I respect. I think something about the quality of the writing and the empathic understanding of the writer that the main lessons you would take away from someone like Rockefeller would not be business, but life lessons. In fact, when I went back through and took notes on this book, I filled out more cards for Stoicism than I did for Strategy, Business or Money. I found Rockefeller to be strangely stoic, incredibly resilient and, despite his reputation as a robber baron, humble and compassionate. Most people get WORSE as they get successful, many more get worse as they age. Rockefeller did neither of these things, he grew more open-minded the older he became, more generous, more pious, more dedicated to making a difference. Does that excuse the “awful” things that he did? Well, the things he did really weren’t that awful so yes. (By that I mean I’d certainly choose him over the robber barons of this age like Zuckerberg or Murdoch.)

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

Winston Ma

Managing Director/China Investment Corporation

"In his autobiography, Walmart's founder expounds on the principles of discount retailing and discusses his core values of frugality and a bias for action — a willingness to try a lot of things and make many mistakes. Bezos included both in Amazon's corporate values," Brad Stone writes.

Jeff Bezos

CEO/Amazon

I loved Goodwin’s Team of Rivals and highly recommend this one too.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has plunged into what must be an advance copy of Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson, who has written biographies of Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein and Ben Franklin. Isaacson’s biography is based on the Renaissance master’s personal notebooks, so you know we’re going to be taken into the creative mind of the genius.

Satya Nadella

CEO/Microsoft

Schwarzenegger's autobiography is, first and foremost, a really really great rags-to-riches story. But it's true. And it's surprising: he didn't make his first million dollars by acting. And it's inspiring: he goes a little into how one should think, when pursuing a particular goal. And, lastly, it's very well written. It'll completely redefine your idea of the man. And it may give you a glimpse into how you might better sculpt your idea of you.

Gabriel Coarnă

Founder/Readable

Anybody who thinks the Chinese just copy or steal technology from the West should read this book and think again. Jack Ma is part Bill Gates, part Steve Jobs, part Larry Page, part Sergey Brin, and part Mark Zuckerberg, all rolled into one.

Sir Martin Sorrell

CEO/WPP

This book, to be read and re-read, is a historical and extremely well documented history of the digital revolution, carrying insightful surprises along the way.

Isabelle Ohnemus

Founder/EyeFitU

Recommended by Fabrice Grinda (Serial Entrepreneur, Investor)

Source: Serial Entrepreneur & Investor Fabrice Grinda Reads Almost 100 Books Each Year

The books that have had the most influence for me are business biographies/autobiographies. My favorites have been Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson, How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis (the book isn’t as shallow as the title makes it seems), and Made in America by Sam Walton. Reading the stories of these business pioneers has had a big motivation on me to step out of my comfort zone and strive to make an impact.

Gunhee Park

Co-Founder/Populum

How do you explain Warren Buffett? Everyone knows that in a deep and liquid capital market like that of the US, it is just about impossible to beat the stock market averages over anything more than the short term. But Buffett has been ahead of the curve for most of the past 50 years, making him one of the world’s richest people. Alice Schroeder’s massive authorised biography, The Snowball, provides some clues about how he’s done it.

Richard Lambert

Director-General/Confederation of British Industry

I really, really like company biographies. They're just kind of the style of book that I've gotten really into. [...] I've read the Starbucks CEO book.

Jilliene Helman

CEO/Realty Mogul

When it comes to books, one of the great injustices of our time is that --or, rather, how-- Walter Isaacson wrote Steve Jobs's official biography. I was almost angry when I finished the book. It was well-researched, yes; but Isaacson only used that research to

Gabriel Coarna

Founder/Readable

I was a little surprised to learn what a bad manager Nixon was. Although it doesn’t compare to his other failings, Nixon’s management style offers some good reminders of how not to run a team. He avoided conflict at all costs. His staff frequently left meetings with diametrically opposed views on what he had just asked them to do. Or he would be crystal-clear about what he wanted, while actually expecting his staff to ignore his demands. His team wisely blew off his repeated orders to break into the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, and steal a document that might be damaging to him.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

I was drawn to read Benjamin Franklin's autobiography because it is mentioned several times in How to Win Friends and Influence People. Franklin achieved extraordinary things and he has a lot of wisdom to share in his autobiography, alongside a gripping account of the story of his life. I was drawn to read Benjamin Franklin's autobiography because it is mentioned several times in How to Win Friends and Influence People. Franklin achieved extraordinary things and he has a lot of wisdom to share in his autobiography, alongside a gripping account of the story of his life.

