Books Hall of Fame
In short, these six books are the best books I’ve ever read. The key metric here being impact — these six books have each made such an impact on me as to deeply shape a facet of my adult life. I both highly treasure them, and highly recommend them.
Each of these six books stands proudly in my home bookshelf — on front-facing display stands, no less — mirroring their fame here. These books are my answer to “well, if I could only read a few books, which ones should I read?”
Worth noting: these are not in any order; they are all fantastic.
The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry John Mark Comer There’s just so much wisdom in this book. I also love the extremely conversational and casual way that JMC writes. My life the last several years has been focused on learning to slow down and to focus. This book has added so much to that journey; I really wouldn’t be where I am now without it. |
Deep Work Cal Newport I first read Deep Work back in 2021 and it changed everything. It introduced a totally new paradigm for thinking about my work, my role, and how I ought to operate. It was this book that began my journey of depth, focus, and true productivity years ago. It’s so simple, yet so difficult. I’ve read it several times since and it never fails to reveal new insights and ideas. |
Chris Van tulleken After struggling with my weight and yo-yo’ing for so many years, this book finally had the answer of why. It’s challenging. It’s difficult. CVT only rarely injects an ultra-dry joke. But this book changed my life and my body. It explains why so many of us (in the US, at least) have the weight issues we have and what we ought to actually do about it. The answer is here, you just have to be willing to read a book to get it. |
William Deresiewicz This book is about college… yet somehow becomes a commentary on life writ-large. As an English professor emeritus it should be no surprise that Deresiewicz has a certain art to his writing, but add in the extremely novel (yet extremely old) thinking about what college ought to do for someone and you’ve got Excellent Sheep. He paints this beautiful picture of what academia was originally intended to do for you; for life! Not the industry training grounds it is today. |
John MacArthur ”What is authentic faith?” Really is such a fantastic tag-line for this book. In short, MacArthur spends a few hundred very-well-warranted pages laying out what the authentic gospel is in the first place, then discussing what it is to be authentically saved. This is a deeply contentious topic among Christendom and I think MacArthur does a phenomenal job at giving the hard truth, but doing so with a gentle love. This is likely the very first book I’d recommend to a new believer. It’s a tough read, but it’s so, so worth the time. |
Thomas Stanley While my love of personal finances strategies and disciplines began in college with Dave Ramsey, and while I’ve read many personal finances books since then, this book stands out among all of them. While the rest cover important, foundational skills (how to budget, what mutual funds are, how to save up for a home, etc.), this book is far simpler. Stanley spent most of his life studying millionaires and wrote one of my other favorite books, The Millionaire Next Door. But Stop Acting Rich has a special charm and rawness to it. It’s my favorite personal finances book to date. |