SmaBoi is a HUGE fan of books! I read from them pretty much every day, and I really want to both share the books that I’m enjoying now, and also, hear from everyone what they love to read the most. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been working on finding the best books of all time!
In fact, I love reading so much, I wrote a song about books. Make sure you take a second to check it out!
Books I Recently Finished Reading
- The Art of Learning, by Josh Waitzkin. This guy is my all-time hero (as of recently finishing this book). He won 8 national chess championships by age 18, and before age 30, he published two NYT best-sellers, and won dozens of national martial arts titles and several world championships in Tai Chi Push Hands. If you want to learn HOW to learn, read this book!
- Pretty much everything by David Wong — including the John Dies at the End trilogy, and Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits. This guy has some AWESOME fiction, if you like humor, surprise and entertainment.
- A Brief Tour of Higher Consciousness, by Itzhak Bentov. This guy was hired by the CIA to study remote viewing in a black-ops project in the 70s, based on the successes of his independent research. Suffice it to say, he’s an interesting character with a lot to share!
Books I’m Reading Right Now
These particular books might not necessarily be the very best books of all time… but they are high enough on my list that I’m reading them! I’m really enjoying everything on this list right now:
- The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing – A great, short read, with tons of value for anyone in the field. Thanks very much to Tim Ferriss for the recommendation!
- Never Split the Difference – Written by the FBI’s foremost authority on hostage negotiations, this is one of the best books on negotiation and improving interpersonal relations that I’ve ever read.
- Laws of Human Nature (Robert Greene) – Everything by this author is phenomenal, and this is the latest in his series. I cannot recommend his work highly enough.
- Mind Hacking (Sir John Hargrave) – Written for those in the programming field, this is a bunch of tips on how to program your mind for greater efficiency! Excellent material for improving your mood, proficiency and efficiency every day.
- Purgatoria by Dante Alegheri – I’m still working my way through re-reading the Divine Comedy, since my biggest side project is reimagining it in a modern-day rock opera! This one is a little dense, but well worth the read.
- The Anatomy of Story (John Truby) – I’m reading this one on recommendation from “Rick ‘n Morty” creator, Dan Harmon. It’s an excellent resource on anyone who is trying to tell an awesome story (like the rock opera I’m working on!)
- The Little Book of Stoicism (Salzgeber) – An excellent resource on finding your calm center and not being perturbed by the outside world. If you need help with relaxing and de-stressing, or are working in a demanding environment where everything is high stakes, this book will help you immensely.
Books I’m Planning to Read Next
This list is much longer than what I’ll post here, to be honest. I have a LONG list (or more accurately, huge piles) of books that I want to tackle. Right now, there are three books I’m hoping to pick up before any other ones:
- Thinking, Fast and Slow (Kahneman) – Another recommendation from Tim Ferriss (among others). This book is a tremendous resource on cognitive biases, written by a Nobel Prize winner who is also professor emeritus of psychology and public affairs at Princeton.
- Mind Map (Tony Buzan) – This guy might not have _invented_ the idea of a mind map / memory palace, but he’s the one who largely popularized it in America! If you need a better system for categorizing all of the information in your life, this might be your holy grail!
- Unlimited Power (Tony Robbins) – It goes without saying that Robbins is one of the most trusted and widely-accepted self help resources in the world, and can give anyone the tools they need to increase their potential and achievement.
What books should SmaBoi read next?
On the Hunt for the Best Books of All Time
You tell me! I want to hear about what you’re reading right now. Give me some recommendations of material you’re reading currently, or recently, or in the near future! Thanks very much, fellow bibliophiles… Be sure to check out my song about books on YouTube, and leave a like, a share and a comment of your own while you’re there! If you’d like to read all the references to those books, check out the Books lyrics sheet here.