Joel Gascoigne

Co-founder/Buffer

Here is something that recently helped me. It comes from the book A Mind at Play by Jimmy Soni & Rob Goodman. I'll quote the passage directly and then describe how it helped me:

"What does information really measure? It measures the uncertainty we overcome. It measure our chances of learning something we haven't yet learned. Or, more specifically: when one thing carries information about another–just as a meter reading tells us about a physical quantity, or a book tells us about a life–the amount of information it carries reflects the reduction in uncertainty about the object."

When I read this, I actually felt as if a lightbulb was going off. One question I get a lot with this reading project is "how do you remember everything you read?" I have never liked that question because I think it is the wrong question. Here, the authors sort of flip that on its head. If you don't read, or you aren't learning about a topic, the possibilities of what that could be are endless. By reading, you are "reducing the uncertainty about the object," so in theory, it should take less space in your mind.

I had begun noticing that the more I read, the more clarity of thought I was having. I did not expect this at all. I had assumed that the more I read, the more confused or inundated I would become. But the opposite happened. One of the main reasons I give for this is that if you begin seeing ideas over and over, in different types of books, that makes that idea stronger. If I'm reading about the importance of time in novels, biographies, business books, and other non-fiction, that is an important topic and one I should focus on.

The quote above helped me figure out the other piece of the information overload puzzle. That the more you read, the more you are narrowing down the possibilities of what could be. If I have yet to read a book about a particular historical figure, then the possibilities are endless in terms of information that could be true in my head about that person. But, if I have read a book or two about the person, it narrows down the possibilities.

Erik Rostad

Creator/Books of Titans project

Recommended by Madalina Uceanu (Managing Partner/CareerAdvisor)

Source: HR expert Madalina Uceanu shares with us her favourite books

The Wizard and the Prophet is an important book, and I urge you to read it. (The chapter on climate change, including its fascinating history, is alone worth the effort.)

To combat climate change, should we stop flying (as meteorologist Eric Holthaus has urged) & switch to renewable energy or should we capture carbon from coal plants & build nuclear power plants? GMO crops or community-based organic farming? How can 10 billion people be happy and prosperous without ruining the planet?

I came to this book with an open mind, and came away far more informed about the debate but even more unsure about the way forward. The book offers no easy answers — it’s difficult to tell where Mann himself stands on the wizard/prophet continuum (although I would suspect more wizard than prophet, which is likely my leaning as well) — but it does ask many of the right questions. Wizards can order the book from Amazon while Prophets should seek it out at their local bookstore or library.

Jason Kottke

Blogger & Designer

Both Marc and Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, have read and recommended Neal Gabler's biography of Walt Disney.

Marc Andreessen

Co-Founder/Andreessen Horowitz

Recommended by Ryan Holiday (Founder/Brass Check)

Source: The Very Best Books I Read in 2014

This is a good time for Ron Chernow’s fine biography of Ulysses S. Grant to appear… As history, it is remarkable, full of fascinating details sure to make it interesting both to those with the most cursory knowledge of Grant’s life and to those who have read his memoirs or any of several previous biographies… For all its scholarly and literary strengths, this book’s greatest service is to remind us of Grant’s significant achievements at the end of the war and after, which have too long been overlooked and are too important today to be left in the dark… As Americans continue the struggle to defend justice and equality in our tumultuous and divisive era, we need to know what Grant did when our country’s very existence hung in the balance. If we still believe in forming a more perfect union, his steady and courageous example is more valuable than ever.

Bill Clinton

President/United States

I didn't read actually very many general business books, but I like biographies and autobiographies, I think those are pretty helpful. Actually, a lot of them aren't really business. [...] Isaacson's biography on Franklin is really good. Cause he was an entrepreneur and he sort of started from nothing, actually he was just like a run away kid, basically, and created his printing business and sort of his way of doing that, and then over time all of the science and politics. I'd say certain he's one of the few people I most admire. Franklin's pretty awesome.

