Bibliography
Growth
Learning
Songwriting
Music Industry
Marketing and Promotion
Entrepreneurship
Creativity
Their Stories
You may think that your heroes were just naturally good at things and it came easily to them. Sure—they may have been naturally talented, but they also worked harder than everyone else.
Science
Fiction
Humor
- Jordan Peterson, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos
- Richard Koch, The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More With Less [ directives ].
- Greg McKeown, Essentialism: the Disciplined Pursuit of Less [ directives ]
- Greg McKeown, Effortless: Make it Easier to Do What Matters Most
- Seth Godin, The Practice: Shipping Creative Work
- George Mumford, The Mindful Athlete: Secrets to Pure Performance
- Kelly McGonigal, The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It [ Sivers notes ]
- William R. MIller and Stephen Rollnick: Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change
- Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal. Energy management is more important as time management.
- Daniel H. Pink, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing
- Arianna Huffington, Thrive. Unplug to connect. Things you know you should do, but need organized to effect a healthy change in your life, like sleeping 8 hours a night, and getting off your cell phone.
- Sharon L. Lechter and Greg S. Reid, Three Feet from Gold: Turn Your Obstacles into Opportunities! A sequel one hundred years later to Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich [ directives ]
- Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Sounds creepy, but it is actually full of sincere suggestions for increasing one's ability to understand other people and work effectively with them. [ directives ]
- Angela Duckworth, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. Grit is a bigger predictor of success in life than SAT scores and grades.
- Carolyn Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. You can change much more than you think, and at any stage in life.
- Gabriele Oettingen, Rethinking Positive Thinking. Inside the New Science of Motivation. It's not enough to imagine what you want—you have to follow though and come up with a plan to deal with the obstacles in you that will prevent you from getting there.
- Stephen Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Begin with the end in mind. Seek to understand before being understood, etc. Get to a point where you are working on important rather than merely urgent things.
- Daniel Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness. What research on psychology, neuroscience, and other fields tells us about the mistakes we make imagining the future, and the effect it has on our happiness.
- Arthur C. Brooks, Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America From the Culture of Contempt
- Robert L. Jolles, Customer Centered Selling. Sales techniques for a new world economy.
- Bob Roth, Strength in Stillness: The Power of Transcendental Meditation
- Michael Pollan, How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence
- Mark Manson, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
- Dan McGinn, Psyched Up: How the Science of Mental Preparation Can Help You Succeed [ directives ]
- Jeff Goins, The Art of Work: A Proven Path to Discovering What You Were Meant to Do
- Timothy Ferriss, Tools of Titans. A big volume full of nuggets from a wide variety of thinkers. [ directives: Ferriss, Godin ]
- Chip and Dan Heath, The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experience Have Extraordinary Impact
- Paul Tough, How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character
- Bob Nelson, Please Don't Just Do What I Tell You, Do What Needs To Be Done: Every Employee's Guide To Making Work More Rewarding
- Rory Vaden, Take the Stairs: Seven Steps to Achieving True Success
- Tom Rath, Eat Move Sleep: How Small Choices Lead To Big Changes [ interview ]
- Joseph McCormack, Brief: Make a Bigger Impact by Saying Less
- Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
- Daniel Pink, To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others
- Richard Bolles, What Color is Your Parachute? 2014: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers
- Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success [ Sivers notes ]
- Adam Grant, Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success
- Robert Willey, What to Do While Waiting: How To Make Life's Spare Moments More Productive and Enjoyable
- Chip Heath and Dan Heath, Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work [ interview ]
- Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture [ video ]
- William Strunk and E. B. White, The Elements of Style
- Annie Duke, Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts
- Atul Gawande, The Checklist Manifesto : How to Get Things Right
- Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga, The Courage to Be Disliked [ Sivers' notes ]
- How to Traumatize Your Children: 7 Proven Methods to Help You Screw Up Your Kids Deliberately and With Skill
- Charles Montgomery, Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design
- Robert Wright, Why Buddhism is True
- Richard Koch, Unreasonable Success and How to Achieve It: Unlocking the 9 Secrets of People Who Changed the World
- Simon Sinek, The Infinite Game
- Steven Pressfield, The War of Art - Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles provides a new way to look at resistance.
