This is a peek into the Navalamanack book, published here online ahead of the coming 2020 release. Enjoy this excerpt, and join the email list for updates, new material, and pre-order instructions.

 Naval’s Recommended Reading

The truth is, I don’t read for self-improvement. I read out of curiosity and interest. The best book is the one you’ll devour.

Books

Read enough, and you become a connoisseur. Then you naturally gravitate more towards theory, concepts, non-fiction. 

Non-Fiction

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

A history of the human species. The observations, frameworks, and mental models will have you looking at history and your fellow humans differently. [1]

Sapiens is the best book of the last decade I have read. He had decades to write Sapiens. There’s lots of great ideas in there and it’s just full of them, chock full per page. [1]

The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves by Matt Ridley

The most brilliant and enlightening book I’ve read in years. He has written four of my top 20 books. [11] 

Everything else written by Matt Ridley. Matt is a scientist, optimist, and forward thinker. One of my favorite authors. I’ve read everything of his, and reread everything of his. [4] 

Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb

The best book I’ve read in 2018, I highly recommend it. Lots of great ideas in there. Lots of good mental models and constructs. He has a bit of an attitude, but he has that because he’s brilliant, and it’s okay. So just look past the attitude and read the book, learn the concepts. It’s one of the best business books I’ve ever read. And luckily, it doesn’t masquerade as a business book. [10]

The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms by Nassim Taleb

This is his collection of ancient wisdom. He is also famous for The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, and Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and Markets, all of which are worth reading. [7]

Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher by Richard Feynman

I would give my kids a copy of Richard Feynman’s Six Easy Pieces and Six Not-So-Easy Pieces: Einstein’s Relativity, Symmetry, and Space. Richard Feynman is a famous physicist. I love both his demeanor as well as his understanding of physics. 

I’ve also been reading Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track by Feynman and re-reading Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, a biography about him. [8]

The Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words by Randall Munroe

A great book by Randall Munroe (creator of xkcd, a very science-oriented webcomic.) In this book, he explains very complicated concepts, all the way from climate change to physical systems to submarines while only using the 1,000 most common words in the English language. He called the Saturn Five rocket “Up Goer Five.” You can’t define a rocket as a spaceship or a rocket. It’s self-referential. He says “up goer.” It’s this thing that goes up. Kids get it right away.  [4]

Thinking Physics: Understandable Practical Reality by Lewis Carroll Epstein

There’s another great book called Thinking Physics. I open this one all the time and I love on the back cover. It has this great little pitch that says, “The only book used in both grade school and graduate school.” It’s true. It’s all simple physics puzzles that can be explained to a 12-year-old child and can be explained to a 25-year-old grad student in physics. They all have fundamental insights in physics. They’re all kind of tricky, but anyone can get to the answer through purely logical reasoning. [4]

The Lessons of History by Will & Ariel Durant

This is a great book I really liked which summarizes some of the larger themes of history, very incisive. And unlike most history books, it’s actually really small, and it covers a lot of ground. [7]

The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age by James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg

This is the best book I’ve read since Sapiens (far less mainstream, though).

Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger by Charlie Munger (edited by Peter Kaufman)

This masquerades as a business book, but it’s really just Charlie Munger’s (of Berkshire Hathaway) advice on overcoming oneself to live a successful and virtuous life. [7] 

Part biography and part collection of Charlie’s speeches, this is the only book on Munger you need. (Naval quotes Munger often, and the quotes are all from this book.) [0]

Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity by Carlo Rovelli

This is the best book I’ve read in the last year. Physics, poetry, philosophy, and history packaged in a very accessible form.

Seven Brief Lessons in Physics by Carlo Rovelli

I’ve read this one at least twice. 

The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World by David Deutsch

Not the easiest read, but it made me smarter. [79] 

For game theory, in addition to playing strategy games, you may want to try The Compleat Strategyst: Being a Primer on the Theory of Games of Strategy by J.D. Williams and The Evolution of Cooperation by Robert Axelrod. [11]

Philosophy & Spirituality

Everything by Jed McKenna. Jed spits raw truth. His style may be off-putting but the dedication to truth is unparalleled.

Theory of Everything (The Enlightened Perspective) – Dreamstate Trilogy

Jed McKenna’s Notebook

Jed Talks #1 and #2

Everything by Kapil Gupta, MD. Kapil recently became a personal advisor and coach to me, and this comes from a person who doesn’t believe in coaches.

A Master’s Secret Whispers: For those who abhor noise and seek The Truth about life and living

Direct Truth: Uncompromising, non-prescriptive Truths to the enduring questions of life

Atmamun: The Path to achieving the bliss of the Himalayan Swamis. And the freedom of a living God. 