Elon Musk

Founder/SpaceX

This was someone I knew little about before the year began, and by the end of it found myself referencing and thinking of him constantly. It is equal parts due to the greatest of the man himself and to Hart’s vivid and engrossing portrait. I almost feel like I have lost something not having known this of him my whole life. There is a stunningly profound quote from Hart in the book that I’ll paraphrase here that defines his genius: Sherman’s success was rooted in his grasp that the way to success is strategically along the line of least expectation and tactically along the line of least resistance. It is that kind of thinking that immediately displaces any preceding notions about Sherman’s reputation as a general or a legend. All these myths belies his strategic acumen, his mastery of terrain and his deep understanding of statesmanship and politics. There is much to learn from the man and this biographer—who himself was a great strategist and mind—so if you are going to read one biography this year, read Sherman: Solider, Realist, American.

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

When I was younger I would ask any smart or successful person I met to recommend a book for me to read. Dr. Drew recommended that I read The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. It immediately became a lifetime favorite that I have reread several times (Amazon tells me I bought it Oct 26, 2006). It ends the day he is telegraphed that McKinley has been assassinated–so the book focuses on everything before that from his unusual childhood and struggle with asthma to his love nature to his trip west after the simultaneous death of his wife and mother. I’m not sure why I took so long to read this sequel but it is just as good, if not better. Focusing on Roosevelt from the end of presidency to the end of his life, there is enough material just in that portion of his life to put everyone else to shame. It covers his retirement, his safari in Africa, his exploration of the River of Doubt, his run as a third party candidate and finally his heartbreaking struggles with WWI and his son’s death. Goddamn, TR was a good man.

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

Recommended by Barack Obama (Former USA President)

Source: Every book Barack Obama has recommended during his presidency

If you’ve been struggling with the onslaught of negative news and political turmoil, start with Montaigne. Why? It’s the biography of man who retreated from the chaos of 16th century France to study himself, written by a man fleeing the chaos of 20th century Europe. [...] This book helped me get through 2017, no question.

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

I'm currently reading a biography of Alan Sugar, a U.K. entrepreneur who created Amstrad from scratch. I'm trying to get my creative juices flowing on launching a new product and this very much sets that tone.

Scott Johnson

Freelance Software Engineer

Recommended by Madalina Uceanu (Managing Partner/CareerAdvisor)

Source: HR expert Madalina Uceanu shares with us her favourite books

I also recommend The 50th Law, which while not technically a biography tells the stories of many such individuals and will stick with you just as long.

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

Recommended by Irina Botnari (Managing Partner & Co-Founder/Bucur's Shelter Hostel)

Source: Irina Botnari, Co-Founder at Bucur's Shelter Hostel, on Books, Her Love for Stories and Biographies

Recommended by Bogdan Iordache (Co-Founder/How to Web)

Source: Bogdan Iordache: Recommended Books and Learnings

Musk said that he had just finished Barlett and Steele's

Elon Musk

Founder/SpaceX

I forget who said it but I heard someone say that Catcher in the Rye was to young white boys what the Autobiography of Malcolm X was to young black boys. Personally, I prefer that latter over the former. I would much rather read about and emulate a man who is born into adversity and pain, struggles with criminality, does prison time, teaches himself to read through the dictionary, finds religion and then becomes an activist for Civil Rights before being gunned down by his former supporters when he tempers the hate and anger that had long defined parts of his message.

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

One book in particular stayed with Jobs his entire life, and Isaacson noted that it was the only book Jobs had downloaded on his iPad 2: “Autobiography of a Yogi,” “the guide to meditation and spirituality that he had first read as a teenager,” Isaacson writes, “then re-read in India and had read once a year ever since.”

Steve Jobs

CEO/Apple

Sheri Salata’s journey to a life of extraordinary success ultimately triggered a transformation to wholeness and healing. We can all learn from her riveting story that joy, love and self compassion are the true goals of human existence. Read this book, The Beautiful No, and be inspired to embark on your own journey of emotional and spiritual fulfillment.

Deepak Chopra

Founder/The Chopra Foundation

Once again, Beschloss captures our Presidents in terms both historic and human, showing that whoever holds the office will fearlessly—or fearfully—impact our world.

Tom Hanks

Actor, author

I started reading "Eat, Pray, Love" as soon as I finished watching Elizabeth Gilbert give this talk.

