96 books.

If I was to read 12 books a year, from 15 years old to 80 years old, I’d end up at 780 books in my life. Here’s where I stand.

Where I stand

96 of 780.

18 themes

Split properly this time: epic apart from novel, memoir apart from biography, philosophy apart from religion.

Novels & Classics13Science, Climate & Systems10Sales & Negotiation9Power & Strategy8Building & Startups6Economics & Society6Investing & Decisions5Ancient & Epic5Biography5Political Thought4Memoir & Autobiography4Mind & Brain4History3Religion & Mysticism3Science Fiction3Japanese Literature3Essays & Letters3Philosophy2

750 BC to today

Publication year, on a compressed axis so the recent years spread out instead of stacking. Each dot is a book.

750 BC1600185019502000today

Who wrote them

80 male, 11 female, 5 mixed teams.

80 male83%11 female11%5 mixed team5%

Where they are from

Author birth country, 23 of them. Circle size is the number of books.

USA 42UK 12China 6France 5Russia 4Japan 4Greece 3Germany 2India 2Italy 2Austria 2Côte d'Ivoire 1Lebanon 1Scotland 1Israel 1South Africa 1Malaysia 1Brazil 1Costa Rica 1Canada 1

11 languages

29 of 96 were written in something other than English.

English67French6Chinese5Japanese4Ancient Greek3German3Russian3Italian2Gujarati1Portuguese1Norwegian1

Who read whom

29 links, left to right through time, grouped into families. Every one is a claim you could check: a documented influence, a second book by the same hand, a direct descent, or a book written against another. Hover a line for the evidence.

influence same author direct descent written against

The IliadThe OdysseyThe Art of WarThe RepublicInfernoThe PrinceThe Wealth of NationsCrime and PunishmentWar and PeaceThe Brothers KaramazovThe Story of My Experiments with TruthAnimal FarmThe Hero with a Thousand FacesThe Intelligent InvestorNineteen Eighty-FourWaiting for GodFahrenheit 451The Little Red BookManufacturing ConsentLong Walk to FreedomOnly the Paranoid SurviveThe 48 Laws of PowerPoor Charlie's AlmanackMao: The Unknown StoryAnimal SpiritsThe Lean StartupStrategy: A HistoryThe Best Story WinsNarrative EconomicsTroy1000 Years of Joys and SorrowsConstitution of the Communist Party of ChinaLeadershipCommandReport to the 20th National Congress of the CPCKing: A Life

Swipe, drag, or use the arrow keys.

The shelf

Novels & Classics13

The Red and the BlackStendhal, 1830
Moby-DickHerman Melville, 1851
Crime and PunishmentFyodor Dostoevsky, 1866
War and PeaceLeo Tolstoy, 1869
The Brothers KaramazovFyodor Dostoevsky, 1880
Heart of DarknessJoseph Conrad, 1899
Chess StoryStefan Zweig, 1942
Animal FarmGeorge Orwell, 1945
Nineteen Eighty-FourGeorge Orwell, 1949
Atlas ShruggedAyn Rand, 1957
To Kill a MockingbirdHarper Lee, 1960
The AlchemistPaulo Coelho, 1988
We, the SurvivorsTash Aw, 2019

Science, Climate & Systems10

A Brief History of TimeStephen Hawking, 1988
CollapseJared Diamond, 2005
Thinking in SystemsDonella Meadows, 2008
Atlas de l'agricultureJean-Paul Charvet, 2010
The BodyBill Bryson, 2019
The Future We ChooseFigueres & Rivett-Carnac, 2020
Tapestries of LifeAnne Sverdrup-Thygeson, 2020
How to Avoid a Climate DisasterBill Gates, 2021
Sustainable Food ProductionShahid Naeem, 2021
The UnderworldSusan Casey, 2023

Sales & Negotiation9

Getting to YesRoger Fisher & William Ury, 1981
Purple CowSeth Godin, 2003
Never Eat AloneKeith Ferrazzi, 2005
Predictable RevenueAaron Ross & Marylou Tyler, 2011
The Sales Acceleration FormulaMark Roberge, 2015
Never Split the DifferenceChris Voss, 2016
The Best Story WinsMatthew Luhn, 2018
Le Modèle DioulaMaurice D. Koué, 2019
Branding That Means BusinessMatt Johnson & Tessa Misiaszek, 2022