- Derek Sivers, How To Live: 27 Conflicting Answers and One Weird Conclusion
- Tim Ferriss, Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World
- Tim Ferriss, The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life
- Cal Newport, Slow Productivity
Learning
- James Lang, Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning
- James Lang, Distracted: Why Students Can't Focus and What You Can Do About It
- James E. Zull, The Art of Changing the Brain: Enriching Teaching by Exploring the Biology of Learning [ powerpoint ]
- Robert Talbert, Flipped Learning: A Guide for Higher Education Faculty
- Walter Pauk, How to Study in College. Pricey, but lots of good ideas. 2nd edition is in Bracken Library LB2395.P3.1974
- Linda B. Nilson, Creating Self-Regulated Learners: Strategies to Strengthen Students' Self-Awareness and Learning Skills
- Linda B. Nilson, Specifications Grading: Restoring Rigor, Motivating Students, and Saving Faculty Time
- Jim Sibley and Peter Ostafichuk, Getting Started With Team-Based Learning
- Peter Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel, Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning
Songwriting
- John Seabrook, The Song Machine. ML3790.S382.2015
- Leonard Cohen, The Flame: Poems Notebooks Lyrics Drawings. Cohen's intimate, final work.
Music Industry
- Randy Chertkow and Jason Feehan, Making Money With Music: Generate Over 100 Revenue Streams, Grow Your Fan Base, and Thrive in Today's Music Environment
- Robert L. Joles, Customer Centered Selling: Eight Steps to Success from the World's Best Sales Force
- Keith Hatschek and Veronica A. Wells, Historical Dictionary of the American Music Industry
- Joanna Demers, Steal This Music: How Intellectual Property Law Affects Musical Creativity
- Martin Atkins, Tour Smart
- Randy Chertkow and Jason Feehan, The Indie Band Survival Guide
- Kembrew McLeod and Peter DiCola. Creative License: The Law and Culture of Digital Sampling
- Carl Anderson, The Music Products Industry: A Textbook for Music Business Students
- Mark Halloran, The Musician’s Business and Legal Guide
- Ariel Hyatt, Music Success in 9 Weeks: A Step-by-step Guide to Super Charge Your Social Media & PR, Build Your Fan Base, and Earn More Money
- Ariel Hyatt, Social Media Tuneup: Assess, Upgrade, and Rock Your Entire Digital Presence
- Ari Herstand, How To Make It in the New Music Business: Practical Tips on Building a Loyal Following and Making a Living as a Musician
- Bob Baker, Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook: 201 Self-Promotion Ideas for Songwriters, Musicians & Bands on a Budget
- Bobby Owsinski, Music 4.1
- Donald Passman, All You Need to Know About the Music Business
- Derek Thompson, Hit Makers
- Mark Halloran, The Musician's Business and Legal Guide. ML3790.M84.2008
Marketing and Promotion
- Simon Sinek, Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
- Seth Godin, Purple Cow. Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
- Ariel Hyatt, Music Success in 9 Weeks. A Step-by-step Guide to Super Charge Your Social Medai & PR, Build Your Fan Base, and Earn More Money
- Bobby Owsinski, Social Media Promotion for Musicians
- Sally Hogshad, Fascinate: How to Make Your Brand Impossible to Resist
Entrepreneurship
- Eric Yakes, The 7th Property: BItcoin and the Monetary Evolution
- Guy Raz, How I Built This: The Unexpected Paths to Success from the World’s Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs
- Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler, Bold
- Nir Eyal, Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
- Seth Goodman and Barry Nolebuff, Mission in a Bottle: The Story of Honest Tea
- Cal Newport, So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love.
- Marcia Brown, Stone Soup
- Seth Godin, The Practice: Shipping Creative Work
Creativity
- Steven Pressfield, The War of Art. Ideas about overcoming your subconscious resistance to achieving your goals.
- Art is the Highest Form of Hope & Other Quotes by Artists
- Osho, Creativity: Insights for a New Way of Living
- Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention
- Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative
- Biz Stone, Things a Little Bird Told Me: Confessions of the Creative Mind
- Rick Rubin, The Creative Act
Their Stories
You may think that your heroes were just naturally good at things and it came easily to them. Sure—they may have been naturally talented, but they also worked harder than everyone else.