Gabriel Coarna

Founder/Readable

Recommended by Barack Obama (Former USA President)

Source: Every book Barack Obama has recommended during his presidency

Older biographies are better in my experience. This one is 50+ years old and that’s right in the sweet spot. It didn’t have to be trendy, it didn’t have to psychoanalyze, it didn’t have to be political correct or controversial. It just had to be a sweeping, conclusive picture of the man. Modern enough to be historically accurate, old enough to still have respect for ambition. No question, this is a big book but I learned a lot. For instance, I had no idea that Edison had been mostly deaf (and that that deafness fueled and improved many of his sound inventions). I didn’t know about his friendship with Henry Ford or what a shrewd businessman Edison was. If you like big biographies, read this.

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

The definitive biography of an industrial genius, philanthropist, and enigma. At the meeting in May of this year, Munger also mentioned the Mellon Brothers as people to study.

Charlie Munger

Vice Chairman/Berkshire Hathaway

I knew nothing about Queen Victoria but Julia Baird does an amazing job of making her accessible and interesting–and captures just what life was like for a woman in the 19th century, even if she was a queen!

Ryan Holiday

Media Strategist, Author, Founder/Brass Check

Michael Jordan and Phil Knight, the Nike founder, two different biographies, those were great. See, Michael Jordan’s was really really quite good and doesn’t seem to get talked about as much but it’s nice and solid.

Yaro Starak

Founder/Entrepreneurs-Journey.com

Recommended by Barack Obama (Former USA President)

Source: Barack Obama on Facebook

I just finished Vincent Cronin’s book on Napoleon, a man who definitely needed better PR. Napoleon codified the laws for the first time in Europe. He was constantly limiting kings and other tyrants. He opened the ghettos and stopped religious discrimination. He was an extraordinary man who wrote a lot of laws himself. He was incredibly polite, generous almost to a fault, a remarkable person who was vilified. By who? The kings that he deposed — the kings of England, and the old king of France, and the kings of Prussia, and the Tsar of Russia — were all threatened by this man who was bringing democracy.

I think it’s interesting to read this book and look at Napoleon and see how history has treated him. Even the expression “Napoleon complex,” Napoleon was average height for a French person. The idea is just preposterous, treating maybe the most gifted man of the 19th century as some kind of despot. He was a liberator, a law-giver, and a man of incredible gifts. He never considered himself a soldier, he considered himself a politician, though he was probably the greatest general in all history.

It’s interesting to read about him for a couple of reasons: to see what one man of modest birth can do with his life, and to see how history can distort the truth entirely. The job of historians is often just that, to distort history, because history is based on fashion. So we’re changing American history all the time, whatever’s politically fashionable. The school districts decide they want to emphasize this person in history, and de-emphasize that person. It’s illuminating to understand that even history is based on fashion. Even morality — popular morality — is based on fashion. Real morality is based on reason, and never make the mistake between the two.

Larry Ellison

Co-Founder/Oracle

Recommended by Robert Greene (Author)

Source: Robert Greene on Instagram

Recommended by Robert Greene (Author)

Source: Robert Greene on Instagram

Every few years for the last 20 years, Ramit has read Iacocca: An Autobiography by Lee Iacocca and William Novak.

Ramit Sethi

Founder/GrowthLab

Recommended by Barack Obama (Former USA President)

Source: Every book Barack Obama has recommended during his presidency

Just because I didn’t want this list to be all stuffy old classics, I thought I’d put this interesting (and unofficial) biography of Jay-Z on here. This is a biography that also functions as a business book. It shows how Jay applied hustling techniques to the music business and eventually built his empire.

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

Robert Kuok's Memoir - biography of a Malaysian born business magnate and investor who made his fortunes building commodity empires and international hotel brands. It’s interesting to read up on the way he approached business in this part of the world (Asia) and how they had the general economic foresight to spot opportunities (and disasters).

Jack Wong

Co-Founder/Shoe Mo

Recommended by Ryan Holiday (Founder/Brass Check)

Source: The (Very) Best Books I Read in 2015

Recommended by Ryan Holiday (Founder/Brass Check)

Source: The (Very) Best Books I Read in 2015

Recommended by Sir Martin Sorrell (CEO/WPP)

Source: Books CEOs Will Be Reading This Summer

Recommended by Andi Dumitrescu (Musician, Film Maker)

Source: Andi Dumitrescu, Musician & Film Maker, Talks About the Books That Boosted All Components of His Career Path

Wollstonecraft and Shelley are two of the most important women most people have rarely thought about. They believed passionately (and at great cost) in the equality of women and the vital, distinctive contribution women should be able to make to human history. Their stories alone are remarkable, but Charlotte Gordon’s idea to interweave the two biographies brilliantly explores the deep relationship between the mother and the daughter who never knew each other. In their search for a richer and more liberated way of life, the Romantics cherished Wollstonecraft’s writing and the daughter they hoped would embody the life of imaginative emancipation. What a legacy — but what an inspiration.

