Recommended by Marketing Experts
The Actionable Marketing Guide asked several dozen marketing experts to list books they felt were must-reads for understanding the business landscape today (see our post: Top Business Books For Marketers.) We’ve listed those books below in alphabetical order. (Titles are Amazon affiliate links.)
- 50 Ways to Yes, Dr. Robert Cialdini
- A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, Daniel Pink
- Accidental Genius, Mark Levy
- Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
- Automate This, Steiner
- Born Standing Up, Steve Martin
- Daring Greatly, Brene Brown
- Disney Wars, James Stewart
- Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, Steve Krug
- Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Cory Doctorow
- Edward Tufte
- Einstein’s Dreams, Alan Lightman
- Ernest Hemingway
- Essays, Paul Graham
- Europe In The Twentieth Century, Dr. Paxton
- Fascinate, Sally Hogshead
- Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
- Freakonomics, Steven D. Levitt
- Getting to 50 50, Strober & Meers
- Growing a Business, Paul Hawken
- Hope is Not a Strategy, Rick Page
- How Not To Be Wrong: The hidden math of everyday life, Jorden Ellenberg
- How to Win Friends & Influence People, Dale Carnegie
- Ignore Everybody, Hugh MacLeod
- Impossible to Ignore: Creating Memorable Content to Influence Decisions, Dr. Carmen Simon
- Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert Cialdini.
- Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg
- Life on the Mississippi, Mark Twain.
- Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?, Seth Godin
- Made to Stick, Chip & Dan Heath
- Me Inc., Gene Simmons
- Million Dollar Consulting, Alan Weiss
- Moneyball, Michael Lewis
- No One Understands You and What to Do About It, Heidi Grant Halvorson
- Now, Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham
- Oh, The Places You’ll Go!, Dr. Seuss
- On Writing, Stephen King
- Paul Rand: A Designer’s Art, by Paul Rand
- Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, Al Ries and Jack Trout
- Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg
- Predictable Success, Les McKeown,
- Purple Cow, Seth Godin
- Radical Focus, Christina Wodtke
- Reality is Broken, Jane McGonnigal
- Reengineering the Corporation, Michael Hammer & James Champy
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki
- Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, Paul Kennedy
- Selfish, Scared & Stupid, Dan Gregory & Kieran Flanagan
- Share of Mind, Share of Heart: Marketing Tools of Engagement for Nonprofits, Sybil Stershic
- Smart Machines: IBM’s Watson and the Era of Cognitive Computing, John E Kelly III & Steve Hamm
- Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
- Snow White, Donald Barthelme
- Solution Selling, Michael Bosworth
- Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days, Jake Knapp
- Start with Why, Simon Sinek
- Steal Like An Artist, Austin Kleon
- Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson
- Story Inc., Ed Catmull
- Strategy, H. Lidell Hart
- Stumbling Upon Happiness, Daniel Gilbert
- Switch, Chip & Dan Heath
- The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, Al Ries and Jack Trout
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Covey
- The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron
- The Barefoot Spirit, Bonnie Harvey & Michael Houlihan
- The Boron Letters, Gary Halbert
- The Business of Belief, Thomas Asacker
- The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever, Michael Bungay Stanier
- The Diamond Age, Neal Stephenson
- The Education of a Value Investor, Guy Spier
- The Elements of Style, E.B. White (& William Strunk)
- The Enneagram Made Easy, Renee Baron and Elizabeth Wagele
- The Essential Don Murray: Lessons from America’s Greatest Writing Teacher, Don Murray
- The Fourth Part of the World, Toby Lester
- The Game, Neil Strauss
- The Go-Giver, Bob Burg
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz
- The Lean Startup, Eric Ries
- The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo
- The Mind Club, Daniel M. Wegner
- The ONE Thing, Gary Keller
- The Path, Michael Puett.
- The Power of Broke, Daymond John
- The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, Charles Duhigg.
- The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell
- The Seventh Sense: Power, Fortune and Survival in the Age of Networks, Joshua Cooper Ramo
- The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership, Bill Walsh.
- The Talent Code, Daniel Coyle
- The Upside of Irrationality, Dan Ariely
- Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill
- Think Like a Freak, Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
- Thrive, Ariana Huffington
- To Sell is Human, Daniel Pink
- Traction, Gino Wickman
- Uncontainable, Kip Tindell
- Unique Ability® 2.0: Discovery, Catherine Nomura, Julia Waller, & Shannon Waller
- Winchell: Gossip, Power, and the Culture of Celebrity, Neal Gabler
- Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creative Imaginative Fiction, Jeff Vandermeer
- You Don’t Need a Title to be a Leader, Mark Sanborn