100 Best Memory Improvement Books of All Time (Updated for 2026)

1

Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything

Joshua Foer

5.0

The blockbuster phenomenon that charts an amazing journey of the mind while revolutionizing our concept of memory

An instant bestseller that is poised to become a classic, Moonwalking with Einstein recounts Joshua Foer's yearlong quest to improve his memory under the tutelage of top "mental athletes." He draws on cutting-edge research, a surprising cultural history of remembering, and venerable tri

Recommended by Bill Gates, Chelsea Handler, Deborah Blum, and 4 others.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Of the five books I finished over vacation, the one that impressed me the most – and that is probably of broadest interest – is Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, by science writer Joshua Foer. This is an absolutely phenomenal book that looks at memory and techniques for dramatically improving memory. Foer actually mastered these techniques, which led him to the finals of the U.S. Memory Championship. His book gives fascinating insights into how the mind works. [source]

Chelsea Handler

It has changed my life and made me embarrass myself much less when meeting someone twice. [source]

Deborah Blum

This book focuses not so much on the scientists but more on the consequence and meaning of memory for the rest of us. Within the framework of a memory championship, Foer looks at this almost obsessive interest in learning, how to remember everything. He asks the really interesting philosophical question, which is, are we defined by what we remember? [source]

2

Unlimited Memory: How to Use Advanced Learning Strategies to Learn Faster, Remember More and be More Productive (Mental Mastery Book 1)

Kevin Horsley

4.7

Preview Summary

Dominic Mackenzie isn’t too proud to take advantage of the local gloryhole. As far as he’s concerned, there’s nothing better than a warm, wet mouth without any strings attached. It’s only by accident that he discovers the shocking identity of the man on his knees. Once the secret’s out, then all bets are off.

Warning: This title contains m/m sex and twincest.

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3

The Memory Book: The Classic Guide to Improving Your Memory at Work, at School, and at Play

Harry Lorayne, Jerry Lucas

4.6

Preview Summary

Unleash the hidden power of your mind through Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas's simple, fail-safe memory system, and you can become more effective, more imaginative, and more powerful, at work, at school, in sports and play. Discover how easy it is to: file phone numbers, data, figures, and appointments right in your head; learn foreign words and phrases with ease; read with speed--and greater under

4

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Kahneman

4.5

Preview Summary

Major New York Times bestseller
Winner of the National Academy of Sciences Best Book Award in 2012
Selected by the New York Times Book Review as one of the best books of 2011
A Globe and Mail Best Books of the Year 2011 Title
One of The Economist's 2011 Books of the Year
One of The Wall Street Journal's Best Nonfiction Books of the Year 2011
2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient

In the internatio

Recommended by Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Ev Williams, and 45 others.

Barack Obama

Former USA President

A few months ago, Mr. Obama read “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” by Daniel Kahneman, about how people make decisions — quick, instinctive thinking versus slower, contemplative deliberation. For Mr. Obama, a deliberator in an instinctive business, this may be as instructive as any political science text. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

On Bill Gates's reading list in 2012. [source]

Marc Andreessen

Co-Founder/Andreessen Horowitz

Captivating dive into human decision making, marred by inclusion of several/many? psychology studies that fail to replicate. Will stand as a cautionary tale? [source]

5

How to Win Friends & Influence People

Dale Carnegie

4.4

Preview Summary

You can go after the job you want—and get it!
You can take the job you have—and improve it!
You can take any situation—and make it work for you!

Dale Carnegie’s rock-solid, time-tested advice has carried countless people up the ladder of success in their business and personal lives. One of the most groundbreaking and timeless bestsellers of all time, How to Win Friends & Influence People will teach

Recommended by Dave Ramsey, Daymond John, Dustin Moskovitz, and 58 others.

Dave Ramsey

Author

Dave Ramsey recommended this book on his website. [source]

Daymond John

Founder/FUBU

I love all the Dale Carnegie books. [source]

Dustin Moskovitz

Co-founder/Facebook and Asana

Seek to be understood. [source]

6

The Art Of Memory

Frances A. Yates

4.4

The ancient Greeks, to whom a trained memory was of vital importance - as it was to everyone before the invention of printing - created an elaborate memory system, based on a technique of impressing 'places' and 'images' on the mind. Inherited and recorded by the Romans, this art of memory passed into the European tradition, to be revived, in occult form, at the Renaissance, and particularly by th

Recommended by Joshua Foer.

Joshua Foer

It’s the book that started the whole field of academic research into the art of memory. For anyone interested in the subject, it’s the first thing to read. Yates starts with the ancient Greeks and tells the story of how the art of memory began, then went through a number of transformations. In the Middle Ages it became associated with religious remembering. During the Renaissance it got wrapped up with a whole bunch of Kabbalistic and hermetic ideas that were in the air at the time. Yates’s story ends with the Renaissance, but the story of mnemonics continues and subsequent scholars have brought the story up to date. [source]

7

Educated

Tara Westover

4.4

Preview Summary

Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her "head-for-the-hills bag". In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father's junkyard.

Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara nev

Recommended by Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Alexander Stubb, and 6 others.

