…all leaders are readers. – Harry S. Truman
I have always taken President Truman’s words to heart. Following are some of my favorite books.
The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone f t
Accidental Genius: Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insight, and Content by Mark Levy t
The Accidental Sales Manager by Chris Lytle t
The Accidental Salesperson by Chris Lytle t
Age of Context: Mobile, Sensors, Data and the Future of Privacy by Robert Scoble t and Shel Israel
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built by Duncan Clark
Am I Being Too Subtle? Straight Talk from a Business Rebel by Sam Zell
Antisocial Media by Siva Vaidhyanathan
The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie by Andrew Carnegie
Back Channel to Cuba by Peter Kornbluh and William M. LeoGrande
Being Direct: Making Advertising Pay by Lester Wunderman
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson t
Boone by T. Boone Pickens, Jr. t
Broke Not Broken: Homer Maxey’s Texas Bank War by Broadus Spivey and Jesse Sublett
Cable Cowboy: John Malone and the Rise of the Modern Cable Business by Mark Robichaux
Call of the Mall: The Geography of Shopping by Paco Underhill t
Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age by Clay Shirky t
The Conversion Code by Chris Smith t
Creativity: The Psychology of Discovery and Invention by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Crush It!: Why Now Is The Time To Cash In On Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk
Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age by Michael Hiltzik
Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh
Daring Greatly by Brene Brown
Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday f t
The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Amazon Age by Brad Stone
The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World by David Kirkpatrick
Fidel Castro: A Spoken Autobiography by Fidel Castro and Ignacio Ramonet
The Fish That Ate The Whale by Rich Cohen
Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
The Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
FREE: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson
From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor: Front-Line Dispatches from the Advertising War by Jerry Della Femina
The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown
Growth Hacker Marketing by Ryan Holiday f t
Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations by Clay Shirky
Hey Whipple Squeeze This by Luke Sullivan
Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency by Mark Updegrove
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini
The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson t
In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules by Stacy Perlman
Invisibles: The Power of Anonymous Work in an Age of Relentless Self-Promotion by David Zweig
Jab Jab Jab Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk
The Launch Pad: Inside Y Combinator by Randall Stross
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
Makers: The New Industrial Revolution by Chris Anderson
Master of the Game: Steve Ross and the Creation of Time Warner by Connie Bruck
Means of Ascent: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro
Meditations by Marcus Aureluis
Merchants of Truth by Jill Abramson
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck
My Life by William Jefferson Clinton
Multiple Intelligences by Howard Gardner
The Man Who Sold America: The Amazing but True Story of Albert D. Lasker and the Creation of the Advertising Century by Jeffrey L. Cruikshank
No B.S. Direct Marketing: The Ultimate No Holds Barred Kick Butt Take No Prisoners Direct Marketing for Non-Direct Marketing Businesses by Dan S. Kennedy
The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story by Michael Lewis
New Sales. Simplified. by Mike Weinberg
The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday f t
Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy
The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro
Perennial Seller: The Art of Making and Marketing Work That Lasts by Ryan Holiday
On Becoming a Person: A Therapist’s View of Psychotherapy by Carl Rogers
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
Pour Your Heart into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time by Howard Schultz and Dori Jones Yang
The Power Broker by Robert Caro
Power Friending: Demystifying Social Media to Grow Your Business by Amber Mac
The Power of Vulnerability by Brene Brown
Power vs. Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior by Dr. David R. Hawkins
Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz
Quicksilver: Terlingua and the Chisos Mining Company by Kenneth Baxter Ragsdale
Ray & Joan: The Man Who Made The McDonald’s Fortune and The Woman Who Gave It All Away by Lisa Napoli
Remote: Office Not Required by David Heinemeier Hansson and Jason Fried
Sam Walton: The Inside Story of America’s Richest Man by Vance Trimble
The Search: How Google & Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business & Transformed Our Culture by John Battelle
Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith
Self Compassion by Kristin Neff, Ph.D.
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson t
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn
The Sugar King of Havana by John Paul Rathbone
Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent by Sydney Finkelstein
Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive by
Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
This Time, This Place: My Life in War, the White House, and Hollywood by Jack Valenti
Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow
Trust Me I’m Lying by Ryan Holiday f t
UnLabel: Selling You Without Selling Out by Marc Ecko
The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World by Brad Stone
Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art of Persuasion by Lee Fjelstad
Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping by Paco Underhill t
Without Their Permission: How the 21st Century Will Be Made, Not Managed by Alexis Ohanian
Wizard of Menlo Park by Randall Stross
Writing History in the Global Era by Lynn Hunt
Writing on the Wall: Social Media: The First 2,000 Years by Tom Standage
The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate by Robert Caro
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki
Zero to One by Peter Thiel
Have a book recommendation? Email me at dwflash@utexas.edu and I’ll check it out.
I seldom read anything that is not of a factual nature because I want to invest my time wisely in things that will improve my life… Novels have their place, but biographies of famous men and women contain information that can change lives. – Zig Ziglar
David W. Flash 