Here are 50 books I recommend

Posted at 8:27 on Sunday December 17, 2006 | Filed Under Book reviews , Miscellaneous

I get a lot of emails wondering what books I read, so I decided to make a list of them.

Here are 50 of my favorite books in personal finance, social psychology, entrepreneurship, and design. Each one has been pretty influential to me. Check them out.

Note: This damn Amazon thing was the easiest way out there, but it still doesn't work perfectly. If the box below doesn't show up properly, here's a full link: http://astore.amazon.com/iwillteachyou-20.

The full link again to the list: http://astore.amazon.com/iwillteachyou-20.

And if you're wondering what I want to read, here's my Amazon wishlist.

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Comments (23)

1.: Maybe it's obvious, but I think you should disclose that your link is an affiliate link and that you do get a small cut of any sales made through your site.

Posted by richfromyourhome at December 18, 2006 08:05 AM

2.: Oops, yes--thanks. Yes, my Amazon affiliate link is encoded in the URL and if you decide to buy any of the books, I get a small cut.

Posted by Ramit Sethi at December 18, 2006 08:07 AM

3.: Have you read all of them?

Could you please be kind enough to tell us what general guidelines do you use to assess if a book is worth reading?

Thanks.

Posted by Pedro Pais at December 18, 2006 08:58 AM

4.: Yep, I've read (or re-read) all of these this year. There's no set criteria--I mostly read reviews online/in newspapers, and get recommendations from friends--but these are the books that have had the most impact on me in 2006 in business and personal life.

Posted by Ramit Sethi at December 18, 2006 09:06 AM

5.: Hmm ... surprised to see a Cramer book here.

I guess as an author he provides much more information then on his retarded TV show :-D

-Erich

Posted by eR0CK at December 18, 2006 09:16 AM

6.: Totally. I hate Jim Cramer's philosophy (see my previous article here), but his book is about his career as a hedge-fund manager. I'll write a full review later, but the book isn't about his ZANY STOCK TIPS!!! Instead, it's full of insights about (1) why the financial industry doesn't serve people like us, and (2) Cramer's self-awareness about this. It's really a great book.

Posted by Ramit Sethi at December 18, 2006 09:19 AM

7.: Excellent - thanks Ramit!

Posted by Andre at December 18, 2006 09:43 AM

8.: Thanks for the feedback Ramit. I'll be adding this book along with several others listed to my stack of reading.

Posted by eR0CK at December 18, 2006 10:06 AM

9.: Ramit, I thought I'd pass along the observation that your blogsite doesn't "scale" well in Internet Explorer 7. Being an old, dumb and blind guy, I like (need?) to use the 125% or 150% size option in order to read comfortably. Unfortunately, even though your cool-looking Amazon box has scrollbars, the column containing it ovelaps the right-hand column...a fairly ugly result. I realize that your posts are directed toward young people who don't have my eyesight issues; OTOH, I like to follow your thoughts on a regular basis so I can pass on useful tidbits to the kids (who are in your target demographic, but not as "connected" as I am...yet). BTW, your site is not unique in this regard; 3-column layouts are even worse, and sites like the Wall Street Journal (which one might think to be more "in tune" with my age-group) is *really* messed up.

Posted by Dale Swinford at December 18, 2006 03:21 PM

10.: Already stated, but don't try to play off "This damn Amazon thing was the easiest way out there". There was thousands of other ways to make a better list (ex. bullet points). You're just trying to get the commission.

Posted by Jake at December 18, 2006 06:12 PM

11.: Ramit,

How much of a percentage does Amazon pay to its affiliates? Just curious.

J.R

Posted by Learnyourfinances at December 19, 2006 04:41 AM

12.: Great list. It's nice to see such a diverse range of topics. I think that sometimes people are so focused on "personal finance", they spend all their time reading technical books. Yet, books on psychology and productivity can be very beneficial. You have a background in psychology, as do I, and it shows in you reading selections.

Posted by SCapitalist at December 19, 2006 07:45 AM

13.: J.R., it's ~4-6%.

Dale: Thanks for the feedback. I'm working on making it easier to read (here's a preview of some simple changes that are coming).

Posted by Ramit Sethi at December 19, 2006 08:28 AM

14.: I borrowed _Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America_, by Barbara Ehrenreich, and it is a highly recommended read for a humbling experience on the 'have nots' in America.

Posted by TZ at December 19, 2006 09:42 AM

15.: I like your idea of putting up books you've read. I hope you don't mind that I did the same on my blog. I referenced your site tho. I'll check out some of your recommendations.

Posted by Neil T at December 19, 2006 10:16 AM

16.: Next time you put up a book list, try library thing, and you can link it to your profile. I dig it, anyways.

Thanks for the list, I'll have to add these to my "to read" list.

Posted by kayla at December 19, 2006 11:58 AM

17.: Why does anyone care if he gets commission on the Amazon links? I'm glad there's some small way Ramit can benefit while he puts up all this free content for our use. It's not like it affected his selection of books or otherwise influenced the content.

Posted by Sara at December 20, 2006 09:55 AM

18.: I dont think anyone cares that much but some disclosure is certainly nice.

Posted by Robin at December 20, 2006 11:50 AM

19.: A very useful and comprehensive list. I've read roughly 1/2 the books on here as well and you've made some great selections. I've just finished David Bach's "Automatic Millionaire" (an easy yet enjoyable read which literally took me about an hour to get through), but haven't dabbled into Seth Godin yet. I've pretty much devoured all of Suze's books. I love her, although many seem to disagree /;

I'll probably try the Boglehead's Guide to Investing next.

And yes, Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed" is a very enlightening and haunting journalistic piece that is well worth checking into.

All right, enough babbling from me. Time to check your wish list.

Posted by Jennifer Lynn at December 20, 2006 07:55 PM

20.: i dont mind ramit making some commission, but yes, disclosure is nice. the amazon thing seems more convenient to me since you can get the exact title and author, plus get a pretty cover picture and be able to click on it for more details like isbn and read reviews. overall, i think it serves the reader well. if he can benefit from that too, so what? win-win.

thanks for the list.

Posted by frank at December 20, 2006 09:29 PM

21.: Regarding these books; I've read a few of them. A Random Walk Down Wall Street is one of the most interesting books on the stock market I've ever read and I heartily agree with that recommendation. Even if you don't agree wholly with Malkiel's conclusions it's best to be familiar with the theory behind them.

The Tipping Point was a great book, but I thought that Blink was a bit of a clunker. I don't know why really; it just felt a little silly to me to write a whole book about the fact that people tend to make snap judgments.

One book which I might recommend is "The Future For Investors" by Jeremy Siegel. He is a professor at Wharton and a really great writer and this book essentially re-hashes the old arrgument that boring dividend-payers trounce growth stocks (except it does so with some new research and cool graphs. I love graphs).

Anyhow, happy holidays and good luck getting all the Amazon referral cash you can from this post. People who whine about the fact that you can make money from this are doing so for no good reason - it's not like they pay any extra for the book; what does it hurt to help out someone whose blog you read if you were going to make the purchase anyway?

Posted by j at December 21, 2006 04:25 PM

22.: Try using when displaying the Amazon store. Insert scrolling="yes" in the script and height="1000" Drop all menu items to the right. Since your working with a fixed table size your field won't expand but you give your visitors the opportunity to at least scroll to the right.

Posted by Lore at January 4, 2007 06:19 AM

23.: "GRAVE TRAVELERS" was the strangest and most engrossing book I've ever read. It was like a Stephen King book with real characters, and a story line that was indefinable.

Posted by Jim Hunter at January 30, 2007 01:39 PM

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