Barack Obama

Former USA President

As 2018 draws to a close, I’m continuing a favorite tradition of mine and sharing my year-end lists. It gives me a moment to pause and reflect on the year through the books I found most thought-provoking, inspiring, or just plain loved. It also gives me a chance to highlight talented authors – some who are household names and others who you may not have heard of before. Here’s my best of 2018 list. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Tara never went to school or visited a doctor until she left home at 17. I never thought I’d relate to a story about growing up in a Mormon survivalist household, but she’s such a good writer that she got me to reflect on my own life while reading about her extreme childhood. Melinda and I loved this memoir of a young woman whose thirst for learning was so strong that she ended up getting a Ph.D. from Cambridge University. [source]

Alexander Stubb

If you read or listen to only one book this summer, this is it. Bloody brilliant! Every word, every sentence. Rarely do I go through a book with such a rollecoaster of emotion, from love to hate. Thank you for sharing @tarawestover #Educated https://t.co/GqLaqlcWMp [source]

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8

The Sense of an Ending

Julian Barnes

4.3

By an acclaimed writer at the height of his powers, The Sense of an Ending extends a streak of extraordinary books that began with the best-selling Arthur & George and continued with Nothing to Be Frightened Of and, most recently, Pulse.

This intense novel follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he has never much thought about - until his closest childhood friends return with a vengea

9

Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, Mark A. McDaniel

4.3

Preview Summary

To most of us, learning something "the hard way" implies wasted time and effort. Good teaching, we believe, should be creatively tailored to the different learning styles of students and should use strategies that make learning easier. Make It Stick turns fashionable ideas like these on their head. Drawing on recent discoveries in cognitive psychology and other disciplines, the authors offer concr

Recommended by Barbara Oakley.

Barbara Oakley

If you’re trying to keep up your reading about learning, one of the best books about learning is Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Peter Brown, Henry Roediger III, and Mark McDaniel. This insightful book was co-authored by some of the most influential researchers around. The book jacket says it best: “Many common study habits and practice routines turn out to be counterproductive. Underlining and highlighting, rereading, cramming, and single-minded repetition of new skills create the illusion of mastery, but gains fade quickly. More complex and durable learning come from self-testing, introducing certain difficulties in practice, waiting to re-study new material until a little forgetting has set in, and interleaving the practice of one skill or topic with another. Speaking most urgently to students, teachers, trainers, and athletes, Make It Stick will appeal to all those interested in the challenge of lifelong learning and self-improvement. [source]

10

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

Mark Manson

4.3

Preview Summary

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062457738

In this generation-defining self-help guide, a superstar blogger cuts through the crap to show us how to stop trying to be "positive" all the time so that we can truly become better, happier people.

For decades, we’ve been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. "Fk positivity," Mark Manson says. "Let’s be honest, shit is fked and w

Recommended by Ryan Holiday, Alex Blackwell, Aunty Ada, and 21 others.

Ryan Holiday

Author

I loved Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck. There’s a reason this book is blowing up. It’s that good. [source]

Alex Blackwell

@whitbywonder Great book [source]

Aunty Ada

Finally done! Amazing book, I recommend😊 https://t.co/IDTawuWn8f [source]

11

The Things They Carried

Tim O'Brien

4.3

Preview Summary

A classic, life-changing meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling, with more than two-million copies in print

Depicting the men of Alpha Company—Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O’Brien, who survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three—the stories in T

Recommended by Caroline Paul, Eugene Gu, Karl Marlantes, and 2 others.

Caroline Paul

A beautiful book by a writer who fought in Vietnam. [source]

Eugene Gu

@realDonaldTrump Tim O’Brien is the author of the book The Things They Carried, which was about the Vietnam War. Must be very triggering for Trump since he dodged the draft multiple times with fraudulent doctors’ notes for fake bone spurs like a coward. [source]

Karl Marlantes

But when O’Brien wrote The Things They Carried he came down to absolute real brass tacks. It was no longer surreal, it was like here’s a list of what a grunt carries, an infantry soldier… [source]

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12

Before I Go to Sleep

S. J. Watson

4.3

Christine wakes up every morning in an unfamiliar bed with an unfamiliar man. She looks in the mirror and sees an unfamiliar, middle-aged face. And every morning, the man she has woken up with must explain that he is Ben, he is her husband, she is forty-seven years old, and a terrible accident two decades earlier decimated her ability to form new memories.

Every day, Christine must begin again the

Recommended by Tess Gerritsen.

Tess Gerritsen

This is a domestic thriller, by a man writing from a female point of view. I read it when it was still in manuscript form, after an editor asked me if I wanted to do a blurb for it. I get these requests all the time. I thought, Ah, that sounds like just a clever trick. But he had me convinced from the first paragraph. [source]

13

The Giver (The Giver, #1)

Lois Lowry

4.3

Twelve-year-old Jonas lives in a seemingly ideal world. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver does he begin to understand the dark secrets behind this fragile community.

14

A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra)

Barbara Oakley

4.3

Preview Summary

Whether you are a student struggling to fulfill a math or science requirement, or you are embarking on a career change that requires a higher level of math competency, A Mind for Numbers offers the tools you need to get a better grasp of that intimidating but inescapable field. Engineering professor Barbara Oakley knows firsthand how it feels to struggle with math. She flunked her way through high

Recommended by Mike Rowe.

