97 Books recommended by Ryan Holiday

Ulysses S. Grant
Author :Brooks D. Simpson

"I loved [this book] a lot." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

Status Anxiety
Author :Alain de Botton

"Every ambitious young person should read." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

Believe in People
Bottom-Up Solutions for a Top-Down World
Author :Charles Koch

"A provocative book for the moment. Highly recommended." - Ryan Holiday [Source]


Totto-Chan
The Little Girl at the Window
Author :Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

"Has sold something like 5 million copies in Japan alone (an insane number). Totto-Chan is a special figure in modern Japanese culture—she is a celebrity on par with Oprah or Ellen." - Ryan Holiday [Source]


Fight Club
A Novel
Author :Chuck Palahniuk

"I’m amazed how many young people haven’t read this book. Truly life-changing." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

Letters from a Stoic
Author :Lucius Seneca

"After Marcus Aurelius, this is one of my favorite books." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

Hackers & Painters
Big Ideas from the Computer Age
Author :Paul Graham

Ryan Holiday recommended this book on his blog. [Source]

Shadow Divers
The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II
Author :Robert Kurson

"A work of art." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

The Autobiography of Malcolm X
As Told to Alex Haley
Author :Malcolm X

"[One] of the most inspiring men of the last 150 years." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

Essays and Aphorisms
Author :Arthur Schopenhauer

"A brilliant composer of quick thoughts that will help us with our problems." - Ryan Holiday [Source]




Tough Jews
Fathers, Sons, and Gangster Dreams
Author :Rich Cohen

"Amazing book [...] about Jewish gangsters." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

Here Comes Everybody
The Power of Organizing Without Organizations
Author :Clay Shirky

Ryan Holiday recommended this book on his blog. [Source]

The New New Thing
A Silicon Valley Story
Author :Michael Lewis

Ryan Holiday recommended this book on his blog. [Source]

The River of Doubt
Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey
Author :Candice Millard

"I thought I knew about Theodore Roosevelt." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

Sixteen Satires
Author :Juvenal

"Bitter, sarcastic attacks on Rome." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

American Caesar
Douglas MacArthur 1880 - 1964
Author :William Manchester

"[One of] the best books I read [in 2019]." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

Up from Slavery
Author :Booker T. Washington

Ryan Holiday recommended this book on his blog. [Source]

Pillar of Fire
America in the King Years 1963-65
Author :Taylor Branch

"Incredible." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

The Fish That Ate the Whale
The Life and Times of America's Banana King
Author :Rich Cohen

"Sucked me in completely. Everyone I’ve recommended it to loves it." - Ryan Holiday [Source]


The Pirate's Dilemma
How Youth Culture Is Reinventing Capitalism
Author :Matt Mason

Ryan Holiday recommended this book on his blog. [Source]


Keep Going
10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad
Author :Austin Kleon

"[One of] the best books I read [in 2019]." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

Lincoln's Melancholy
How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness
Author :Joshua Wolf Shenk

"[One of] my three favorite books about [Lincoln]." - Ryan Holiday [Source]


Man's Search for Meaning
Author :Viktor E. Frankl

"Looks at how we find purpose by dedicating ourselves to a cause, learning to love and finding a meaning to our suffering." - Ryan Holiday [Source]
Also Recommended by

The Book of Five Rings
Author :Miyamoto Musashi

Ryan Holiday recommended this book on his blog. [Source]

Plutarch's Lives Volume 1
Author :Plutarch

"I strongly recommend [this book]." - Ryan Holiday [Source]


Average Is Over
Powering America Beyond the Age of the Great Stagnation
Author :Tyler Cowen

"Changes how you see the future and help explain real pain points in our new economy–both good and bad." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

President Lincoln
The Duty of a Statesman
Author :William Lee Miller

"[One of] my three favorite books about [Lincoln]." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

The Woman's Hour
The Great Fight to Win the Vote
Author :Elaine Weiss

"[One of] the best books I read [in 2019]." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

Fahrenheit 451
A Novel
Author :Ray Bradbury

Ryan Holiday mentioned this book on Twitter. [Source]


Bird by Bird
Some Instructions on Writing and Life
Author :Anne Lamott

"Ostensibly about the art of writing, but really it too is about life and how to tackle the problems, temptations and opportunities life throws at us." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

Meditations
Author :Marcus Aurelius

"The private thoughts of the most powerful man in the world, admonishing himself on how to be better, more just, more immune to temptation, wiser." - Ryan Holiday [Source]


Leadership: In Turbulent Times
Author :Doris Kearns Goodwin

"[The author]'s masterwork." - Ryan Holiday [Source]


Reveille for Radicals
Author :Saul D. Alinsky

"This is the '48 Laws of Power' written in more of an idealist, activist tone." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

No Hiding Place
An Autobiography
Author :William Seabrook

Ryan Holiday recommended this book on his blog. [Source]


The Cathedral & the Bazaar
Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary
Author :Eric S. Raymond

Ryan Holiday recommended this book on his blog. [Source]

My Life and Battles
Author :Jack Johnson

Ryan Holiday recommended this book on his blog. [Source]

The 48 Laws of Power
Author :Robert Greene

"Critical for anyone trying to accomplish anything." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

Wikinomics
How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything
Author :Don Tapscott

Ryan Holiday recommended this book on his blog. [Source]

The Moral Sayings Of Publius Syrus
A Roman Slave (1855)
Author :Publius Syrus

"A Syrian slave in the first century BC, Publius Syrus is a fountain of quick, helpful wisdom that you cannot help but recall and apply to your life." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

The Prince
Author :Niccolò Machiavelli

Ryan Holiday recommended this book on his blog. [Source]

The Great Gatsby
Author :F. Scott Fitzgerald

"I’ve read and re-read many times." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

How to Live
Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer
Author :Sarah Bakewell

"A series of essays about Montaigne, who invented the essay." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman
Author :The Earl of Chesterfield

"[The author] wrote his letters to his illegitimate son, tutoring him on how to learn, how to think, how to act, how to deal with important people. I don’t agree with all his advice but most of it is great." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

Fishing For Fun
And To Wash Your Soul
Author :Herbert Hoover

"[One of] the best books I read [in 2019]." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

The 33 Strategies of War
Author :Robert Greene

Ryan Holiday recommended this book on his blog. [Source]

What Makes Sammy Run?
Author :Budd Schulberg

"Ari Gold before Ari Gold existed" - Ryan Holiday [Source]


Tiny Beautiful Things
Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar
Author :Cheryl Strayed

"Contains some of the most cogent insights on life, pain, loss, love, success, youth that I have ever seen." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

The Harder They Fall
Author :Budd Schulberg

"About boxing and loosely based on the Primo Carnera scandal." - Ryan Holiday [Source]


The Moviegoer
Author :Walker Percy

"The novel that every young kid stuck in their own head needs to read." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

The Second Mountain
The Quest for a Moral Life
Author :David Brooks

"[One of] the best books I read [in 2019]." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

My Bondage and My Freedom
Author :Frederick Douglass

"[One] of the most inspiring men of the last 150 years." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

The Makers of Rome
Nine Lives
Author :Plutarch

"I strongly recommend [this book]." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

The Power Broker
Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
Author :Robert A. Caro

"One of the most magnificent books I’ve ever read." - Ryan Holiday [Source]


The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt, Book 1
Author :Edmund Morris

"Spectacular. He’s my favorite president." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
Author :Mordecai Richler

"What a book." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

Selected Epigrams
Author :Martial

"Hilarious. I have one hanging on the gate in front of my house." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

The Epic of Gilgamesh
Author :Anonymous

"I read this on my honeymoon (probably the only person on the beach reading it, if I had to guess)." - Ryan Holiday [Source]


Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son
Author :George Horace Lorimer

"The (supposedly) preserved correspondence between Old Gorgon Graham, a self-made millionaire in Chicago, and his son who is coming of age and entering the family business." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

Sex on the Brain
The Biological Differences Between Men and Women
Author :Deborah Blum

"One of the better books on evolutionary biology that focuses almost entirely on the biological and psychological differences between men and women." - Ryan Holiday [Source]


Empire State of Mind
How Jay Z Went from Street Corner to Corner Office
Author :Zack O'Malley Greenburg

"Great book." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

Founders at Work
Stories of Startups' Early Days
Author :Jessica Livingston

"Interviews with technology founders from one of the best investors of all time." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

The Net Delusion
The Dark Side of Internet Freedom
Author :Evgeny Morozov

Ryan Holiday recommended this book on his blog. [Source]

Xenophon's Cyrus the Great
The Arts of Leadership and War
Author :Xenophon

"Every ambitious young person should read." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

Rules for Radicals
A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals
Author :Saul D. Alinsky

"This is the '48 Laws of Power' written in more of an idealist, activist tone." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

The Score Takes Care of Itself
My Philosophy of Leadership
Author :Bill Walsh

"Even if you’ve never watched a down of football, you’ll get something out of this book." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

The Library Book
Author :Susan Orlean

"[One of] the best books I read [in 2019]." - Ryan Holiday [Source]


The War of Art
Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
Author :Steven Pressfield

One of Ryan Holiday's 2 answers to "what book are you most likely to give out as a gift?" [Source]

Lincoln's Virtues
An Ethical Biography
Author :William Lee Miller

"MUST READ." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

Brave New War
The Next Stage of Terrorism and the End of Globalization
Author :John Robb

Ryan Holiday recommended this book on his blog. [Source]

The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects
Author :Giorgio Vasari

"A friend and peer of Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Raphael Titian and all the other great minds of the Renaissance sat down in 1550 and wrote biographical sketches of the people he knew or had influenced him." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

Memoirs of Hadrian
Author :Marguerite Yourcenar

"[One of] the best books I read [in 2019]." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

You Are Not a Gadget
A Manifesto
Author :Jaron Lanier

Ryan Holiday recommended this book on his blog. [Source]

History of the Peloponnesian War
Author :Thucydides

"An obligation for every student of history." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

Plutarch's Lives Volume 2
Author :Plutarch

"I strongly recommend [this book]." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

The Moral Animal
Why We Are, the Way We Are
Author :Robert Wright

"The definitive beginner text on evolutionary psychology and one of the easiest to get into." - Ryan Holiday [Source]

The Strategy Paradox
Why Committing to Success Leads to Failure (And What to do About It)
Author :Michael E. Raynor

Ryan Holiday recommended this book on his blog. [Source]

Parting the Waters
America in the King Years 1954-63
Author :Taylor Branch

"Epic." - Ryan Holiday [Source]
FAQs
Q1: What type of books does Ryan Holiday recommend?
Ryan Holiday recommends many books on philosophy, classic literature, biographies and other books on general knowledge such as history and economics.
Q2: What are some specific books Ryan Holiday recommends?
Ryan Holiday specifically recommends books such as 'Meditations' by Marcus Aurelius, 'The Odyssey' by Homer, and 'The Art of War' by Sun Tzu.
Q3: Why does Ryan Holiday recommend these books?
Ryan Holiday recommends these books because he believes they contain timeless insights and lessons, and are applicable to various aspects of life.
Q4: Are there any other benefits to reading books recommended by Ryan Holiday?
Yes, aside from gaining insights into life, reading such books can also help to improve reading comprehension skills and the ability to think critically.