Margaret Heffernan

Author & Entrepreneur

Sonia Purnell’s examination of Winston’s better half was truly revelatory. (Churchill said the best decision he ever made in his life was marrying Clementine and this book makes it clear just how many times she saved his ass).

Ryan Holiday

Media Strategist, Author, Founder/Brass Check

I’ve been reading Perfectly Reasonable Deviations, and I’ve also been rereading Genius.

Naval Ravikant

CEO & Co-Founder/AngelList

A remarkable biography of one of my personal heroes: Chuck Feeney. This is probably the book that’s inspired me most in my professional career.

Rand Fishkin

Founder/Moz

Recommended by Yaro Starak (Founder/Entrepreneurs-Journey.com)

Source: Yaro Starak, Founder of Entrepreneurs-Journey.com: ’’There’s no such thing as failure, there’s only stepping stones to success’’

Lucky is the biographer who can resurrect a forgotten figure and retrieve a major reputation lost to the passage of time. In this captivating and intensely readable book, Victoria Johnson rescues the remarkable life of Dr. David Hosack, physician and botanist extraordinaire and a towering benefactor of New York and the early republic. A welcome achievement.

Ron Chernow

Author

With Russia fever at Defcon 2, I’ve made it about half-ways through the biography The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin. It’s a great refresher on post-WWII history, the cold war, KGB, but above all, on the forces present in Russia.

There are many lines to draw between Russia’s struggles after the fall of Communism with the fundamental political theories of Fukuyama (Origins of Political Order / Political Order And Political Decay). When taken together, they lend an all the more human and sympathetic story to why things played out the way they did. While still appreciating just how immense the level of brokenness, corruption, and brutality that journey has brought with it.

David Heinemeier Hansson

Co-Founder/Basecamp

Recommended by Ryan Holiday (Founder/Brass Check)

Source: The Very Best Books I Read in 2014

I’m a huge Charlie Munger fan. For some reason, I’d missed this biography of him. I learned a few things I didn’t know and got to travel back in time to a book written in the context of Charlie Munger about 20 years ago.

Brad Feld

Co-Founder/Foundry Group

No One Here Gets Out Alive (biography of Jim Morrison) because I have been fascinated by Jim Morrison and The Doors since I was a young kid. Jim’s level of and commitment to artistry is so rare and I wanted to understand what made him tick. This book gives a lot of insight into not only his creative genius but the events in his life that shaped him.

James Murphy

Marketing Manager/Live Nation

It’s going to feel weird reading a book about a German general in WWII but for Rommel we must make an exception. Yes, he fought for a terrible cause. But he did so brilliantly — as a soldier, strategist, and leader. His victories in North Africa were the stuff of legend, and had the US and British troops not ultimately had better resources, the whole thing might have turned out very differently. You cannot read about Rommel and not like and admire the man. I’m saying this so you’ll be prepared and ready to remind yourself that that doesn’t excuse his actions. But you can still learn from him.

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

Ironically, Diogenes’ most famous biography in this collection is of the other Diogenes—Diogenes the Cynic. Other excellent and illustrative sketches include Zeno, Ariston, Cleanthes and Chrysippus the Stoic. Heraclitus is another great biography. All of these vary in length. Zeno is over a 150 pages, Herillus (not to be confused with Heraclitus) is 2 pages. But regardless of length, they are all quite good. My favorite little quirk of the book is Diogenes’ weird poem that he writes about each philosopher and of course the credulity with which he reports on their unusual deaths.

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

"Mukherjee wrote this book for a lay audience, because he knows that the new genome technologies are at the cusp of affecting us all in profound ways," Gates wrote. Mukherjee is what Gates calls a "quadruple threat." He's a practicing physician, teacher, researcher, and author.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Jon Krakauer’s biography of Pat Tillman, Where Men Win Glory, was the most inspiring and moving book I read this year.

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

I have two books going right now: One is the Bobby Kennedy book [“Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon,” by Larry Tye] that just came out. The other is quite an old book. It’s a Gandhi book [“Mohandas K. Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth”] that I got interested in because we went to the Gandhi museum when we were in India recently. I tend to like nonfiction and particularly reading about people and how they lived and how they fought, and what motivated them and their philosophy and so forth.

Tim Cook

CEO/Apple

Recommended by Barack Obama (Former USA President)

Source: Every book Barack Obama has recommended during his presidency

Hurricane Carter’s biography is about a man who refused to be anything but himself—even in prison. There are great parallels to his personal struggles to maintain the sovereignty of self amidst awful circumstances and the lessons of Stoicism. My favorite: how he refused to sue the government after his wrongful conviction was overturned because it’d be saying that they’d taken something from him, that he was still dependent on them which even after decades in prison he refused to resign himself to accepting.

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

If you do enjoy this biography, I followed it up with a few others I consider to be in the same league: Knight’s Cross: A Life of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel by David Fraser, Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, and Mencken: The American Iconoclast.

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

Recommended by Robert Greene (Author)

Source: Robert Greene on Instagram

Recommended by Robert Greene (Author)

Source: Robert Greene on Instagram

The prospects Eleanor Roosevelt faced when she entered the White House were not good. First Ladies hadn’t done anything in decades besides party planning and a few of her predecessors had had nervous breakdowns. She wanted to do something different. This is a book about her political and social acumen–her ability to turn a meaningless position into a powerful platform for change and influence. I read this book and came away so impressed. We can learn a lot.

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

Barton's reading list reflects his unique upbringing and background: He was born in Africa, studied in North America, worked in Asia and then moved to London to take on the role of CEO.

Dominic Barton

CEO/McKinsey

And now I'm in my late 30s, I find myself reading more biographies and histories, and my favourite is Pyke - The Unknown Genius by David Lampe. Geoffrey Pyke's story is the kind you might read about in a work of fiction and dismiss as unrealistic. And today, he's virtually unknown. I particularly like the story of Project Habakkuk, the aim of which was to build a gigantic aircraft carrier out of "pykrete" - ice with added sawdust - which, apocryphally, gained traction when Pyke dumped a large block of pykrete into Churchill's bath and it refused to melt.

Dave Child

Founder/Readable.io

The book was given to me, ‘cause people know that I like that stuff.

Ray Dalio

Founder/Bridgewater Associates

I was riveted (and appalled) by Tiger Woods and probably talked to more people about this book than anything else I read this year.

Ryan Holiday

Media Strategist, Author, Founder/Brass Check

My favorite non-business book is Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham because I am a history nut, and I am fascinated by Thomas Jefferson.

Ken Coleman

Host/The Ken Coleman Show

Recommended by Ryan Holiday (Founder/Brass Check)

Source: Best Book Recommendations of 2011

Norm Borlaug is one of my heroes—and Leon Hesser’s biography is a fascinating account of Borlaug’s life and accomplishments. This is a story of genius, self-sacrifice, and determination. Borlaug was a remarkable scientist and humanitarian whose work in agriculture is rightfully credited with saving the lives of over a billion people.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Now if you’re looking for some inspiration and excitement, Magellan is the book for you. What makes a man an explorer? What made Magellan so he could find a passage he had no reason to be certain he could find? And how thankless a job! [...] There are some books where you feel like everything the writer did led up to this masterpiece they were born to create: that might be what this book is. It’s just perfect in every sense. Cannot recommend highly enough.

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

There’s been a lot of anti-Thoreau sentiment in the past years (heck, Kathryn Schulz published an article in the New Yorker called “Pond Scum”), and I didn’t even think I liked Thoreau, but Walls does a beautiful job of painting a portrait of a writer who was deeply rooted in and connected to his place, who tried his best to carve out a “deliberate” life for himself. (Pair it with NYRB’s reader edition of Thoreau’s journal, which I’ve been reading daily.)

Austin Kleon

Writer, Artist

This is a sparkling biography—not just of a pair of remarkable women, but of a popular personality tool. Merve Emre deftly exposes the hidden origins of the MBTI and the seductive appeal and fatal flaws of personality types. Ultimately, she reveals that a sense of self is less something we discover, and more something we create and revise.

Adam Grant

Author/Originals

Recommended by Catalina Penciu (Food Styling and Photography Blogger)

Source: Interview with Catalina Penciu, Food styling and photography blogger

Lots of other stories. Like, I read the Hershey story, how Hershey’s got started. I read the Cadbury story about the Cadbury chocolates got started. As you can see, there’s a bit of a trend here: coffee and chocolate with Starbucks.

