“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”
– Ray Bradbury
The author of “Fahrenheit 451” should know something about reading. He wrote 30 books and over 600 short stories.
Books have shaped my life and I’m sure they’ve had an impact on yours. I’ve always loved reading and I try to read a book every week; either for personal knowledge or for business.
One of the great benefits of reading is it elevates your mind. As one of the characters in “Fahrenheit 451” said:
“I don’t talk things, sir. I talk the meaning of things.”
Learning from books allows you to elevate and expand your thinking from merely discussing things to discussing ideas. You go from talking only about events to understanding the motivations behind those events. Reading allows us to see the world for what it is, but also to understand why the world is the way it is and how we can act to design our lives to be what we want them to be.
Or as Eleanor Roosevelt famously said, “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”
In this week’s episode of Startup Q&A, Bry Cox and I discuss some of our favorite business books. Did we miss any? What are your favorite?
Bry’s Favorite Business Book Picks
- Dale Carnegie – How to Win Friends & Influence People
- Rabbi Daniel Lapin – Thou Shall Prosper: Ten Commandments for Making Money
- Dave Ramsey – The Total Money Makeover
- Dave Ramsey – Financial Peace Revisited
- Dave Ramsey – EntreLeadership – Hardcover
- Jon Acuff – Start
- Brian Tracy – The Psychology of Achievement
- John Lott – Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Don’t
- Bry Cox – Business Book Bundle for Photographers
Trajan’s Favorite Business Book Picks
- George S. Clason – The Richest Man in Babylon
- Eliyahu M. Goldrat – The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement
- Michael E. Gerber – The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It
- Walter Isaacson – Steve Jobs (Paperback)
- Walter Isaacson – Steve Jobs (Audio)