Books compress a lifetime’s worth of someone’s most impactful knowledge into a format that demands just few hours of our time. They provide the ultimate ROI – Michael Simmons
- Amazon reviewer ranking top 3000 worldwide.
- My reading lists: 2021| 2022
- For my complete collection of books, please visit my Goodreads page.
- This is how I read books.
- And this is my collection of favourite quotations.
Ernest Hemingway once said “there is no friend as loyal as a book.” Friends come and go, even family can abandon you, but books, they’re always there for us. Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins helped me survive my teenage years, Adventure Capitalist by Jim Rogers inspired me to alter my life to finance, The Hacking of the American Mind by Dr. Robert Lustig prompted me to modify my lifestyle towards a healthier one, while The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche was there for me when I sat next to my father’s death bed.
Some books can completely change the way we see the world, like The New Rulers of the World by John Pilger and The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. Others show us the root cause of some complex problems, like Fields of Blood by Karen Armstrong and Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson. Some are intellectually stimulating, like Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. Others are hilarious and give fresh perspectives on the world, like the Freakonomics series and any book by Malcolm Gladwell and Michael Lewis.
And while every book has its own merits, and one life-changing paragraph is all it takes to make an awful book useful, every once in a while we’ll discover some books that are just simply mind-blowing, like 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene, Debt: the first 5000 years by David Graeber, or Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari.
Of course we don’t have to agree with everything that we read, and sometimes reading books or authors that have opposing views with us is exactly what we need to do to understand the big picture. We can read the Bible, the Quran, Bhagavad Gita, and every other religious scriptures to understand why different religious people act the way they act, or read Communist Manifesto to understand how socialists organise their thoughts, and read science books to understand the development and logic of human discoveries, which would prevent us from getting fooled by amateur hoaxes.
Indeed, books teach us multi-perspectives that would keep us from having rigid views and keep us from being a judgemental extremists. After all, just like Thomas Aquinas once said, beware with a man who only reads one book.
Books also teach us empathy, to see the world from other people’s perspectives, and to learn a lot from them. George R R Martin said it best: “a reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, the man who never reads lives only one.”
With that in mind, I’ve lived the crazy adventure life of Richard Branson, the thug life of young Stalin, the interesting life of the man who broke the Bank of England, and the little boy named Temujin who would build a massive empire from scratch. I’ve lived in the Golden Age of Islam, in the medieval Europe, in the Incan jungle fighting the Spanish invaders. I witnessed the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, the fall of the Soviet Union, the disappearance of Kurdistan, and the 11th hour of the Indonesian independence from Japan.
I’ve also lived in the complicated network of drug cartels, the modern hackers, the Asian Godfathers. I’ve learned the secrets of the wealth of the Medici family, and how they lost them. The secrets of the power of the Bilderberg group, and how they got them. I saw the rotten practices of the Aid industry, the dodgy microfinance violations, and the inner workings of our current ruling empire.
I was there when Hitler was given 80 drugs per day, when Amazon crushed Wall-Mart, when Isaac Newton lost his money in South Sea Bubble, when Elon Musk was nearly bankrupt during Christmas. I was also there when Deng Xiaoping’s son got crippled, when Che Guevarra was surrounded in Bolivia, and when Alexander Hamilton lost in that duel.
Indonesian 1st vice president Mohammad Hatta once declared “I’d volunteer to go to prison, as long as there are books. Because with books I am free.” That’s exactly what happened with Nelson Mandela, where he kept his sanity for 27 years in prison by reading books, particularly Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Indeed, it doesn’t matter where we are, when we bring a book with us there’s a new world awaits at the palm of our hands. Even in prison. This is why I always bring something to read wherever I go.
