Top Business Books

From time to time, I am asked to suggest business and/or law books. For some reason, law books are less interesting. My favorite remains The Firm (Grisham). The Pelican Brief is not bad either. I have enjoyed some of the more specialized books, arguably not for the masses: Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (Lessig) and Privacy on the Ground (Bamberger & Mulligan, not exactly a law book, but qualitatively in the same genre. The Common Law (Holmes) still sits on my shelf. I have been working my way through Lecture One (Early Forms of Liability) for years now. Perhaps 2021 will be the year I climb that mountain.

Business books are more interesting, although I’m not sure why. Perhaps it is the hope that they will contain one nugget of truth, which, when applied properly, can result in wholesale change (improvement) in one’s life. Usually, that is asking too much. However, I do appreciate a few nuggets here and there, even if they are not life-altering. If anything, a good business book widens the aperture, gives you a new perspective or idea, increases your acumen in finance or other business matters, and allows you to exercise your mind in a useful way.

I read anything with a grain of salt, especially when I find something particularly prescriptive in what I read. I suggest readers (here) do the same. I plan to update this list over time, so please check back from time to time (semi-annually?) for additions. Some of the books below are traditional business books, while for others the connection to business may be viewed as more tangential. Recall that one of the goals is to widen the aperture. For this reason, I recommend a more holistic approach. Lastly, I have organized the list below using three demarcations: General Business Books, Organizational Behavior and Power, and Negotiations. Please appreciate that these categories are somewhat fluid. For example, there is considerable overlap between Organizational Behavior and Power and Negotiations. At any rate, this list (which does not reflect my preferences in any particular order) is a start. Each book has a story – how I found out about it, where I bought it, when, where and why I read it, what I gleaned from it, and so on. That, of course, would be a much longer post. In the meantime, enjoy and let me know that you think (or if you have any additions of your own).

General Business Books

Kiyosaki: Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Gladwell: Outliers, The Tipping Point.

Isaacson: Steve Jobs

Heath: Made to Stick

Lewis: Liar’s Poker, Moneyball, The Big Short

Stone: The Everything Store – Jeff Bezos and The Age of Amazon

Pink: Drive

McKeown: Essentialism

Organizational Behavior and Power

Welch: Winning

Caro: The Power Broker, The Path to Power, The Means of Ascent, The Master of the Senate, and The Passage of Power

Cialdini: The Psychology of Influence

Pfeffer: Managing with Power; Power: Why Some People Have It – and Other’s Don’t; Leadership B.S.

Ferrazzi: Never Eat Alone

Negotiations

Fisher & Ury: Getting to Yes

Shell: Bargaining for Advantage