Mike Rowe

CEO/MikeRoweWorks Foundation, Former TV Host/Dirty Jobs

A good teacher will leave you educated. But a great teacher will leave you curious. Well, Barbara Oakley is a great teacher. Not only does she have a mind for numbers, she has a way with words, and she makes every one of them count [source]

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15

You Can Have an Amazing Memory: Learn Life-Changing Techniques and Tips from the Memory Maestro

Dominic O'Brien

4.3

Never forget a name or a number again! Dominic O'Brien is legendary for winning the World Memory Championship eight times and outwitting the casinos of Las Vegas to win a fortune at blackjack. Here, for the first time, he reveals his secrets for memory mastery. Follow his brain-boosting techniques and turn your mind into a super-powered computer that will recall PIN numbers with ease, remember dir

16

Stumbling on Happiness

Daniel Gilbert

4.3

Preview Summary

• Why are lovers quicker to forgive their partners for infidelity than for leaving dirty dishes in the sink? • Why will sighted people pay more to avoid going blind than blind people will pay to regain their sight? • Why do dining companions insist on ordering different meals instead of getting what they really want? • Why do pigeons seem to have such excellent aim; why can’t we remember one song

Recommended by Ev Williams, Jonathan Haidt, Chelsea Frank, and 6 others.

Jonathan Haidt

He’s one of the funniest people, certainly in psychology – he’s just endlessly witty, and reading it is like strapping yourself into a roller coaster. [source]

Chelsea Frank

I read everything with an open mind, often challenging myself by choosing books with an odd perspective or religious/spiritual views. These books do not reflect my personal feelings but are books that helped shape my perspective on life, love, and happiness. [source]

Derek Sivers

My recommendation is to do little tests. Try a few months of living the life you think you want, but leave yourself an exit plan, being open to the big chance that you might not like it after actually trying it... The best book about this subject is Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert. His recommendation is to talk to a few people wo are currently where you think you want to be and ask them for the pros and cons. Then trust their opinion since they're right in it, not just remembering or imagining. [source]

17

The Power of Your Subconscious Mind

Joseph Murphy

4.3

Preview Summary

In The Power of Your Subconscious Mind, Dr. Joseph Murphy gives you the tools you will need to unlock the awesome powers of your subconscious mind. You can improve your relationships, your finances, your physical well-being. Once you learn how to use this unbelievably powerful force there is nothing you will not be able to accomplish. Join the millions of people who have already unlocked the power

Recommended by The CEO Library Community (through anonymous form).

The CEO Library Community (through anonymous form)

One of the best 3 books I've read in 2019 [source]

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18

Your Memory: How It Works and How to Improve It

Kenneth L. Higbee PhD

4.3

Do you want to stop forgetting appointments, birthdays, and other important dates? Work more efficiently at your job? Study less and get better grades? Remember the names and faces of people you meet? The good news is that it's all possible. Your Memory will help to expand your memory abilities beyond what you thought possible. Dr. Higbee reveals how simple techniques, like the Link, Loci, Peg, an

19

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales

Oliver Sacks

4.2

Preview Summary

If a man has lost a leg or an eye, he knows he has lost a leg or an eye; but if he has lost a self—himself—he cannot know it, because he is no longer there to know it. Dr. Oliver Sacks recounts the stories of patients struggling to adapt to often bizarre worlds of neurological disorder. Here are people who can no longer recognize everyday objects or those they love; who are stricken with violent t

Recommended by Bradley Voytek, Suzanne O'Sullivan, and Tanya Byron.

Bradley Voytek

I can’t imagine one day waking up and not knowing who my wife is, or seeing my wife and thinking that she was replaced by some sort of clone or robot. But that could happen to any of us. [source]

Suzanne O'Sullivan

I didn’t choose neurology because of it but the way Oliver Sacks writes about neurology is very compelling. [source]

Tanya Byron

This is a seminal book that anyone who wants to work in mental health should read. It is a charming and gentle and also an honest exposé of what can happen to us when our mental health is compromised for whatever reason. [source]

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20

How to Develop a Brilliant Memory Week by Week: 52 Proven Ways to Enhance Your Memory Skills

Dominic O'Brien

4.2

Written by eight times World Memory Champion, Dominic O'Brien this book is a complete course in memory enhancement. Dominic takes you step-by-step through an ingenious program of skills, introducing all his tried and tested techniques on which he has built his triumphant championship performances. Pacing the course in line with his expert understanding of how the brain responds to basic memory tra

Cover unavailable

21

The Mind of a Mnemonist: A Little Book about a Vast Memory, with a New Foreword by Jerome S. Bruner

Aleksandr R. Luria, Lynn Solotaroff, Jerome Bruner

4.2

The Mind of a Mnemonist is a rare phenomenon - a scientific study that transcends its data and, in the manner of the best fictional literature, fashions a portrait of an unforgettable human being."

Recommended by Joshua Foer.

Joshua Foer

This book created the entire genre of humanistic clinical histories. Without Luria, there could be no Oliver Sacks, the British neurologist who wrote Awakenings. For 30 years, Luria studied a journalist called Solomon Shereshevsky or simply ‘S’. Supposedly, S had a vacuum cleaner memory. He could remember anything. [source]

22

The Book of Memory

Mary Carruthers

4.2

Mary Carruthers's classic study of the training and uses of memory for a variety of purposes in European cultures during the Middle Ages has fundamentally changed the way scholars understand medieval culture. This fully revised and updated second edition considers afresh all the material and conclusions of the first. While responding to new directions in research inspired by the original, this new

Recommended by Joshua Foer.

Joshua Foer

This is the best study of the role that memory plays in medieval culture. We reserve the term genius for people who are creative, who are innovators, who think in ways that are entirely new. In the middle ages, the term genius was reserved for people with the best memories. That is telling. [source]

23

Swann's Way (In Search of Lost Time, #1)

Marcel Proust, D.J. Enright, C.K. Scott Moncrieff, Terence Kilmartin, Richard Howard

4.2

Swann's Way tells two related stories, the first of which revolves around Marcel, a younger version of the narrator, and his experiences in, and memories of, the French town Combray. Inspired by the "gusts of memory" that rise up within him as he dips a Madeleine into hot tea, the narrator discusses his fear of going to bed at night. He is a creature of habit and dislikes waking up in the middle o

Recommended by Thomas Graziani.

Thomas Graziani

My favorite book is like "A la recherche du temps perdu" ("In Search of Lost Time”) from Marcel Proust. It is a seven-volumes epic work describing the intricacies of human nature. Proust style is among the most beautiful I've ever read, and he manages to really make you consider every aspect of your daily life in a different and deeper way. [source]

24

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

Alison Bechdel

4.2

Preview Summary

In this graphic memoir, Alison Bechdel charts her fraught relationship with her late father.

Distant and exacting, Bruce Bechdel was an English teacher and director of the town funeral home, which Alison and her family referred to as the Fun Home. It was not until college that Alison, who had recently come out as a lesbian, discovered that her father was also gay. A few weeks after this revelation,

Recommended by Hillary Chute.

Hillary Chute

Alison has a strip that’s been running for a long time called Dykes to Watch Out For, but this is an autobiographical book. ‘Fun Home’ is short for the funeral home Alison’s dad ran when she was a child. It’s a book that blew me away and continues to blow me away every time I read it – and I must have read it five or six times by now: probably the best book I’ve read in the past ten years in any genre or form. It’s an incredibly crafted book in which the chapters are not chronological but thematic, and each chapter is keyed to a book that her father loved. So it’s not a book about what happened to her father, a closeted gay man who committed suicide a few months after Alison herself came out when she was 19. It’s about looking through a family archive to try and get a sense of her father’s particularity. [source]

25

The Remains of the Day

Kazuo Ishiguro

4.2

An elegant Everyman's Library hardcover edition of the universally acclaimed novel—winner of the Booker Prize, a bestseller and a perpetually strong backlist title, and the basis for an award-winning film—with full-cloth binding, a silk ribbon marker, a chronology, and a new introduction by Salman Rushdie.

Here is Kazuo Ishiguro's profoundly compelling portrait of Stevens, the perfect butler, and o

Recommended by Jeff Bezos, Emma Watson, and Riz Khan.

Jeff Bezos

Founder/Amazon

If you read The Remains of the Day, which is one of my favorite books, you can't help but come away and think, I just spent 10 hours living an alternate life and I learned something about life and about regret. You can't do that in a blog post. [source]

Riz Khan

About missed chances and what the British character does to a person’s emotions. There is this brick wall that they can’t crack through and after a while a bit of the grout wears away. [source]

26

Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School

John Medina

4.2

Preview Summary

Most of us have no idea what’s really going on inside our heads. Yet brain scientists have uncovered details every business leader, parent, and teacher should know—like the need for physical activity to get your brain working its best.

How do we learn? What exactly do sleep and stress do to our brains? Why is multi-tasking a myth? Why is it so easy to forget—and so important to repeat new knowledge

Recommended by Bill Gates, James Altucher, Dmitry Dragilev, and 1 others.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

On Bill Gates's reading list in 2012. [source]

James Altucher

Founder/StockPickr

Discusses how to keep your brain healthy. [source]

Dmitry Dragilev

There’s a book called Brain Rules, also a great book, by John Medina, sort of like how your brain works. [source]

27

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

Charlie Mackesy

4.2

The Sunday Times Bestseller and New York Times Bestseller.

'You will not be able to buy a more beautiful book for Christmas for somebody you love' Chris Evans

A book of hope for uncertain times.

Enter the world of Charlie's four unlikely friends, discover their story and their most important life lessons.

The conversations of the boy, the mole, the fox and the horse have been shared thousands of times

Recommended by Brooke Hammerling, Charlie Webster, Fedor Holz, and 3 others.

Brooke Hammerling

Once in a while there’s a thing that just gets people to feel love & joy, and warmth & be inspired and touched all at the same time. It’s rare but when it happens it’s magical. That’s @charliemackesy and his important drawings and his new book #theboythemolethefoxandthehorse https://t.co/FHHdSruNKH [source]

Charlie Webster

Love this beautiful book ‘The Boy, the mole, the fox and the horse’ my mum got me for Christmas by @charliemackesy ‘Don’t measure how valuable you are by the way you are treated.’ https://t.co/fBUhQdzkXQ [source]

Fedor Holz

Full Book Review of The Boy, The Mole, The Fox & The Horse: https://t.co/bNPgWdIyYl —— Simple but amazing book that I read from at random times throughout the week. https://t.co/qsPyGm8TEm [source]

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28

How to Develop Superpower Memory

Harry Lorayne

4.2

Develop a photographic memory--and increase your memory _ capacity by tenfold with this practical and lucid guide. _

29

Beloved

Toni Morrison

4.2

Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby.

Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. Her new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, wh

Recommended by Bianca Belair, Esi Edugyan, and Farah Jasmine Griffin.