Pablo Neruda once said “The books that help you most are those which make you think that most. The hardest way of learning is that of easy reading; but a great book that comes from a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and beauty.” They call these types of books as quake books. And the following are the reviews of some of the quake books I’ve read over the years:
AMUSING
The Theory of Everything Else by Dan Schreiber
The Book of General Ignorance by John Mitchinson and John Lloyd
The Beer Bible by Jeff Alworth
The Second Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson
Let’s Play Doctor by Mark Leyner and Billy Goldberg
Stuff You Should Know by Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant
The World According to Star Wars by Cass R. Sunstein
Everything is F*cked by Mark Manson
The Beggar King and the Secret of Happiness by Joel Ben Izzy
When Hitler Took Cocaine and Lenin Lost His Brain by Giles Milton
Barking Up the Wrong Tree by Eric Barker
Passing Time in the Loo: v. 2 by Steven W. Anderson
BUSINESS
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson
The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley by Jimmy Soni
Zero to One by Peter Thiel with Blake Masters
The ABCc of Success by Bob Proctor
Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller Sr. By Ron Chernow
Originals by Adam Grant
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
Start with Why by Simon Sinek
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
Made in America by Sam Walton
The Daily Drucker by Peter F. Drucker
Perennial seller by Ryan Holiday
Alibaba by Duncan Clark
Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance
Asian Godfathers: Money and power in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia by Joe Studwell
Losing My Virginity – the Autobiography by Richard Branson
CURRENT AFFAIRS
Philanthrocapitalism and the Erosion of Democracy edited by Vandana Shiva
North Korea Confidential by Daniel Tudor and James Pearson
The Truth About Wuhan: How I Uncovered the Biggest Lie in History by Andrew G. Huff
The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers by Richard McGregor
Kleptopia: How Dirty Money is Conquering the World by Tom Burgis
A Billion Lives: An Eyewitness Report from the Frontline of Humanity by Jan Egeland
Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator by Ryan Holiday
Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall
21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
Factfulness by Hans Rosling
The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker
The Room Where It Happened by John Bolton
Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari
Zero Zero Zero by Roberto Saviano
Why Nations Fail: The origins of power, prosperity and poverty by Daren Acemoglu and James A. Robinson
The Crisis Caravan: What’s wrong with humanitarian aid? by Linda Polman
Al Jazeera: How Arab TV news challenged the world by Hugh Miles
The New Rulers of the World by John Pilger
FICTION & LITERATURE
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
The Literature Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained by DK
Candide by Voltaire
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Fire & Blood by George R. R. Martin
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupéry
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Warrior of the Light by Paulo Coelho
The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway by Ernest Hemingway
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
FINANCE AND ECONOMICS
The Price of Time by Edward Chancellor
Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber
The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
Nudge by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein
Unshakable by Tony Robbins
Poor Charlie’s Almanack by Charlie Munger and Peter D. Kaufman
Power and Money by William D. Cohan
The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham
The Soros Lectures by George Soros
Hedge Fund Market Wizards by Jack D. Schwager
The Global Minotaur by Yanis Varoufakis
University of Berkshire Hathaway: 30 years of lessons learned from Warren Buffett & Charlie Munger at the annual shareholders meeting by Daniel Pecaut and Corey Wrenn
The Reckoning: Financial accountability and the rise and fall of nations by Jacob Soll
The Tao of Warren Buffett by Mary Buffett and David Clark
Confessions of a Microfinance Heretic: How microlending lost its way and betrayed the poor by Hugh Sinclair
The History of Money by Jack Weatherford
Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Inside the House of Money: Top Hedge Fund Traders on Profiting in the Global Markets by Steven Drobny
Devil Take the Hindmost: A history of financial speculation by Edward Chancellor
Traders, Guns and Money: Knowns and unknowns in the dazzling world of derivatives by Satyajit Das
Money Masters of our Time by John Train
Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis
Adventure Capitalist: The ultimate road trip by Jim Rogers
FOOTBALL
Angels With Dirty Faces: The Footballing History of Argentina by Jonathan Wilson
Zonal Marking by Michael Cox
Behind the Curtain: Football in Eastern Europe by Jonathan Wilson