The Book of Life by Jiddu Krishnamurti

Krishnamurti is a lesser-known guy, an indian philosopher who lived at the turn of the last century and is extremely influential to me. He’s an uncompromising, very direct person who basically tells you to look at your own mind at all times. I have been hugely influenced by him. Probably the best book is The Book of Life, which is excerpts from his various speeches and books stitched together. [6] 

I’ll give my kids a copy of The Book of Life. I’ll tell them to save it until they’re older because it won’t make much sense while they’re younger. [8]

Total Freedom: The Essential Krishnamurti by Jiddu Krishnamurti 

I like this for someone who’s more advanced. A rationalist’s guide to the perils of the human mind. The “spiritual” book I keep returning to. [1]

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

I love this as a classic book on philosophy, a good introduction for someone starting out. I’ve given out more copies of this book than any other. [1]

I’m pretty much always rereading something by either Krishnamurti, Osho, Jed McKenna, Kalil Gupta, the Vashistha Yoga, and Shopenhauer. Those are my favorite philosophers.[4]

The Book of Secrets: 112 Meditations to Discover the Mystery Within by Osho

Most meditation techniques are concentration methods, and there are many, many meditation techniques. If you want to run through a bunch of them, you can pick up pick up a book called The Book of Secrets by Osho. I know he’s gotten a bad rap recently, but he was he was a pretty smart guy. It’s actually a translation of an old Sanskrit book with 112 different meditations. You can try each one, and see which one works for you. [74]

The Great Challenge: Exploring the World Within by Osho

The Way to Love: The Last Meditations of Anthony DeMello by Anthony DeMello

The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself by Michael Singer

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. 

Marcus Aurelius was absolutely life changing for me. It’s the personal diary of the Emperor of Rome. Here’s a guy who was probably the most powerful human being on Earth at the time he lived. He’s writing a diary to himself, never expecting it to be published. When you open this book, you realize he had all the same issues and all the same mental struggles, he was trying to be a better person. Right there, you figure out success and power don’t improve your internal state, you still have to work on it. [6]

Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It by Kamal Ravikant

I’ve actually been reading my brother’s book, Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It. I thought it was very succinctly written. (Obviously a plug for my bro.) He’s the philosopher in the family — I’m just the amateur. He has a great line in his book: 

I once asked a monk how he found peace.

“I say ‘yes,'” he said. “To all that happens, I say ‘yes.'”[7]

The Tao of Seneca: Practical Letters from a Stoic Master

My most listened-to audiobook. The most important audiobook I’ve ever heard. 

How to Change your Mind by Michael Pollan

There’s a good book Michael Pollan wrote recently called How to Change your Mind, and I think it is a brilliant book everybody should read. 

The book discusses psychedelics. Psychedelics are a bit of a cheat code in self-observation. I don’t recommend drugs for anybody, you can do it all through pure meditation. If you want to accelerate ahead, you know, psychedelics are good for that. [74]

Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee’s Wisdom for Daily Living by Bruce Lee

Oddly enough, Bruce Lee wrote some great philosophy and Striking Thoughts is a good summary of some of his philosophy.

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran 

This book reads like a modern-day poetic religious tome. It’s up there with the Bhagavad Gita, the Tao Te Ching, the Bible, and the Qur’an. It is written in the style where it has a feel of religiosity and truth, but it was very approachable, beautiful, non-denominational, and non-sectarian. I loved this book. 

He has a gift for poetically describing what children are like, what lovers are like, what marriage should be like, how you should treat your enemies and your friends, how you should work with money, what can you think of every time you have to kill something to eat it. I felt, like the great religious books, it gave a very deep, very philosophical, but very true answer to how to approach the major problems in life. I recommend the prophet to anybody, whether you’re religious or not. Whether you are Christian, Hindu, Jewish, or Atheist. I think it’s a beautiful book, and it’s worth reading. [7]

The Tao of Philosophy by Alan Watts [7]

Science Fiction

I started with comic books and sci-fi. Then I was into history and news. Then into psychology, popular science, technology.

Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges

I love Jorge Luis Borges, the Argentine author. His short story collection Ficciones, or Labyrinths, is amazing. Borges is probably still the most powerful author I have read who wasn’t just outright writing philosophy. There was philosophy in there with the sci-fi. [1]

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

My current favorite short story, sci-fi short story: probably “Understand” by Ted Chiang. It’s in a collection called Stories of Your Life and Others. “Story of Your Life” was made into a movie called Arrival. [1]

Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang

This contemplates the marvel of thermodynamics from the best sci-fi short story writer of our age. 

The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang

Another masterpiece of sci-fi by Ted Chiang

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

Snow Crash is an amazing, amazing book. There’s nothing quite similar to Snow Crash. Snow Crash is in a league of its own. Stephenson also wrote The Diamond Age.

