What if you asked over 50 highly successful people (billionaires, mega bestselling authors, or other prodigies) what books that they give most?
That is what marketing influencer Tim Ferriss did along with other interesting questions in his Book Tools of the Titans. The books listed below are the 50 plus most gifted books among this remarkable group of people.
Just taking the journey of the reading of the book descriptions is an enlightening adventure in itself. As you explore the issues tackled in these books, you start to accumulate insights into which part of your life you need to change to become more Successful, and become more of who you already are.
Browse through the books now and take the journey not to see who you can become, but discovering who you always could be.
All of these books are available at Amazon.com. We embedded the Amazon link in each of the book titles.
For a chance to save money on your Amazon purchase you can make a bid on a Amazon Gift Card in our special patent pending auction where the price goes down instead of up with each bid.
Traits of successful people | Gift Books
Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers by Timothy Ferriss and Arnold Schwarzenegger
From the author of the of the #1 New York Times best seller The 4-Hour Workweek come this article’s list of over 50 books most gifted by the highly successful people he interviewed.
Ferriss spent over two years on the project, “This book contains the distilled tools, tactics, and ‘inside baseball’ you won’t find anywhere else. It also includes new tips from past guests, and life lessons from new ‘guests’ you haven’t met.”
Ferriss asked the subjects of his book what were the books they most liked to give as gifts along with some other pointed questions. The following 50+ books were the most popular of his special interviewees’ choices.
Read through the list and its book summaries, it will give you some insights as to where you can further develop your life or explore ideas to make you a more successful person. If you bought one of the Amazon Gift cards from our unique auction, you will get some ideas on how to spend it on some great reading.
See review article
(Quotations are from the Amazon.com book descriptions.)
The Wisdom of Crowds (James Surowiecki)
Let’s start this journey of discovery by exploring the value of the crowd.
Yes, Surowiecki, a business columnist, lays out a treatise to show that the crowd is smarter than the elite few no matter how smart that elite may be.
They are, “better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future.”
The author gives examples from a large range of subjects.
Successful people who failed and the lessons learned
Jesus’ Son: Stories (Denis Johnson)
Sometimes you may feel like a vital part of a crowd and sometimes very lost in the crowd.
You may feel like you’ve been lost and found only to be lost again before you find your way. If that’s the case then take heart in Johnson’s book, “These stories tell of spiraling grief and transcendence, of [hitting] rock bottom and redemption, of getting lost and found and lost again. The raw beauty and careening energy of Denis Johnson's prose has earned this book a place among the classics of twentieth-century American literature.
Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts (Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson)
Do you have a hard time taking responsibility for your mistakes? Have you ever wondered why? Is it because you are afraid it will place even further blame on you instead sending you and those affected on a new positive path?
Tavris and Aronson assure us in their audio book that, “When we make mistakes, we must calm the cognitive dissonance that jars our feelings of self-worth. And so we create fictions that absolve us of responsibility, restoring our belief that we are smart, moral, and right—a belief that often keeps us on a course that is dumb, immoral, and wrong.”
A Fan’s Notes (Frederick Exley)
Don’t despair because on this next step of our journey we get encouraging insights from Exley’s fictional memoir, “the first of an autobiographical trilogy, traces a self professed failure's nightmarish decent into the underside of American life and his resurrection to the wisdom that emerges from despair.”
House of Leaves (Mark Z. Danielewski)
In this stop on the journey we head totally unprepared into a fictional dimension where life is turned inside out and everyday realities take a backseat to a new onslaught of nightmares.
In House of Leaves the two main characters were, “prepared to face the consequences of that impossibility, until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story -- of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams.”
If you decide to read this story, prepare yourself to be grabbed by a very gripping tale.
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain (Oliver Sacks)
In this book the famous neurologist explores what he calls, “musical misalignments,” and what we can learn from them. The incredible stories range from, “a man struck by lightning who suddenly desires to become a pianist at the age of forty-two; an entire group of children with Williams syndrome, who are hypermusical from birth; people with ‘amusia,’ to whom a symphony sounds like the clattering of pots and pans; and a man whose memory spans only seven seconds-for everything but music.”
The stories in this book will stick with you for a long time to come.
Super Sad True Love Story (Gary Shteyngart)
Here the author weaves an intriguing tale of crisis, failure and possible redemption.
In Shteyngart’s near future, “America is crushed by a financial crisis and our patient Chinese creditors may just be ready to foreclose on the whole mess. Then Lenny Abramov, son of an Russian immigrant janitor and ardent fan of ‘printed, bound media artifacts’ (aka books), meets Eunice Park, an impossibly cute Korean American woman with a major in Images and a minor in Assertiveness. Could falling in love redeem a planet falling apart?”
The Empty Pot (Demi)
Your children will love this picture book about an honest schoolboy in ancient China who struggles to grow flowers in the Emperor’s garden.