The Numbers Game by Chris Anderson and David Sally
Pep Guardiola by Guillem Balague
Klopp: bring the noise by Raphael Honigstein
The Mixer by Michael Cox
Inverting the Pyramid: The history of football tactics by Jonathan Wilson
HEALTH AND FITNESS
The Bulletproof Diet by Dave Asprey
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Yoga: Your Home Practice Companion by Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre
Happy Gut by Vincent Pedre
Game Changer by Dave Asprey
The Wim Hof Method by Wim Hof
What doesn’t kill us by Scott Carney
The Rise of Superman by Steven Kotler
The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time by Ariana Huffington
HISTORY
Horrible Histories: Ruthless Romans by Terry Deary and Martin Brown
Grand Hotel Abyss: The Lives of the Frankfurt School by Stuart Jeffries
The Art of Seduction by Robert Greene
Fingerprints of the Gods: The Evidence of Earth’s Lost Civilization by Graham Hancock
The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time by Will Durant
The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin
A Brief History of the Freemasons by Jasper Ridley
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford
Mastery by Robert Greene
Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
Figuring by Maria Popova
Freedom from fear by Aung San Suu Kyi
33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene
The Crime Book by DK
Hitler’s Charisma by Laurence Rees
Sapiens: A brief history of humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
Mirrors: Stories of almost everyone by Eduardo Galeano
Musashi’s Book of Five Rings: The Definitive Interpertation of Miyomoto Musashi’s Classic Book of Strategy by Steven F. Kaufman
Bushido: The soul of Japan by Inazo Nitobe
On Tyranny: Twenty lessons from the twentieth century by Timothy Snyder
The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
Life in Year One: What the World Was Like in First-Century Palestine by Scott Korb
INDONESIA
Bandit Saints of Java by George Quinn
To Remain Myself: The History of Onghokham by David Reeve
Rimbaud in Java by Jamie James
In the Time of Madness: Indonesia on the edge of chaos by Richard Lloyd Parry
Biografi Tursandi Alwi by S. Sinansari Ecip, Edi Sudarjat, Yadi Sastro
Man of Contradictions by Ben Bland
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester
A Brief History of Indonesia: Sultans, Spices and Tsunamis: the incredible story of South East Asia’s largest nation by Tim Hannigan
Indonesia Etc: Exploring the improbable nation by Elizabeth Pisani
The Thugs, the Curtain Thief, and the Sugar Lord by Onghokham
Indonesia: Archipelago of fear by Andre Vltchek
ISLAM
The Garden of Truth: The Vision and Promise of Sufism, Islam’s Mystical Tradition by Seyyed Hossein Nasr
The Islam Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained by DK
Muhammad: Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires by Juan Cole
Amazing Muslims Who Changed the World by Burhana Islam
The Wahhabi Code by Terence Ward
Islam yang saya anut: Dasar-dasar ajaran Islam by M. Quraish Shihab
Interfaith Dialogues and Debates: What Would a Muslim Say (Volume 3) by Ahmed Lotfy Rashed
The Qur’an Discussions: What Would a Muslim Say (Volume 2) by Ahmed Lotfy Rashed
What Would a Muslim Say?: Conversations, questions, and answers about Islam by Ahmed Lotfy Rashed
A World Without Islam by Graham E. Fuller
Misquoting Muhammad: The challenge and choices of interpreting the Prophet’s legacy by Jonathan A.C. Brown
Lost Islamic History: Reclaiming Muslim civilization from the past by Firas Alkhateeb
Understanding Islam in Indonesia: politics and diversity by Robert Pringle
If the Oceans Were Ink: An unlikely friendship and a journey to the heart of the Quran by Carla Power
Averroes: On the harmony of religion and philosophy by George F. Hourani
The Secret History of Al Qa’ida by Abdel Bari Atwan
MUSIC
So Much Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley by Roger Steffens
The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl
PARENTING
How To Raise A Boy by Michael Reichert
The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read: (And Your Children Will Be Glad You Did) by Philippa Perry
The opposite of spoiled Ron Lieber
How Children Succeed by Paul Tough
The Smartest Kids in the World by Amanda Ripley
The Game Theorist’s Guide to Parenting by Paul Raeburn and Kevin Zollman
PHILOSOPHY
Kahlil Gibran Little Book of Wisdom by Neil Douglas-Klotz
Aesop’s Fables by Aesop
Lagom by Niki Brantmark
The Philosophy Book by Will Buckingham et al
A Calendar of Wisdom by Leo Tolstoy
Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu (translated by James Legge)
The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain by Alex Ayres
Philosophy 100 essential thinkers by Philip Stokes
RELIGION
Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India by William Dalrymple
The Heart of the Shaman by Alberto Villoldo
The Sikhs by Khushwant Singh
The Essential Kabbalah by Daniel C. Matt
The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism by Karen Armstrong
The Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
The Art of Happiness by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, M.D.