Bianca Belair

@ylc130 I went to the library when I was in the 3rd grade and read Beloved... I remember being so confused and my Mama having to explain it to me... I later read it as an adult and it hit me completely different. GREAT BOOK! [source]

Esi Edugyan

I was shocked by the blunt force of its subject matter and its exquisitely torqued prose. It remains one of my most adored novels. [source]

Farah Jasmine Griffin

Beloved was Morrison’s fifth novel. It’s a gripping story, inspired by a famous abolitionist case, the true story of a woman who runs away from slavery with her children, but when the slave catchers catch up with her, she kills one of her own and tries to kill the others, rather than returning them to slavery. [source]

30

Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It

Gabriel Wyner

4.2

The ultimate rapid language-learning guide! For those who’ve despaired of ever learning a foreign language, here, finally, is a book that will make the words stick. At thirty years old, Gabriel Wyner speaks six languages fluently. He didn’t learn them in school -- who does? -- rather, he learned them in the past few years, working on his own and practicing on the subway, using simple techniques an

Cover unavailable

31

How to Develop a Perfect Memory

Dominic O'Brien

4.2

Cover unavailable

38

How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading

Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren

4.2

Preview Summary

With more than half a million paperback copies in print and now in this stunning hardcover keepsake edition, How to Read a Book is the classic and definitive guide to reading comprehension and retention for students of literature, scholars across disciplines, and anyone who just loves to read.

Originally written in 1940 and first published by Simon & Schuster in 1972, How to Read a Book introduces

Recommended by Sergey Brin, Ben Chestnut, Kevin Systrom, and 3 others.

Sergey Brin

Co-Founder/Google

had “How to Read a Book” by Mortimer J. Adler as one of his most recommended books. [source]

Ben Chestnut

Founder & CEO/MailChimp

I also love How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler. I’m teaching its tips to my children while they’re young, so they can consume books much faster and have more fun reading. [source]

Kevin Systrom

The author's thesis is that the most important part of reading a book is to actually read the table of contents and familiarize yourself with the major structure of the book. [source]

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39

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Neil Gaiman

4.2

Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an o

Recommended by Asher Wolf and Zoe Keating.

Asher Wolf

@trib I love that book. So much. [source]

Zoe Keating

For a while in 2015 I lost the ability to read (PTSD, I’m told) and “The Ocean at the End of the Lane” and Eli Brown’s “Cinnamon & Gunpowder” were the first books I was able to understand and enjoy. @neilhimself’s book in particular was like a hand pulling me up. https://t.co/foEbRxYbuj [source]

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40

The Remember Balloons

Jessie Oliveros, Dana Wulfekotte

4.1

James’s Grandpa has the best balloons because he has the best memories. He has balloons showing Dad when he was young and Grandma when they were married. Grandpa has balloons about camping and Aunt Nelle’s poor cow. Grandpa also has a silver balloon filled with the memory of a fishing trip he and James took together.

But when Grandpa’s balloons begin to float away, James is heartbroken. No matter h

41

The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be

Jack Canfield, Janet Switzer

4.1

Preview Summary

Jack Canfield, cocreator of the phenomenal bestselling Chicken Soup for the SoulÂ® series, turns to the principles he's studied, taught, and lived for more than 30 years in this practical and inspiring guide that will help any aspiring person get from where they are to where they want to be.

The Success Principlesâ„¢ will teach you how to increase your confidence, tackle daily challenges, live w

Recommended by Randy Murray, Shaen Yeo, and 1 others.

Randy Murray

"One of the most powerful ways to learn anything is to teach it to others." @JackCanfield in his very helpful book The Success Principles. [source]

Shaen Yeo

The Success Principles by Jack Canfield. Distilling the principles into bite sized pieces showed me that anyone could succeed. It wasn't that people got lucky or that success is only for the deserving few, but that we could all share a piece of the pie, if we believed in it and took action. [source]

42

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

Gail Honeyman

4.1

No one’s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: she struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding unnecessary human contact, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.

But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond,

Recommended by Twinkle Khanna.

Twinkle Khanna

Eleanor is awkward, funny, an alcoholic and clearly not fine. A great book for someone who wants to get over a reading slump. Loved it! #mustread #eleanoroliphantiscompletelyfine #TweakIt https://t.co/fVQu4sYhSi [source]

43

The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level

Gay Hendricks

4.1

Preview Summary

In The Big Leap, Gay Hendricks, the New York Times bestselling author of Five Wishes, demonstrates how to eliminate the barriers to success by overcoming false fears and beliefs. Fans of Wayne Dyer, Eckhart Tolle, Marianne Williamson, and The Secret will find useful, effective tips for breaking down the walls to a better life in The Big Leap.

Recommended by John Doherty.

John Doherty

I'm undecided on this book so far, but the book's goal is to basically help you rethink what success means and to push through our limits to the next level in life whether that is business, finances, or relationships. It feels a bit too hedonistic for my tastes, but I'm willing to finish it out and glean some good things from it. [source]

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44

The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers

Daniel L. Schacter

4.1

A groundbreaking work by one of the world's foremost psychologists that delves into the complex behavior of memory.

In this fascinating study, Daniel L. Schacter explores instances of what we would consider memory failure—absent-mindedness, transience, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias, and persistence—and suggests instead that these miscues are actually indications that memory is func

Recommended by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger.

Viktor Mayer-Schönberger

A beautiful story of the latest scientific evidence about how our memory works as we forget and remember. [source]

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45

The Future of Nostalgia

Svetlana Boym

4.1

Combining personal memoir, philosophical essay, and historical analysis, Svetlana Boym explores the spaces of collective nostalgia that connect national biography and personal self-fashioning in the twenty-first century. She guides us through the ruins and construction sites of post-communist cities--St. Petersburg, Moscow, Berlin, and Prague--and the imagined homelands of exiles-Benjamin, Nabokov

46

Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope

Mark Manson

4.1

Preview Summary

From the author of the international mega-bestseller The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck comes a counterintuitive guide to the problems of hope.

We live in an interesting time. Materially, everything is the best it’s ever been—we are freer, healthier and wealthier than any people in human history. Yet, somehow everything seems to be irreparably and horribly f*cked—the planet is warming, government

Recommended by Nir Eyal, Ryan Holiday, Alemsah Ozturk, and 6 others.

Nir Eyal

Author/Hooked

Mark Manson has succeeded in explaining a crazy world to an entire generation by invoking hard science, moral philosophy, and gobs of hilarious wit. This book is guaranteed to make you laugh, question your beliefs, and (hopefully) change your life. [source]

Ryan Holiday

Author

Just because everything appears to be a mess doesn’t mean you have to be one. Mark Manson’s book is a call to arms for a better life and better world and could not be more needed right now. [source]

Alemsah Ozturk

Love Mark Manson and the way he sees things . This book is awesome! https://t.co/D29vHicXlm [source]

47

Recursion

Blake Crouch

4.1

Memory makes reality.

That’s what New York City cop Barry Sutton is learning as he investigates the devastating phenomenon the media has dubbed False Memory Syndrome-a mysterious affliction that drives its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived.

That's what neuroscientist Helena Smith believes. It’s why she’s dedicated her life to creating a technology that will let us preserve our mos

Recommended by Matt Galligan.

Matt Galligan

Best book I read this year was @blakecrouch1’s Recursion. Holy hell was it a crazy ride. Brilliant concept, packed with deep questions, and an emotional rollercoaster. https://t.co/zhYG2wLPGX [source]

48

Austerlitz

W.G. Sebald, James Wood

4.1

This tenth anniversary edition of W. G. Sebald’s celebrated masterpiece includes a new Introduction by acclaimed critic James Wood. Austerlitz is the story of a man’s search for the answer to his life’s central riddle. A small child when he comes to England on a Kindertransport in the summer of 1939, Jacques Austerlitz is told nothing of his real family by the Welsh Methodist minister and his wife

Recommended by Edmund de Waal.

Edmund de Waal

Austerlitz is an incredibly beautiful book. Sebald was a really interesting German writer, and I think this is his masterpiece. He blows away genre. [source]

49

Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man: What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy, and Commitment

Steve Harvey

4.1

Preview Summary

“Harvey offers surprising insights into the male mentality and gives women strategies for taming that unruly beast.”
—Philadelphia Inquirer

“Women should listen to Steve Harvey when it comes to what a good man is about. Steve Harvey dispenses a lot of fabulous information about men.”
—Aretha Franklin

The #1 New York Times bestseller from the new guru of relationship advice, Steve Harvey’s Act Like a L

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50

Speak, Memory

Vladimir Nabokov, Brian Boyd

4.1

From one of the twentieth century's great writers comes one of the finest autobiographies of our time. Speak, Memory is Vladimir Nabokov's moving account of a loving, civilized family, of adolescent awakenings, flight from Bolshevik terror, education in England, and émigré life in Paris and Berlin. The Nabokovs were eccentric, liberal aristocrats who lived a life immersed in politics and literatur

Recommended by Anne Applebaum and Eva Hoffman.

Anne Applebaum

I still think it’s one of the most beautiful memoirs ever written. Although it’s not about the Russian revolution as such, it is permeated with a sense of loss and exile, as are all of Nabokov’s books. He evokes gorgeous countryside scenes of pre-revolutionary Russia, but at the same time has some distance from it – he recognises the awfulness of what he at one point calls his rather appalling country at the same time. [source]

Eva Hoffman

I love it for several reasons. First, it made me feel that it is possible to give written form to nostalgia. The lyrical affirmation of that was quite important to me. Secondly, his preoccupation with language. I kept looking for books which talk about language, and at the end of the book Nabokov has a dedication to the Russian language, or an invocation of it and his incredibly poignant loss of it. [source]

51

Keep Sharp: Build a Better Brain at Any Age

Sanjay Gupta

4.1

Preview Summary

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52

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)

J.K. Rowling

4.1

The war against Voldemort is not going well; even Muggle governments are noticing. Ron scans the obituary pages of the Daily Prophet, looking for familiar names. Dumbledore is absent from Hogwarts for long stretches of time, and the Order of the Phoenix has already suffered losses.

And yet . . .

As in all wars, life goes on. The Weasley twins expand their business. Sixth-year students learn to Appar

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53

Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes

Maria Konnikova

4.1

Preview Summary

No fictional character is more renowned for his powers of thought and observation than Sherlock Holmes. But is his extraordinary intellect merely a gift of fiction, or can we learn to cultivate these abilities ourselves, to improve our lives at work and at home?

We can, says psychologist and journalist Maria Konnikova, and in Mastermind she shows us how. Beginning with the "brain attic"--Holmes's m

Recommended by Kirk Borne.

Kirk Borne

To Change the Way You Think, Change the Way You See: “To observe, you must learn to separate situation from interpretation, yourself from what you are seeing.” https://t.co/jYH02Yh8u1 Also see this book: https://t.co/uKXYEPDHOM #Cognitive https://t.co/43hHzNb55A [source]

54

Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention--and How to Think Deeply Again

Johann Hari

4.1

Preview Summary

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55

Limitless: Core Techniques to Improve Performance, Productivity, and Focus

Jim Kwik

4.1

Preview Summary

56

Never Let Me Go

Kazuo Ishiguro

4.1

From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans, comes an unforgettable edge-of-your-seat mystery that is at once heartbreakingly tender and morally courageous about what it means to be human.