The Last Question by Isaac Asimov 

I quote The Last Question all of the time. I loved it as a kid. 

What are the books you’re rereading now? 

That’s a good question. I’ll pull up my Kindle app as we talk. Usually, I’m always rereading some books in science. 

I’m reading a book on René Girard’s mimetic theory. It’s more of an overview book because I couldn’t make it through his actual writings. I’m reading Tools of Titans, Tim Ferriss’ book of what he learned from a lot of great performers.

I’m reading a book, Thermoinfocomplexity. It’s actually by a friend of mine, Behzad Mohit. I just finished reading Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade, or I should say I just finished skimming Pre-Suasion by Robert Cialdini. I don’t think I needed to read the entire book to get the point, but it was still good to read what I did. It’s a great little history book. I’m currently reading The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the Great Philosophers, also by Will Durant. 

I have a young kid now, so I’ve got a lot of child-rearing books I use more as reference material than anything else. I recently read some Emerson and some Chesterfield. I have a Leo Tolstoy book here. 

Alan Watts. Scott Adams. I reread God’s Debris recently. Tao Te Ching, a friend of mine is rereading it, so I picked it up again. There’s tons. I mean, I could go on and on. There’s Nietzsche’s book here. There’s The Undercover Economist. The Richard Bach book [Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah]. There’s some Jed McKenna books. 

A little Dale Carnegie in here. The Three-Body Problem [Cixin Liu]. Man’s Search for Meaning [Victor E. Frankl]. There’s lots. Sex at Dawn [Christopher Ryan]. There’s a lot of books out there.

By the way, when I tell people what I’m reading, I skip 2/3 of my books. The reason I skip 2/3 is because they’re embarrassing. They don’t sound like good books to read. They’ll sound trivial or silly. Who cares? I don’t have to tell everybody everything I read. I read all kinds of stuff other people consider junk or even reprehensible. I read all kinds of stuff I disagree with because they’re mind bending. [4]

I always spent money on books. I never viewed that as an expense. That’s an investment to me.[4]

Blogs

Some amazing blogs out there: 

@KevinSimler — Melting Asphalt, https://meltingasphalt.com/

@farnamstreet — Farnam Street, A Signal in a World Full of Noise, https://fs.blog/

@benthompson — Stratchery, https://stratechery.com/

@baconmeteor — Idle Words, https://idlewords.com/ [4]

The Munger Operating System: A Life That Really Works by @FarnamStreet

Rules to live, and prosper by. 

The Day You Became A Better Writer by Scott Adams

Even though I am a very good writer and I’ve been writing a lot since I was young, I still open up that blog post and put it in the background anytime I’m writing anything important. It’s that good. I use it as my basic template for how to write well. Think about the title “The Day You Became a Better Writer.” It’s such a powerful title. He teaches you in one small blog post the importance of surprise, the importance of headlines, the importance of being brief and directed, not using some adjectives and adverbs, using active not the passive voice, etc. This one blog post right there will change your writing style forever if you put your ego down and absorb it properly. [6]

Want to become smarter in ten minutes? Absorb this: Crony Beliefs 

Best post I’ve read on “Career Decisions” (in Silicon Valley / tech) by @eladgil 

Harari’s Sapiens in lecture/course form on youtube.

Every business school should have a course on Aggregation Theory. Or learn it from the master himself, @benthompson, the best analyst in technology.

Great read. “Quantum physics is not “weird”. You are weird.” – Think Like Reality

Must read. “Lazy Leadership” by @Awilkinson

No-holds-barred wisdom from a self-made man. Everything on @EdLatimore’s site is worth reading for overachievers: https://edlatimore.com/

If you eat, invest, and think according to what the “news” advocates, you’ll end up nutritionally, financially, and morally bankrupt.

Other Recommendations

Twitter accounts like: 

Genius is here, just unevenly distributed. [4]

Must read. (Twitter thread on “intellectual compounding” by @Zaoyang). [11]

There are actually some really good graphic novels out there. If you’re open to the cartoony element of it, Transmetropolitan, The Boys, Planetary, and The Sandman … some of these are, I think, among the finest works of art of our age. I also grew up as a boy reading comics, so I may be very biased towards those. [1]

Rick and Morty (TV Show + Comic book)

Rick and Morty is the best show on television (IMHO of course). Just watch the first episode, that’s all it takes. It’s Back to the Future meets The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The Rick and Morty comic is just as clever as the show. 

“You and Your Research” by Richard Hemming

A beautiful essay, I highly recommend reading it. It’s ostensibly written for people who are in scientific research, but I think it applies across the board. It’s just an old-timer essay on how to do great work. It reminds me of much of what Richard Feynman used to say, although I think Hemming has put it more eloquently than almost anywhere else I’ve seen. [74]