Silence by Thich Nhat Hanh
Beyond Fundamentalism by Reza Aslan
Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy by John Julius Norwich
Inner Engineering by Sadhguru
Misquoting Jesus by Bart D. Erhman
The Great Transformation by Karen Armstrong
The End of Faith by Sam Harris
The Dhammapada translated by Eknath Easwaran
Insight Meditation by Joseph Goldstein
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche
The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
Religion for Atheists by Alain de Botton
God by Reza Aslan
The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down by Haemin Sunim
Buddhist Warfare by Michael Jerryson and Mark Juergensmeyer
Fields of Blood: Religion and the history of violence by Karen Armstrong
No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam by Reza Aslan
RUNNING
1:59 by Philip Maffetone
The One Minute Workout by Martin Gibala and Christopher Shulgan
Running with the Kenyans by Adharanand Finn
80/20 Running by Matt Fitzgerald
Endure by Alex Hutchingson
Run Fast by Hal Higdon
SCIENCE
The Stuff of Thought by Steven Pinker
Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! By Richard P. Feynman
The Wizard and the Prophet by Charles C. Mann
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson
Working With Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
Influenza: The hundred-year hunt to cure the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic by Dr. Jeremy Brown
How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker
Introducing Chaos: A graphic guide by Ziauddin Sardar, Angela Adams, and Iwona Abrams
Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking
Spillover by David Quammen
The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the birth of the modern world by Edward Dolnick
Thinking, fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman
The Chimp Paradox: The acclaimed mind management programme to help you achieve success, confidence and happiness by Steve Peters
SELF-HELP
Plays Well with Others by Eric Barker
The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think by Brianna Wiest
Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be by Steven Pressfield
The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
Effortless by Greg McKeown
When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel H. Pink
The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy
Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics by Dan Harris, Jeff Warren, and Carlye Adler
Develop Self Confidence, Improve Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie
The Master Key System by Charles F. Haanel
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
Essentialism by Greg McKeown
12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson
Quiet by Susan Cain
Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss
Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty
How to enjoy your life and your job by Dale Carnegie
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
Limitless by Jim Kwik
Mindset by Carol Dweck
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Power Habits: 101 life lessons & success habits of great leaders, business icons and inspirational achievers by Chris Luke
Awaken the Giant Within : How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Destiny! By Anthony Robbins
SPORTS
The Mindful Athlete by George Mumford
A Champion’s Mind by Pete Sampras
The Mamba Mentality by Kobe Bryant
STOICISM
A Handbook for New Stoics by Massimo Pigliucci and Gregory Lopez
Discipline is Destiny by Ryan Holiday
Courage is Calling by Ryan Holiday
How to Think Like a Roman Emperor by Donald Robertson
Lives of the Stoic by Ryan Holiday
Stoicism and the art of happiness by Donald Robertson
Enchiridion by Epictetus
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
The Little Book of Stoicism by Jonas Salzgeber
The Daily Stoic: 366 meditations on wisdom, perseverance, and the art of living by Ryan Holiday
TECHNOLOGY
Bank 3.0 by Brett King
The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly
Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom
TRAVEL
Vangabonding by Rolf Potts
Just a Little Run Around the World by Rosie Swale Pope
The Adventure Capitalist: Camel, Carpets and Coffee: How face-to-face trade is the new economics by Conor Woodman
Holy Cow: An Indian adventure by Sarah Macdonald
WRITING
The Art of Writing and the Gifts of Writers by C. S. Lewis
Hemingway’s France: Images of the Lost Generation by Winston Conrad
Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process by John McPhee
A Warrior’s Life: A Biography of Paulo Coelho by Fernando Morais
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott