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500 Books

500 Books: Here is a list of books I have found to be worthwhile:


Hackers & Painters (Graham): If you want to know how to create great software & make money doing it, read this book.

Entrepreneur and Hacker++ Paul Graham describes the life & times of your everyday alpha-geek, from elementary school to world domination. Along the way he also explains why every programming language except Lisp sucks eggs.


Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty (M. Yunus): If you want to know how to empower the world and solve global poverty through microfinance, read this book.

Incredible book about an incredible individual who literally put his money where his mouth was, and step-by-step created a multi-billion dollar economic revolution by helping millions of impoverished women bootstrap themselves to prosperity. An uplifting book for those on both the Left and the Right to read for market-based solutions to solving world poverty.


Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game (Lewis): If you want to know how to run a major league baseball team, read this book.

Fascinating study of how metrics have been consistently mis-applied, in a sport where an incredible amount of statistics are readily available. Lewis shows how Billy Beane and the Oakland A's operate their business in a completely different fashion than other major league teams, and excel with a budget 1/3 to 1/4 that of other big league teams. Parallels to other professions and businesses abound. Great book for fans of baseball, and of underdogs.


Buffett: the Making of an American Capitalist (Lowenstein): If you want to understand good old-fashioned value investing and how to make a few billion dollars, read this book.

Great insight into Warren Buffet -- the paperboy, the insurance salesman, the investor, and lover of hamburgers & coca cola ;)


The Mystery of Capital (de Soto): If you want to know why capitalism doesn't work in developing countries (and how it can), read this book. Absolutely fascinating explanation how legal reform and property rights are the determining factors for the success or failure of capitalism in the 3rd world.

Some terrific ideas for the IMF, World Bank, and for most Western governments in how to direct economic policy for the benefit of the 3rd world. Awesome book...


Guns, Germs, and Steel (Diamond): If you want to understand everything, read this book. Probably the best book i've ever read. Tour de force scientific review of the last 10,000 years of human history and civilization. The author integrates science from linguistics, biology, agriculture, and numerous other fields to explain how we moved from hunter-gather to couch potato. A tremendous book, yet each chapter is fascinating on its own.


Silicon Valley Boys (Kaplan): If you want to understand Silicon Valley, hi-tech entrepreneurs, and venture capital, read this book. A compelling and thorough history of the valley, spanning the last 50 years from the rise of HP, Intel, and Apple to the fall of Netscape. It all started here: the birth of the transistor, the Traitorous Eight, the microprocessor, venture capital, the PC, databases, and the Internet.


Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Cialdini): If you want to understand human beings and marketing, read this book. Martial arts training in the weapons of the mind. The psychology of marketing for those in the field; analysis and understanding for those who wish to defend themselves. You'll learn as much about yourself as anything else.


The Venture Capital Cycle (Gompers & Lerner): If you want to be a venture capitalist, read this book. The fundamental phases of fundraising, investing, and exiting of venture capital. Everything you ever wanted to know about venture capital funds, general partners, limited partners, term sheets, syndication, ratchets, liquidation preferences.


High-Tech Ventures (Bell): If you want to be an entrepreneur or angel investor, read this book. A reasoned and scientific approach to startup investment, and an instructive guide for the entrepreneur from concept development (seed) all the way to mature enterprise / IPO or acquisition. Particular emphasis on describing and modeling the various stages of a high-tech startup; equal attention to organizational (people) and market development in addition to technology development and fundraising.


Innovation & Entrepreneurship (Drucker): If you want to be an entrepreneur, read this book. A bit dry in parts, yet a few key chapters and pages describe some of the best heuristics and methods i've ever read for refining the art and science of practicing entrepreneurship.


High Tech Start-Up (Nesheim): If you want to finance a startup with venture capital, read this book. Dry but exacting case studies of high tech startups and venture capital investment. Real-life examples of term sheets, valuation, employee stock options, success and failure.


Capital Ideas: The Improbable Origins of Modern Wall Street (Bernstein): If you want to understand modern finance, read this book. A history of the last 100 years of Wall Street, including a personal history of the key people behind most of the major advancements in the field of finance.


Powershift : Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century (Toffler): If you want to see the future, read this book. A bit dated, but still a compelling vision and prediction of the coming century of knowledge workers and the obliteration of the middle class. Brave New World indeed.


Snow Crash (Stephenson): If you love pizza delivery, the Internet, motorcycles, and computer viruses, read this book. Probably the best vision of the world wide web prior to it coming into existence. Perhaps second only to Neuromancer for cyberfiction storytelling; second to none for sheer impact and fun.


Neuromancer (Gibson): If you want to understand cyberspace, read this book. The book that started it all (curiously, written by an avowed non-computer geek). Gibson predicted and envisioned the world wide web, cyber-terrorism, the moral dilemma of biotechnology and DNA manipulation, computer security warfare, and digital immortality.


Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (Hofstadter): If you enjoy Math, Music, and Art (and the occasional puzzle), read this book. An intriguing and enjoyable romp through the mind and its myriad pattern generation and recognition systems, with occasional Zen sidetrips and koans. Fun to browse or read end-to-end, with each chapter and topics introduced by a memorable puzzle and discussion between Achilles and the Tortoise.


Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (Abbott): If you want to learn about Euclidean geometry and Victorian culture shock, read this book. A story of introductory mathematics, science fiction, and social commentary, all rolled into one. Hardly one-dimensionsal. A great companion piece to Lewis Carrol's "Through the Looking Glass".


The Prince (Machiavelli): If you want to understand Power and Politics, read this book. The defining text on how to attain and secure power. A primer on coup d'etat, pillage and plunder, political assassination, and the scientific manipulation of the state. Check your Morals and Ethics at the door.


Dune (Herbert): If you want to hear a story of political intrigue, mind control, desert warriors, space travel, feudal wars, knife fights, and galactic jihad, read this book. One of the best SF novels ever written. Interesting parallels with modern-day Islam, Afghanistan, and the politics of terrorism.


Foundation (Asimov): If you want to hear a story about the fall and rise of future human civilization, the probability and mathematics of human psychology, and a battle to champion the quest for knowledge against vast political bureaucracy, read this book. One of the all-time classics of science fiction.


Stranger in a Strange Land (Heinlein): If you want to learn about free love, the cult of personality, religious evangelism, Martians, and the politics of the sixties, read this book. Grok on.


The Hobbit (Tolkien): If you want to hear a story about good and evil, elves, magicians, dragons, treasure, monsters, little people, and a curious yet powerful ring, read this book. There and back again, for kids of all ages.


The Chronicles of Narnia (Lewis): If you want to hear a story about talking lions, magical wardrobes, evil witches, and children who become princes and princesses, read this book. One of the very best fairy tales ever written, for the young and the old.


Free to Be You and Me (Thomas): If you want to learn how to grow up and still be a child, read this book. Lessons for life from Marlo Thomas and Rosey Grier, including "It's Alright to Cry", "William Wants a Doll", and the unforgettable "Boy Meets Girl". Required reading for every little girl and boy, including you.


The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (Seuss): If you want to hear an improbable story about chapeaus, read this book. The good doctor provides yet another tale of many hats and much irreverence. Not to be confused with the challenges of running a startup or the typical accoutrements of ultimate frisbee players.

Dave McClure - Master of 500 Hats