“Demi's exquisite art and beautifully simple text show how Ping's embarrassing failure is turned triumphant in this satisfying tale of honesty rewarded.”
Famous successful people
It Would Be So Nice If You Weren’t Here (Charles Grodin)
This autobiography from the iconoclastic actor tells of his catastrophic setbacks in only a way that Grodin can famously accomplish. “He dispenses invaluable advice about the art of surviving in the celluloid jungle.”
Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Richard P. Feynman)
Pull up a chair as we are invited by the Nobel Laureate in physics as he gives us an insider’s view of sharing thoughts with other physics and mathematics notables, as he “recounts in his inimitable voice his experience trading ideas on atomic physics with Einstein and Bohr and ideas on gambling with Nick the Greek; cracking the uncrackable safes guarding the most deeply held nuclear secrets; accompanying a ballet on his bongo drums; painting a naked female toreador.”
It is, “a combustible mixture of high intelligence, unlimited curiosity, and raging chutzpah.”
Traits of successful people
The Book of Virtues (William J. Bennett)
The author explores the virtues needed to build excellent character, “Responsibility, Courage. Compassion. Honesty. Friendship. Persistence, [and] Faith.”
Bennett searches through history and literature, collecting “hundreds of stories in The Book of Virtues, an instructive and inspiring anthology that will help children understand and develop character -- and help adults teach them.”
Characteristics of successful people
Winners Never Cheat (Jon Huntsman)
We continue along the virtuous path as we explore the theme “winners never cheat.”
Huntsman, “built a $12 billion company from scratch, the old-fashioned way: with integrity. There were short-term costs and difficult decisions. There were tough times. Times just like today. But ultimately, leading with integrity wasn't just personally right for Huntsman, it also proved to be the best business strategy. In Winners Never Cheat, Huntsman tells you how he did it.”
Life’s Little Instruction Book (H. Jackson Brown, Jr.)
Brown originally wrote this book for his son going off to college.
Brown says, “I read years ago that it was not the responsibility of parents to pave the road for their children but to provide a road map, and I wanted to provide him with what I had learned about living a happy and rewarding life.
""But it's not just for young people," says Brown. "Most of us already know how to live a successful and purposeful life. We know we should be more understanding and thoughtful, more responsible, courageous and appreciative. It's just that we sometimes need reminding."
Even if you don’t read this book at least click the title link to go the Amazon page to look at the listing of the lessons learned.
Secrets of successful people
The Promise of Sleep (William C. Dement)
So far in our journey we have learned of struggling through failure to reach success and some of the characteristics of successful people. Now we are going to discover one of the most important secrets – getting consistent good sleep.
“Sleep better, live longer with the groundbreaking information and step-by-step program in this revolutionary book.”
Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion (Sam Harris)
We had a restful sleep, now it is time to Wake Up through meditation.
Harris explores “the scientific underpinnings of spirituality. No other book marries contemplative wisdom and modern science in this way, and no author other than Sam Harris—a scientist, philosopher, and famous skeptic—could write it.”
More secrets of successful people
The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
In this mythic tale, a shepherd boy goes on a journey way beyond the ordinary realities of his life to, “travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found.”
The reader finds out, "about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life's path, and, above all, following our dreams.”
Surround yourself with successful people
Musashi: An Epic Novel of the Samurai Era (Eiji Yoshikawa and Charles Terry)
Venture through this tale to learn the ways of the samurai.
The hero of this book slowly realizes that, “following the Way of the Sword is not simply a matter of finding a target for his brute strength. Continually striving to perfect his technique, which leads him to a unique style of fighting with two swords simultaneously, he travels far and wide, challenging fighters of many disciplines, taking nature to be his ultimate and severest teacher and undergoing the rigorous training of those who follow the Way. He is supremely successful in his encounters, but in the Art of War he perceives the way of peaceful and prosperous governance and disciplines himself to be a real human being.”
Enduring secrets of successful people
A Guide to the I Ching (Carol K. Anthony)
We go from the way of the Samurai to the way of I Ching. These important life secrets are uncovered in the decoding of important words and phrases like, “as the superior and inferior man, and the inferiors, which refer respectively to the true self, the ego, and the bodily self. Expressions such as crossing the great water and seeing the great man are seen to mean getting past the danger of giving up on oneself, and remembering the potential for good in every person.”
Digging into the meaning of such words can open up important meanings for your innermost feelings.
Successful people with disabilities
The Drama of the Gifted Child (Alice Miller)
In this probing book we find a different kind of “gifted” person, ones who have survived childhood abuse, but is surviving enough?
Miller leads us through a path whereby we learn how to, “reclaim our life by discovering our own crucial needs and our own truth.”
This book offers a painful, yet vital journey of finding meaning hidden within the most terrible cases of despair. It can prepare us to deal with the which eludes us, and to keep pressing on in each of our journeys.
The elusiveness of success
The Fantasy Bond (Robert W. Firestone)
What is the true significance of our bonds with our mothers and other family and people close to us, especially as we grew up?
