Every now and then, I have friends asking for book recommendations. Books have been around for a very long, long time. The book is the quintessential example of the written word. Frankly, I don’t believe there is an alternative medium that can replace books yet still deliver a similar level of depth. Books bring us knowledge, imagination, lessons learnt and plenty of escape. They last from one generation to the next and make us better human beings.

Here are some books I recommend for you to read.

Biographies

• The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt – Edmund Morris
• A Global Life – James D. Wolfensohn
• Steve Jobs – Walter Isaacson
• The Man Behind the Microchip – Leslie Berlin
• Sony: A Private Life – John Nathan
• Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China – Ezra Vogel
• Mao – Jung Chang and Jon Halliday
• Ho Chi Minh – William J. Duikner
• Morgan – Jean Strouse
• General of the Army – Ed Cray
• The Last Mogul – Dennis McDougal
• George Lucas: A Life – Brian Jay Jones
• Edison – Edmund Morris
• Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World – Jack Weatherford
• Tuxedo Park – Jennet Conant
• Swimming Across – Andy Grove
• Becoming – Michelle Obama
• The Operator – Tom King
• Hillbilly Elegy – J.D Vance
• Alexander McQueen – Andrew Wilson
• Lessons – Gisele Bundchen
• Never Broken – Jewel
• Becoming Beyonce – J. Randy Taraborrelli

Philosophy

• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance – Robert Pirsig
• The Art of War – Sun Tzu
• On Intelligence – Jeff Hawkins
• Vagabonding – Rolf Potts
• The Art Spirit – Robert Henri
• Deep Work – Cal Newport
• The Courage to be Disliked – Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga 

Economics

• Why Nations Fail – Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson
• Who Gets What and Why – Alvin Roth
• Dealing with China – Henry M. Paulson
• On China – Henry Kissinger
• The Road to Serfdom – F.A Hayek
• Demystifying the Chinese Economy – Justin Yifu Lin
• Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy – William H. Janeway
• The Third Pillar – Raghuram Rajan
• The Narrow Corridor – Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson
• How China Escaped the Poverty Trap – Yuen Yuen Ang
• Japan: A Short History – Mikiso Hane

Business

• How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen R Covey
• King of Capital – David Carey and John E. Morris
• Leading – Alex Ferguson and Michael Moritz
• Boom: Mad Money, Mega Dealers, and the Rise of Contemporary Art – Michael Shnayerson
• The Club – Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg
• Winning – Jack Welch
• Poor Charlie’s Almanack – Peter Kaufman
• Big Money Thinks Small – Joel Tillinghast
• Angel – Jason Calacanis

Technology

• Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America – Margaret O’mara
• Commodore: A Company on the Edge – Brian Bagnali

Entrepreneurship

• High Output Management – Andrew S. Grove
• Only the Paranoid Survive – Andrew S. Grove
• The Hard Things About Hard Things – Ben Horowitz
• The Monk and the Riddle – Randy Komisar
• Zero to One – Peter Thiel
• Tribe of Mentors – Tim Ferriss
• High Growth Handbook – Elad Gil

Fiction

• Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
• The Quiet American – Graham Greene
• The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
• Siddhartha – Herman Hesse
• Romance of the Three Kingdoms – Luo Guanzhong
• Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand
• The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Harry Potter Series – J.K Rowling