Could you recommend some of your all-time favorite books?

Sure.

Since the early 90s I’ve been reading about a book a week, so that adds up to quite a few books. I’ll scan my office bookshelves to recall which ones had a meaningful impact on me after I read them.

Here are some of my personal favorites in no particular order:

Edit 8/22/06: A more complete version of this list, conveniently sorted into categories, can be found here: personal development books.

• Power vs. Force by David Hawkins (levels of consciousness)
• The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield (wisdom)
• The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran (wisdom)
• As You Think aka As a Man Thinketh by James Allen (power of thought)
• The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra (manifesting intentions)
• Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (wealth)
• Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu (wisdom)
• Ask and It Is Given by Esther Hicks (manifesting intentions)
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey (personal effectiveness)
• The Art of War by Sun Tzu (slaughtering your enemy efficiently)
• The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene (ensuring your enemy doesn’t slaughter you first)
• Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman (inner peace, no slaughtering)
• Chaos and Genius by James Gleick (chaos science and fractals; Richard Feynman bio)
• Unlimited Power and Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins (achievement and NLP)
• Maximum Achievement and Time Power by Brian Tracy (time management)
• The Egoscue Method of Health Through Motion by Pete Egoscue (pain-free structural alignment)
• Using Your Brain for a Change by Richard Bandler (NLP)
• Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman (optimism, duh)
• The Power of Now and A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle (consciousness and awareness)
• Diet for a New America and The Food Revolution by John Robbins (health and ethical food choices)
• Mad Cowboy by Howard Lyman (why a cattle rancher won’t eat meat)
• Too Good to Leave, Too Bad to Stay by Mira Kirshenbaum (awesome book on diagnosing relationship issues)
• Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (philosophy in 1000 pages)
• The Psychology of Winning by Denis Waitley (victory)
• Lucid Dreaming and Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge (lucid dreaming)
• Far Journeys by Robert Monroe (astral projection)
• Cosmic Trigger Vol I, Vol II, and Vol III by Robert Anton Wilson (“weird” doesn’t begin to describe it)
• Anatomy of an Illness by Norman Cousins (laughter as medicine)
• Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl (finding meaning in the Holocaust)
• Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (Holocaust story)
• Brain Building in Just 12 Weeks by Marilyn vos Savant (becoming a smarty pants)
• Built to Last and Good to Great by Jim Collins (business)
• Incarnations of Immortality by Piers Anthony (awesome fiction series):
  • On a Pale Horse (Death)
  • Bearing an Hourglass (Time)
  • With a Tangled Skein (Fate)
  • Wielding a Red Sword (War)
  • Being a Green Mother (Nature)
  • For Love of Evil (Satan)
  • And Eternity (God)
• The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin (personal effectiveness)
• The Disappearance of the Universe by Gary Renard (awareness and forgiveness)
• A Course in Miracles by the Foundation for Inner Peace (what the Bible meant to say)
• Bringers of the Dawn by Barbara Marciniak (channeled teachings of the Pleiadians)
• Inspiration by Wayne Dyer (finding your purpose)
• Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain (visualization)
• The Millionaire Course by Marc Allen (wealth, read my interview with Marc Allen)
• Getting Things Done by David Allen (workflow and productivity)
• A Child Called It, The Lost Boy, and A Man Named Dave by Dave Pelzer (abuse and recovery)
• Organizing From the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern (getting organized)
• Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki (wealth advice with fake stories)
• How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (social skills)
• The China Study by T. Colin Campbell (health, read my book review)
• Code Complete and Rapid Development by Steve McConnell (software development)
• The Self-Publishing Manual by Dan Poynter (self-publishing)

I guess I have a lot of favorite books. 🙂

This entry is part of the “Ask Steve” series. See the original Ask Steve post for details, or view the Archives (July 2006) to peruse the entire series.