Curated Reading List
Best Philosophy Books
Stoicism, strategy, and the big questions — from Marcus Aurelius to Nassim Taleb.
28 philosophy books • Links are affiliate (details below)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams
“It taught me that the tough thing is figuring out the right questions to ask. Once you do that, the rest is really easy.”View on Amazon
The Lord of the Rings
by J.R.R. Tolkien
“The heroes of the books I read always felt a duty to save the world.”View on Amazon
The Remains of the Day
by Kazuo Ishiguro
“If you read The Remains of the Day, which is one of my favorite books, you can't help but come away with a renewed determination to live your life to its fullest.”View on Amazon
Ender's Game
by Orson Scott Card
“This is one of my favorite books. It's a classic.”View on Amazon
The Muqaddimah
by Ibn Khaldun
“It's a history of the world written by an intellectual in the 1300s. Really makes you appreciate how much progress we've made.”View on Amazon
The Lessons of History
by Will & Ariel Durant
“A fantastic, short book. The Durants have distilled the key lessons of 5,000 years of history into 100 pages.”View on Amazon
The Hero with a Thousand Faces
by Joseph Campbell
“Campbell's work on the hero's journey helped me understand the archetypal patterns that shape all of our lives.”View on Amazon
The Sovereign Individual
by James Dale Davidson
“This book is remarkably prescient. Written in 1997, it predicted the rise of cryptocurrency and the digital economy.”View on Amazon
The Art of War
by Sun Tzu
“In business, as in war, surprise is the key to victory.”View on Amazon
Antifragile
by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“Some things benefit from shocks; they thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder, and stressors.”View on Amazon
To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
“I think this is our national novel. It changed how people think about race and justice in America.”View on Amazon
Meditations
by Marcus Aurelius
“The personal journal of a Roman emperor. It's the book I've gifted more than any other.”View on Amazon
Letters from a Stoic
by Seneca
“Seneca was the wealthiest person in Rome. His practical philosophy is still completely relevant today.”View on Amazon
Erta's Power
by Jin Yong (Louis Cha)
“Jin Yong's wuxia novels taught me everything about leadership, perseverance, and the code of chivalry that I brought to Alibaba.”View on Amazon
The Prince
by Niccolo Machiavelli
“Understanding power dynamics is essential in any business. Machiavelli wrote the manual.”View on Amazon
Godel, Escher, Bach
by Douglas Hofstadter
“A masterpiece about consciousness, patterns, and self-reference. It shaped how I think about artificial intelligence.”View on Amazon
The Samurai
by Shusaku Endo
“The samurai ethos — discipline, honor, relentless pursuit of mastery. That's how I built Oracle.”View on Amazon
Doing Good Better
by William MacAskill
“MacAskill shows that good intentions aren't enough — you need evidence and reason to actually help people effectively.”View on Amazon
Don Quixote
by Miguel de Cervantes
“The greatest novel ever written. Cervantes understood that the line between madness and vision is thinner than people think.”View on Amazon
The Art of War
by Sun Tzu
“Sun Tzu teaches that the greatest victory is the one achieved without fighting. In business, the best deals are the ones your competitors never see coming.”View on Amazon
The Prince
by Niccolo Machiavelli
“Power is never given. It is taken. Machiavelli understood media before media existed — whoever controls the narrative controls the outcome.”View on Amazon
Autobiography of a Yogi
by Paramahansa Yogananda
“This book teaches you that material success without spiritual grounding is hollow. My father kept a copy on his desk. So do I.”View on Amazon
The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Fitzgerald understood the American dream and its costs better than any economist. Every sentence is perfect.”View on Amazon
Doing Good Better
by William MacAskill
“Effective altruism changed how I think about philanthropy. It's not enough to care — you have to measure impact and allocate resources wisely.”View on Amazon
The Sovereign Individual
by James Dale Davidson
“Written in 1997, it predicted cryptocurrency, remote work, and the decline of nation-state power. The most prophetic book of the last 30 years.”View on Amazon
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
by Eric Jorgenson
“Naval distilled the most important ideas about wealth creation and happiness into their purest form. This is the modern Poor Charlie's Almanack.”View on Amazon
Essentialism
by Greg McKeown
“The disciplined pursuit of less. If you don't prioritize your life, someone else will. McKeown gives you the framework to focus only on what truly matters.”View on Amazon
Man's Search for Meaning
by Viktor Frankl
“Frankl's account of surviving Auschwitz and discovering meaning through suffering is one of the most profound books ever written. It shaped my understanding of what truly matters in life.”View on Amazon
Why These Books?
This list is not a generic roundup scraped from the internet. Every book here was either recommended in a public interview, annual letter, or book club by a billionaire investor — or it comes from Glen Bradford's personal reading list, built over 15+ years of concentrated value investing. Whether you are just getting started or looking for the next book that changes how you see the world, this is the list.
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Disclosure: Links on this page go to Amazon and include an affiliate tag. If you buy something, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Book recommendations are sourced from publicly available interviews, annual letters, and book clubs. Attributions may be paraphrased or reflect secondhand reporting — we do our best but can't guarantee perfect accuracy. These attributions do not imply endorsement of this site by any individual listed. This page was compiled with AI assistance.
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