Yaro Starak

Founder/Entrepreneurs-Journey.com

The prospects Eleanor Roosevelt faced when she entered the White House were not good. First Ladies hadn’t done anything in decades besides party planning and a few of her predecessors had had nervous breakdowns. She wanted to do something different. This is a book about her political and social acumen–her ability to turn a meaningless position into a powerful platform for change and influence. I read this book and came away so impressed. We can learn a lot.

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

Written by an anonymous author (possibly multiple) in the 4th century, these biographies are a mix of myth, legend and fact about some of the most powerful men who ever lived: the Roman emperors. We have Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Trajan, Avidius Cassius, Severus and countless others. I’m sure you can guess my favorite subject. Also try The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius Translated by the peerless Robert Graves, these are more biographies of the Roman emperors—from Julius Ceasar to Domitian.

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

My favorite bio I've read for my upcoming book.

Robert Greene

Author

Recommended by Yaro Starak (Founder/Entrepreneurs-Journey.com)

Source: Yaro Starak, Founder of Entrepreneurs-Journey.com: ’’There’s no such thing as failure, there’s only stepping stones to success’’

Recommended by Barack Obama (Former USA President)

Source: Barack Obama on Facebook

It's a combination of scientific biography and explanation of the physics, particularly relating to electricity. It's just the best book of its kind I have ever read, and I just hugely enjoyed it. Couldn't put it down. It was a fabulous human achievement. And neither of the writers is a physicist.

Charlie Munger

Vice Chairman/Berkshire Hathaway

Jobs told Walter Isaacson, the author of his biography, that he “loved King Lear”, which isn’t surprising.

Steve Jobs

Founder/Apple

A friend and peer of Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Raphael Titian and all the other great minds of the Renaissance sat down in 1550 and wrote biographical sketches of the people he knew or had influenced him. What I like about this book is that the profiles are not about statesmen or generals but artists. There are so many great lessons about craft and psychology within this book. The best part? It was written by someone who actually knew what he was talking about, not some art snob or critic, but an actual artist and architect of equal stature to the people he was documenting.

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

Recommended by Yaro Starak (Founder/Entrepreneurs-Journey.com)

Source: Yaro Starak, Founder of Entrepreneurs-Journey.com: ’’There’s no such thing as failure, there’s only stepping stones to success’’

Recommended by Yaro Starak (Founder/Entrepreneurs-Journey.com)

Source: Yaro Starak, Founder of Entrepreneurs-Journey.com: ’’There’s no such thing as failure, there’s only stepping stones to success’’

Recommended by Yaro Starak (Founder/Entrepreneurs-Journey.com)

Source: Yaro Starak, Founder of Entrepreneurs-Journey.com: ’’There’s no such thing as failure, there’s only stepping stones to success’’

Recommended by Andi Dumitrescu (Musician, Film Maker)

Source: Andi Dumitrescu, Musician & Film Maker, Talks About the Books That Boosted All Components of His Career Path

If you do enjoy this biography, I followed it up with a few others I consider to be in the same league: Knight’s Cross: A Life of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel by David Fraser, Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, and Mencken: The American Iconoclast.

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

When it comes to biographies, I have cherished My Early Life by Winston Churchill for a long time, as the book that had it all for a profane reader like myself. It is beautifully written and Churchill’s writing style is highly entertaining. Plus, it gives you a glimpse into the early years of a flawed (yet brilliant) character.

Sonia Micu

Founder/NALU

Clearly the master of this genre, Plutarch wrote biographies of famous Greeks and Romans around the year 100 AD. As always, I tend to default to the Penguin collections. I strongly recommend Plutarch’s Lives Vol. I & II, Essays, and The Makers of Rome: Nine Lives. His book On Sparta is also a collection of biographies (and aphorisms) from the famous Spartans. There is a reason that Shakespeare based many of his plays on Plutarch—not only are they well-written and exciting but they exhibit everything that is good and bad about the human condition. Greed, love, pain, hate, success, selflessness, leadership, stupidity—it’s all there.