Hailsham seems like a pleasant English boarding school, far from the influences of the city. Its students are well tended and supported, trained in art and literature,

Recommended by Lev Grossman.

Lev Grossman

It’s a difficult book to talk about because one almost doesn’t want to give away the premise, which drops on you like a ton of bricks around page eighty or so… It’s set at a very unusual boarding school where the students are being raised and educated for the absolute darkest of purposes, which they initially have no knowledge of or control over, and prove ultimately unable to escape from. [source]

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57

Art SPIEGELMAN

4.1

Combined for the first time here are Maus I: A Survivor's Tale and Maus II - the complete story of Vladek Spiegelman and his wife, living and surviving in Hitler's Europe. By addressing the horror of the Holocaust through cartoons, the author captures the everyday reality of fear and is able to explore the guilt, relief and extraordinary sensation of survival - and how the children of survivors ar

Recommended by Susan Bordo.

Susan Bordo

It’s about the Holocaust. It’s also a comic book, in which the various characters are depicted as animals – the Jews as mice, the Nazis as cats. [source]

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Barack Obama

Former USA President

Just like us, the president enjoys a good beach read while relaxing in the sun. In 2016, he released his list of summer vacation books: Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, William Finnegan H Is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins Seveneves, Neal Stephenson The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead [source]

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74

The Mind Map Book: Unlock Your Creativity, Boost Your Memory, Change Your Life

Tony Buzan, Barry Buzan, et al.

4.0

Your brain is a super bio-computer that dwarfs any machine on the market. If you understand how it works and how to work with it, you can employ and enjoy astonishing powers of learning, memory, concentration, and creativity in planning and structuring thought on all levels. Now, in The Mind Map Book, Tony and Barry Buzan have provided a comprehensive operating manual for all who want to use their

75

Station Eleven

Emily St. John Mandel, Vincent Chong

4.0

Set in the days of civilization's collapse, Station Eleven tells the story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.

One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to diss

Recommended by Alfred A. Knopf and Holly Brockwell.

Alfred A. Knopf

“What sets Station Eleven apart from so many other recent dystopian novels is the warmness of @EmilyMandel's writing, the lived-in details of each of these characters’ lives… It’s the kind of book that stays with you.” —@TomiObaro https://t.co/tWakW2L6Tq [source]

Holly Brockwell

@nmsonline @katebevan Great book though 🤷‍♀️ [source]

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76

Memory Wall

Anthony Doerr

4.0

Set on four continents, Anthony Doerr's collection of stories is about memory: the source of meaning and coherence in our lives, the fragile thread that connects us to ourselves and to others.

In the luminous and beautiful title story, a young boy in South Africa comes to possess an old woman's secret, a piece of the past with the power to redeem a life. In 'The River Nemunas', a teenaged orphan mo

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77

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

Karen Joy Fowler

4.0

Meet the Cooke family. Our narrator is Rosemary Cooke. As a child, she never stopped talking; now that she's started college, she has wrapped herself in silence: the silence of intentional forgetting, of protective cover. Rosemary is now an only child, but she used to have a sister the same age as her, and an older brother. Both are now gone—vanished from her life. Her once lively mother is a shel

Recommended by Ryan Holiday.

Ryan Holiday

Author

In chaotic times, novels are a way to find peace and keep that flicker of vulnerability alive and nurtured. … The story is funny, heartbreaking—like literally will make you cry heartbreaking, especially if you have children—and beautifully written. [source]

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78

The Memory Code

Lynne Kelly

4.0

Lynne Kelly has discovered that a powerful memory technique used by the ancients can unlock the secrets of the Neolithic stone circles of Britain and Europe, the ancient Pueblo buildings in New Mexico and other prehistoric stone monuments across the world. We can still use the memory code today to train our own memories.

In the past, the elders had encyclopaedic memories. They could name all the an

79

Memories, Dreams, Reflections

C.G. Jung

4.0

In the spring of 1957, when he was eighty-one years old, C. G. Jung undertook the telling of his life story. At regular intervals he had conversations with his colleague and friend Aniela Jaffé, and collaborated with her in the preparation of the text based on these talks. On occasion, he was moved to write entire chapters of the book in his own hand, and he continued to work on the final stages o

Recommended by Arianna Huffington and Richard Cohen.

Arianna Huffington

Founder/The Huffington Post

A great guide to how important dreams are as a gateway to our own intuition and wisdom. [source]

Richard Cohen

One of the things he writes about wonderfully well is how important the sun is to us in our conscious and our unconscious lives. [source]

80

The Power of Discipline: How to Use Self Control and Mental Toughness to Achieve Your Goals by Daniel Walter

Daniel Walte

4.0

Preview Summary

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81

The Memory Palace - Learn Anything and Everything (Starting With Shakespeare and Dickens)

Lewis Smil

4.0

• What if you were suddenly granted the ability to DOWNLOAD and INSTALL vast sums of knowledge into your brain...

* What would you learn if you discovered your memory bank wasn't a tiny cupboard but was in fact an enormous warehouse?

* How many pub quizzes would you win if you CRAMMED THAT WAREHOUSE chock full of facts and figures?