- Michael Finkel, The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession
- David Sedaris, Holidays on Ice
- David Sedaris, The Best of Me
- David Sedaris, Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls
- David Sedaris, Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002
- Patti Smith, Just Kids
- Stacy Schiff, Cleopatra: A Life. She was married twice, each time to a brother. She waged a brutal civil war against the first when both were teenagers. She poisoned the second. Ultimately she dispensed of an ambitious sister as well...Cleopatra appears to have had sex with only two men. They happen, however, to have been Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, two of the most prominent Romans of the day... Already she was the wealthiest ruler in the Mediterranean; the relationship with Antony confirmed her status as the most influential woman of the age. The two would together attempt to forge a new empire, in an alliance that spelled their ends.....
- Dava Sobel, Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Times
- Phil Knight, Shoe Dog
- Jack Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
- Paul Rogat Loeb, The Impossible WIll Take a Little While
- Dave Eggers, Zeitoun. Compelling tale of one man's experience of the effects of Hurricane Katrina. There's more, but I don't want to spoil it...
- Michelle Obama, Becoming
- Mark Bego, Aretha Franklin: the Queen of Soul
- Ed Berlin, King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era
- Louis Armstrong, Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans
- Judd Apatow, Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy
- John Hersey, Hiroshima
- Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe, Miles: The Autobiography
- Nancy Koehn, Forged in Crisis: The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times
- Mark Lewisohn, Tune In: The Beatles: All These Years, v. 1
- Anthony Reynolds, Leonard Cohen: A Remarkable Life
- Barney Hoskyns, ed., Joni: The Anthology. Chronological album/concert reviews and interviews with Joni Mitchell. [ Spotify playlist ]
- David Yaffe, Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell
- Brad Stone, The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon [ interview ]
- Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs
- Richard Kostelanetz, Conversing With Cage
- Ashlee Vance, Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
- Malka Marom and Joni Mitchell, Joni Mitchell: In Her Own Words
- Ken Kocienda, Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs
- Michael Gill, How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else
- Ron Chernow, Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
- Gregory F. Michno, Dakota Dawn: The Decisive First Week of the Sioux Uprising, August 17-24, 1962.
Science
- Jonathan Haidt: The Anxious Generation
- Alina Chan and Matt Ridley, Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19
- Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein: A Hunter-Gather's Guide to the 21st Century: Evolution and the Challenges of Modern Life
- Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind [ Derek Sivers' notes ]
- Music: A Mathematical Offering, David J. Benson
- Musicophilia, Oliver Sacks
- The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
- Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
- Yuval Noah Harari, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
- Matthew Walker, Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dream
- Brian Green, The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos. Would learning about the big picture help give you perspective on your life? If so, check out this readable introduction for a non-technical audience.
- Matt Ridley, The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves
- Matt Ridley, The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge
- Matt Ridley, Genome: The Autobiography Of A Species In 23 Chapters
- Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá, Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What it Means for Modern Relationships
Fiction
- Mary Oliver, Devotions
- Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology
- Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane
- Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book
- Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere
- Neil Gaiman, American Gods
- Terry Pratchett & Neal Gaiman, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
- Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash
- Richard Powers, The Overstory: A Novel
- Nnedi Okorafor, BInti
- Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl
- Ken Grimwood, Replay
- Alexander McCall Smith, Heavenly Date and Other Flirtations. Stories of perverse meetings, casual dates and romantic encounters, that enthral, sadden, inspire and surprise, from the author of the wonderful The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency and several other charming series.
- Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind
- Catherine Ryan Hyde, Pay it Forward. Stimulates your do-gooderness.
- Rita Mae Brown, Rubyfruit Jungle. Coming of age.
- David Eagleman, Sum - Tales from the Afterlives. Brief and mind-blowing collection of 40 thought exercises on the nature of existence, reality, perception, death, pain, boredom, and more.
- Alexander McCall Smith's The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series - a sweet set heightening awareness in many areas, including being sensitive to the effect words have on others.
- John Grisham's legal thrillers. Enjoyable escapist page turners.
- Steven Pressfield, Gates of Fire about the Greeks' defense of Thermopylae against the Persians.
Humor
- Jerry Seinfeld, Is This Anything?
- Nick Offerman, Where the Deer and the Antelope Play
- Scott Adams, It's Not Funny If I Have To Explain It: A Dilbert Book.
Notes Galore
sivers.org
- Derek Sivers has posed his notes on over 250 books he liked.