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

Recommended by Madalina Uceanu (Managing Partner/CareerAdvisor)

Source: HR expert Madalina Uceanu shares with us her favourite books

Recommended by Mădălina Uceanu (Managing Partner/CareerAdvisor)

Source: HR expert Madalina Uceanu shares with us her favourite books

Recommended by Madalina Uceanu (Managing Partner/CareerAdvisor)

Source: HR expert Madalina Uceanu shares with us her favourite books

Recommended by Andi Dumitrescu (Musician, Film Maker)

Source: Andi Dumitrescu, Musician & Film Maker, Talks About the Books That Boosted All Components of His Career Path

Again, just to appreciate how easy it is to be an entrepreneur in modern times

Laurentiu-Victor Balasa

CEO / Underline

Recommended by The CEO Library Community (through anonymous form) (Reader)

Source: The CEO Library readers

Written by President Kennedy when he was bedridden after back surgery, Profiles in Courage recounts the inspiring acts of eight different American Senators, including John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Sam Houston, and Robert A. Taft. Kennedy had recently been elected as the junior Senator from Massachusetts and was inspired to write a book after reading a passage from The Price of Union about an act of courage by John Quincy Adams while serving in the Senate. It was heartening to read about Senators willing to cross party lines and stand up for their principles given the current state of our Congress.

Ryan Holiday

Founder/Brass Check

I read "Choose Your Own Autobiography" because I loved Neil Patrick Harris in everything he'd ever acted in.

Gabriel Coarna

Founder/Readable

One specific book that had a big impact on me when I was young and studying in France was "An autobiography" by David Ogilvy. Turns out this guy was a successful chef at 20, and a loser at 25, and again a successful person at 30 and then a loser at 35, and then he founded "Ogilvy & Mather" and became successful again at 40.

It's a short book, I read it in one night. Turns out, doing things your way may be difficult sometimes, but if you keep doing what you think is right and learn from your mistakes and successes, everything will be alright in the end. I was wondering whether to stay in France and settle for a developer job (though I did not like programming very much) or return to Romania and start something on my own (I did not know what exactly). I made the right decision to return.

Bogdan Iordache

Co-Founder/How to Web

I was completely moved and impressed by him and his team. The fact that they were adamant in overcoming all obstacles and negativities despite all odds were against them. They were relentless. I was facing many problems during my first startup. Reading up on the book allowed me to understand that my problems were not good enough to make me fail but giving up was.

Jose He

Chief Performance Officer/Bountie.io

The story of how Sesame Street was created and the amazing planning and research involved in it.

Damien Mulley

Owner/Mulley Communications

At a time when stress and burnout have become global epidemics, along comes Jesse Itzler to remind us how important it is to be present, intentional and connect with ouselves and with what really matters. With wisdom and humor, he takes us not just inside the monastery, but inside ourselves, toward a life of more stillness, more presence, more patience and more gratitude.

Arianna Huffington

Founder/Huffington Post

I can’t narrow down one favorite book, but there are a few that have had a strong impact on me over the past few years. Life and Death in Shanghai and Man’s Search for Meaning are great non-business books that have helped me gain a deeper perspective on life. Both books also helps you gain a stronger appreciation of the times we live in today.

Gunhee Park

Co-Founder/Populum

It is unbelievably riveting. It does that thing where at the end of every chapter it leaves you just enough we're like "aah!" and you have to read the first paragraph of the next chapter and then before you know it is a downward spiral and you end up finishing this book. Took me four days to get through this.

Casey Neistat

Founder/368 Creative Space

I was traveling around the world at the age of 18, which is what people in England do between high school and university. In my coat, I had Goethe's aphorisms, his short little thoughts in my pocket. I read and reread this book... It's actually had quite a fundamental [impact] on my life because these are his little snipets of wisdom on almost any imaginable topic, and all of them are brilliant. There are things like, 'The company of women is schooling in good manners', or 'Boldness has genius, power and magic'. Ones you don't remember in their precise form, but which nonetheless act as little micro filters for interpreting reality.

Ed Cooke

CEO/Memorise

When a look back at my career path, it is the one of an entrepreneur. I have built various businesses, from accounting and financial advisory firms to tech and security businesses. I have also spent most of my adult life in China, a country that is quite hostile to foreigners and very unfair. I have accepted to suffer the hardships of building my business without any investment from anybody, and stick very firmly to my values. I would recommend young people to read about adventure, hardships, and moral choices. Of course, it would be important to also read about the drivers of our humanity, hence the motley list below:

[...]

• We were soldiers once, and young … because entrepreneurship is infantry combat.

Stephane Grand

Managing Partner/S.J. Grand Financial and Tax Advisory

Recommended by Peter Attia (Founder/Attia Medical)

Source: Peter Attia: In Search of Still Water