Firestone offers an interesting and thoughtful, “hypothesis centering around the concept of the ‘Fantasy Bond,’ an illusion of connection formed with the mother and later with significant others in the individual's environment.”
The hidden qualities of successful people
The Continuum Concept (Jean Liedloff)
Liedloff shatters the idea of the modern superiority over the primitive to take us on an expedition of discovery of what we as moderns need to learn to recapture our true selves.
For Liedloff, spending 2 ½ years in the South American jungle taught her much about life from the “Stone Age Indians. The experience demolished her Western preconceptions of how we should live and led her to a radically different view of what human nature really is. She offers a new understanding of how we have lost much of our natural well-being and shows us practical ways to regain it for our children and for ourselves.”
All in all a surprising place to find the hidden qualities of successful people.
The elusiveness of success
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Milan Kundera)
In Kundera’s novel we learn of a “world in which lives are shaped by irrevocable choices and by fortuitous events, a world in which everything occurs but once, existence seems to lose its substance, its weight. Hence, we feel ‘the unbearable lightness of being’ not only as the consequence of our pristine actions but also in the public sphere, and the two inevitably intertwine.”
This book can teach the reader how to keep venturing toward redemption despite the obstacles one encounters.
Qualities of successful people
The Complete Essays (Michel de Montaigne)
Montaigne is perhaps the model for what we moderns call the, “Renaissance Man.” A Renaissance era humanist and a skeptic, he influenced many of history’s famous philosophers and writers. His style was criticized in his time as being too self-indulgent, but appreciated later in history.
“He has since been credited with popularizing the essay as a respectable literary form. Using his own experiences and judgment as a lens through which to view the world, his essays cover such disparate topics as war horses, cannibalism and ancient customs, as well as heavyweight ideas such as war, death, religion and truth.”
This is must read for those on the path to accomplishing their own high levels of becoming more literary and being able to apply it their own lives and what they experience around them.
A Message to Garcia (Elbert Hubbard)
Hubbard’s book is simply about how to win in life, through cheerfulness, and a sense of duty and initiative.
In this book Hubbard, “argues that the greatest hero is the man who simply does his job, completing the task no matter what the obstacles. Within Hubbard's lifetime, the Message was reprinted more than any book besides the Bible. Today, it is required reading at U.S. military academies.”
What successful people do
Levels of the Game (John McPhee)
This book accounts in personal detail about the match between two of the tennis greats from the 60s with very different personal backgrounds, and the relationship the ensued, with an openness rarely found in today’s world.
“This account of a tennis match played by Arthur Ashe against Clark Graebner at Forest Hills in 1968 … [is a] stroke-by-stroke description while examining the backgrounds and attitudes which have molded the players' games.”
Mythology obstacles, journeys and success
The Writer’s Journey (Christopher Vogler and Michele Montez)
This is a great book, especially for those looking for success as screenwriters, novelists, etc.
This updated edition gives a new look at, “new insights and observations from Vogler's ongoing work on mythology's influence on stories, movies, and man himself.”
Mythology, obstacles, journeys and success
One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel García Márquez)
This is a novel of a fictional town’s rise and fall. It is, “inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad, and alive with unforgettable men and women—brimming with truth, compassion, and a lyrical magic that strikes the soul.”
Its magnificent delivery of story should give inspiration for success for generations of writers to come.
The design of success
Don’t Make Me Think (Steve Krug)
This is a new edition of Krug’s “instant classic” on making websites with high levels of usability. Every day the book has won over new fans, so Krug came up with a second edition and with three new chapters.
The second edition is just as, “wry and entertaining, yet loaded with insights and practical advice for novice and veteran alike. Don't be surprised if it completely changes the way you think about Web design.”
The three new chapters:
- Usability as common courtesy --- Why people really leave Web sites
- Web Accessibility, CSS, and you --- Making sites usable and accessible
- Help! My boss wants me to ______. -- Surviving executive design whims
The measure of success
How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business (Douglas W. Hubbard)
Hubbard challenges his readers to look at the concept of measuring things in their business with a completely open mindset. What they thought could not be measured, the author shows how they can measure it. He shows how we can meausre the many intangibles in businesses and the value of doing so.
You may think that this book would be only for economists and mathematicians, but its approach is, “Straightforward and easy-to-follow, this is the resource you'll refer to again and again-beyond measure.”
Hubbard’s book will give his readers the measure of success.
The foundation of successful people
Foundation (Isaac Asimov)
In the Foundation, Asimov draws upon what we know of empires in decline in this science fiction classic.
It takes Hari Sheldon, the creator of the discipline of psychohistory, to gain the vision needed to see where the Galactic Empire is heading and to, “preserve knowledge and save mankind, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire--both scientists and scholars--and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the Galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for future generations. He calls his sanctuary the Foundation.”
Read this science fiction classic for understanding how to build a foundation for long lasting success.
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