Power & Strategy8

Rules for RadicalsSaul D. Alinsky, 1971
Petit traité de manipulation à l'usage des honnêtes gensJoule & Beauvois, 1987
Manufacturing ConsentHerman & Chomsky, 1988
The 48 Laws of PowerRobert Greene, 1998
Strategy: A HistoryLawrence Freedman, 2013
CommandLawrence Freedman, 2022
The Quiet BeforeGal Beckerman, 2022
LeadershipHenry Kissinger, 2022

Building & Startups6

Only the Paranoid SurviveAndrew S. Grove, 1996
The Lean StartupEric Ries, 2011
Zero to OnePeter Thiel & Blake Masters, 2014
The Culture CodeDaniel Coyle, 2018
The Cold Start ProblemAndrew Chen, 2021
BuildTony Fadell, 2022

Economics & Society6

The Wealth of NationsAdam Smith, 1776
Animal SpiritsAkerlof & Shiller, 2009
Social Mobility and Its EnemiesMajor & Machin, 2018
MoneyYuval Noah Harari, 2018
Narrative EconomicsRobert Shiller, 2019
AbundanceEzra Klein & Derek Thompson, 2025

Investing & Decisions5

The Richest Man in BabylonGeorge S. Clason, 1926
The Intelligent InvestorBenjamin Graham, 1949
Poor Charlie's AlmanackCharlie Munger, 2005
Skin in the GameNassim Nicholas Taleb, 2018
Thinking in BetsAnnie Duke, 2018

Ancient & Epic5

The IliadHomer, c. 750 BC
The OdysseyHomer, c. 750 BC
The Art of WarSun Tzu, c. 500 BC
InfernoDante Alighieri, c. 1320
TroyStephen Fry, 2020

Biography5

Benjamin Franklin: An American LifeWalter Isaacson, 2003
Mao: The Unknown StoryJung Chang & Jon Halliday, 2005
G-ManBeverly Gage, 2022
King: A LifeJonathan Eig, 2023
De Gaulle, une vieJean-Luc Barré, 2023

Political Thought4

The PrinceNiccolò Machiavelli, 1532
The Little Red BookMao Zedong, 1964
Report to the 20th National Congress of the CPCXi Jinping, 2022
Constitution of the Communist Party of ChinaCommunist Party of China, 2022

Memoir & Autobiography4

The Story of My Experiments with TruthM. K. Gandhi, 1927
I Know Why the Caged Bird SingsMaya Angelou, 1969
Long Walk to FreedomNelson Mandela, 1994
1000 Years of Joys and SorrowsAi Weiwei, 2021

Mind & Brain4

Who Moved My Cheese?Spencer Johnson, 1998
BlinkMalcolm Gladwell, 2005
Life Lessons from a Brain SurgeonRahul Jandial, 2019
CreativityJohn Cleese, 2020

History3

A Little History of the WorldE. H. Gombrich, 1936
The Young AlexanderAlex Rowson, 2022
Mafia: A Global HistoryRyan Gingeras, 2026

Religion & Mysticism3

Autobiography of a YogiParamahansa Yogananda, 1946
Waiting for GodSimone Weil, 1950
A Monk's Guide to a Clean House and MindShoukei Matsumoto, 2011

Science Fiction3

Fahrenheit 451Ray Bradbury, 1953
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the GalaxyDouglas Adams, 1979
Stories of Your Life and OthersTed Chiang, 2002

Japanese Literature3

I Am a CatNatsume Sōseki, 1905
ButterAsako Yuzuki, 2017
The Shadow over InnsmouthGou Tanabe, 2021

Essays & Letters3

Letters to Change the Worlded. Travis Elborough, 2018
The Storyteller EssaysWalter Benjamin, 2019
Conversations on LoveNatasha Lunn, 2021

Philosophy2

The RepublicPlato, c. 375 BC
The Hero with a Thousand FacesJoseph Campbell, 1949

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