* How many people could you impress with your ENCYCLOPAEDIC KNOWLEDGE

82

Tricks Of The Mind

Derren Brown

4.0

Derren Brown's television and stage performances have entranced and dumbfounded millions. His baffling illusions and stunning set pieces - such as The Seance, Russian Roulette and The Heist - have set new standards of what's possible, as well as causing more than their fair share of controversy. Now, for the first time, he reveals the secrets behind his craft, what makes him tick and just why he g

Recommended by Derek Sivers.

Derek Sivers

Great, little book … that I highly recommend. [source]

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83

Grandpa Green

Lane Smith

4.0

A Caldecott Honor Book

From the creator of the national bestseller It's a Book comes a Caldecott Honor-winning timeless story of family history, legacy, and love.

Grandpa Green wasn't always a gardener. He was a farmboy and a kid with chickenpox and a soldier and, most of all, an artist. In this captivating new picture book, readers follow Grandpa Green's great-grandson into a garden he created, a f

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84

Super Memory - Super Student: How to Raise Your Grades in 30 Days

Harry Lorayne

4.0

Memory is the stepping-stone to thinking, because without remembering facts, you cannot think, conceptualize, reason, make decisions, create. or contribute. There is no learning without memory.

85

Remember It!: The Names of People You Meet, All of Your Passwords, Where You Left Your Keys, and Everything Else You Tend to Forget

Nelson Dellis

4.0

Throughout his research into memory theory, Nelson Dellis found existing memory improvement guides to be wanting—overcomplicated, dry, and stodgy. So he decided to write a book that is approachable and fun, centered on what people actually need to remember. In Remember It!, Dellis teaches us how to make the most of our memory, using his competition-winning techniques. Presenting the information in

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86

The Rook (The Checquy Files, #1)

Daniel O'Malley

4.0

"The body you are wearing used to be mine." So begins the letter Myfanwy Thomas is holding when she awakes in a London park surrounded by bodies all wearing latex gloves. With no recollection of who she is, Myfanwy must follow the instructions her former self left behind to discover her identity and track down the agents who want to destroy her.

She soon learns that she is a Rook, a high-ranking me

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87

The Rings of Saturn

W. G. Sebald, Michael Hulse

4.0

The Rings of Saturn — with its curious archive of photographs — records a walking tour along the east coast of England. A few of the things which cross the path and mind of its narrator (who both is and is not Sebald) are lonely eccentrics, Sir Thomas Browne's skull, a matchstick model of the Temple of Jerusalem, recession-hit seaside towns, wooded hills, Joseph Conrad, Rembrandt's "Anatomy Lesson

Recommended by Bronwyn Law-Viljoen and Nicholas Shakespeare.

Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Sebald is interesting because he published all of his books with photographs in them, and this one is interesting because it’s kind a Wordsworthian walking trip. [source]

Nicholas Shakespeare

Of all those liberated by Chatwin’s trampling of fence-posts, none stands higher than W. G. Sebald. [source]

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88

Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment

Tal Ben-Shahar

4.0

Preview Summary

Can You Learn to Be Happy?

YES . . . according to the teacher of Harvard University's most popular and life-changing course. One out of every five Harvard students has lined up to hear Tal Ben-Shahar's insightful and inspiring lectures on that ever-elusive state: HAPPINESS.

HOW?
Grounded in the revolutionary "positive psychology" movement, Ben-Shahar ingeniously combines scientific studies, scholarl

89

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse Fifth Anniversary Limited Edition: The Global Bestseller

Charlie Mackesy

4.0

90

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

Ocean Vuong

4.0

Poet Ocean Vuong's debut novel is a shattering portrait of a family, a first love, and the redemptive power of storytelling.

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born — a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam — and serve

Recommended by Jim Schachter.

Jim Schachter

@c_werth Great book! Maybe my daughter in Bushwick can attend. Thanks [source]

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91

Remember, Remember

Ed Cooke

4.0

Kings and queens, British prime ministers, American presidents, countries of Europe - we should all know these things - but like me, you’re probably resigned to being the kind of person that just never will. Now Grandmaster of Memory Ed Cooke offers up his memory secrets with a fun, quick and completely unforgettable way to remember the things you thought you never could. But this is no boring Wil

92

The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci

Jonathan D. Spence

4.0

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93

How To Pass Exams: Accelerate Your Learning, Memorise Key Facts, Revise Effectively

Dominic O'Brien

4.0

94

Invisible Cities

Italo Calvino

4.0

"Kublai Khan does not necessarily believe everything Marco Polo says when he describes the cities visited on his expeditions, but the emperor of the Tartars does continue listening to the young Venetian with greater attention and curiosity than he shows any other messenger or explorer of his." So begins Italo Calvino's compilation of fragmentary urban images. As Marco tells the khan about Armilla,

Recommended by Colin Thubron and James Meek.

Colin Thubron

Patrick Ness

4.0

A boy drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments. He dies. Then he wakes, naked and bruised and thirsty, but alive. How can this be? And what is this strange deserted place?

As he struggles to understand what is happening, the boy dares to hope. Might this not be the end? Might there be more to this life, or perhaps this afterlife?

From multi-award-winning Patrick Ness comes one of the most pr

Recommended by Estelle Francis and The CEO Library Community (through anonymous form).

Estelle Francis

This book tackles the themes of guilt and facing the skeletons in your closet. [source]

The CEO Library Community (through anonymous form)

One of the best 3 books I've read in 2019 [source]