Picking the best books among many good ones

barisozmen1 pts0 comments

Manifesto — Best Books

search#openKeydown">

&plus; MENU<br>&times; CLOSE

Books<br>Authors<br>Tags<br>Endorsers<br>Sources

MANIFESTO &middot; BEST&middot;BOOKS

How I choose what to read next

There are more good books than I can read.

So I use a simple filter: start with books publicly recommended by people<br>whose work I respect, keep the source attached, and look for overlap. If<br>several independent-looking reading trails point to the same book, that<br>book deserves a closer look.

This site is my attempt to make that method visible: who recommended what,<br>where they said it, and which books keep showing up.

&ldquo;A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones:<br>for life is short.&rdquo;<br>— Schopenhauer

How the filter works

This site collects books publicly endorsed by<br>notable technologists, scientists, and investors.<br>In total, it includes 2,822 books.

But 2,822 books is still too many.<br>The next question becomes: if you only have time to read ten, which ten<br>should they be?

That is where the second part comes in: overlap. We look at how many of<br>these people have endorsed each book, then use that count as a starting<br>point, not a final verdict.

Based on that ranking, here are the top five:

The Hard Thing About Hard Things

20

endorsements

Zero to One

16

endorsements

High Output Management

14

endorsements

Sapiens

14

endorsements

The Selfish Gene

13

endorsements

See all

You can also explore the top books by genre, including<br>Popular Science,<br>Technology,<br>and Sci-Fi.

For many of the most-endorsed books, there are also AI-generated book<br>companions, each designed to be read in about 30 minutes. For example, the<br>companions for<br>Zero to One,<br>The Sovereign Individual, and<br>The Selfish Gene.

Baris Ozmen

search#closeOnBackdrop"<br>class="hidden fixed inset-0 z-50 bg-void/80 backdrop-blur-sm flex items-start md:items-center justify-center px-4 pt-[16vh] md:pt-0">

&rsaquo;<br>search#search keydown->search#keydown" class="bg-transparent border-0 outline-none text-ink placeholder:text-ink-dim text-xl w-full focus:outline-none focus:ring-0" type="text" name="q" id="q" /><br>ESC

&uarr;&darr; navigate<br>&crarr; open<br>esc close

books search endorsements read book text

Related Articles