I took the above picture of my personal home library several years ago before I went digital, I saved about 100 physical books and sold a few hundred and donated several hundred. I really like the ease now of having access to my newest books on my iPad with my Kindle App. I was passionate about physical books for over 25 years the look, the feel, and the smell of a good book before finally seeing the efficiency of going digital in 2018.
I think the power of learning we have access to with books is under estimated. For a few dollars we have access to the information and knowledge others took years or a lifetime to obtain. Books are at some of the cheapest prices they have every been at thanks to Amazon creating such and efficient market, so many used book stores, Amazon Unlimited, Amazon Prime reading, and also free public libraries.
Many of my friends were always stunned at my results from reading. I wanted to get healthy and lose weight, I read a book and lost 50 pounds through the knowledge I gained. I wanted to build wealth so I read over 400 trading, investing, and personal finance books and I am now financially independent. I wanted to understand religious studies so I read 13 translations of the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Koran, and the Buddist scriptures and Dhammapada along with 100 other religious books. Self improvement is also one of my favorite genres to read about as we have to keep growing or we start declining.
There are endless principles and concepts I could write about from my journey through 1,000+ non-fiction books but here are ten of the biggest life changing books I have ever read.
Market Wizards: This book removed all doubt that it is possible to make big life changing returns by actively trading the financial markets. The first step to accomplishing anything you first have to believe it is possible. Here are the outliers, if they could do it, I could do it.
Trend Following: This book contains the principles of profitable trend trading. It changed me from a predictive and opionated trader to becoming a system based trader using reactive price action signals to go with the flow of capital and trends in the financial markets.
Anti-Fragile: This book explained how the world works as some things and people are fragile and chaos or the unexpected destroys them while other people and businesses can benefit and even succeed in unexpected chaos and disorder. Antifragility is a property of systems that increase in capability to thrive as a result of stressors, shocks, volatility, noise, mistakes, faults, attacks, or failures. My goal changed from being perfect to being Anti-fragile.
Financial Peace: I listened to Dave Ramsey when he first started in radio show in Nashville in 1993. My entire financial life has been relatively stress free and I have had freedom of choice in what to do in my life as I have stayed away from getting deeply in debt by staying away from big mortgages, buying new cars, and not carrying large credit card balances. I have always valued freedom over things. My capital has I was been a tool for growing it not squandering it on things that are not fulfilling.
Rich Dad, Poor Dad: This was the best financial literacy book I have every read. 20 years ago it was teaching the different paths of making a living outside a job. You can create a life where you work for yourself as a trader, investor, real estate investor, business owner, or being self employed. The energy and passion that comes from working for yourelf is something everyone should experience in some way.
The Power Of Now: This book helped me understand our reality emerges from our thoughts. We have the memories of our past and the imagination of the future, but peace is found in the mindful awareness of the present moment. Peace comes now in the present moment when we stop time travelling emotionally to the past and the future. Now is all we ever really have.
Dhammapada: Buddhism has a great psychological framework of right action and right thoughts for mental health and inner peace.
Bible (NIV):My journey through the Bible 13 times cleared up any misunderstandings of what is in it and how people take things out of context for their own uses.
Mastering the Zone: -Barry Sears: Learning to use the protein I need to maintain my lean body mass as the core of my diet and then to balance it with carbohydrates and healthy fats enabled me to be helathy and maintain a good body weight while also enjoying what I eat.
Eat to Live: – Joel Fuhrman: Eating light and clean and focusing on the nutritional value of food has made me feel much better than loading up on big meals with animal products, fried foods, and junk food. We only feel as good as our daily diet.
I reviewed the majority of the books I have read on Amazon on my official account here. I am also on GoodReads here.