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- Business (21)
- Creativity (21)
- Environment (21)
- Food (15)
- Sport (2)
- Technology (4)
- Well-being (21)
Business
These are the books that inspire us, we hope they inspire you too.
- Beachcombing at Miramar — Richard Bode An absorbing tale of quitting the fast lane for the simple life. It’s message is simple enough: You have a choice. Worth remembering.
- Biomimicry — Janine M. Benyus Innovation inspired by nature. How business can learn from nature and not just take from it. A seminal book. Must read.
- Get Things Done — David Allen You can make more money. But you can’t make more time. This book helps you create a system to make the most of your time.
- Good To Great — Jim Collins A seminal book. It answers the question of why do some companies make the leap. And others fall as they try to.
- How Risky Is It, Really? — David Ropeik This book won’t decide for you what’s really risky and what isn’t. That’s up to you. But it’ll tell you how you make those decisions.
- It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be — Paul Arden This book will take minutes to read. But will stay with you for a lifetime. It’s common sense which isn’t that common really.
- Leaving Microsoft to Change the World — John Wood If you think you can’t change your situation, follow your passion and build a new life, then you need to read this.
- Let My People Go Surfing — Yvon Chouinard This book, from the founder of Patagonia, is an inspiring book about how to run a business using your head and your heart.
- Natural Capitalism — Paul Hawken This book looks at another way of doing business. It’s based on the principle that business can be good for the environment.
- Poke the Box — Seth Godin Most businesses fail for one reason. They don’t start. This book is all about giving you a poke. Take those barriers down.
- Presenting to Win — Jerry Weissman A story can be powerful. It can change things. But a story needs to be told well. This book gives you the skills to do that.
- Redesigning Leadership — John Maeda This book isn’t out till May 31st. But it’s on our wish list because we liked his book on The Laws of Simplicity.
- Rules of Thumb — Alan M Webber Alan, founding editor of Fast Co Mag, writes about what makes entrepreneurs successful. One of my most underlined books.
- Sway: the irresistible pull of irrational behavior — Rom Brafman A journey into the hidden psychological influences that derail our decision-making.
- Talent is Overrated — Geoff Colvin What really separates world-class performers from everybody else? Is it talent? Is it drive? Is a hunger more compelling than a huge talent?
- The 4-Hour Work Week — Tim Ferris I think what Tim’s book does well is to get you to re-think what’s possible. We aim to low and therefore achieve it.
- The 80/20 Principle — Richard Koch This book is about spending our time on the things that make a difference. It reveals the secrets of achieving more with less.
- The Origin of Wealth — Eric Beinhocker This book brings updates economics and business in a fast changing world. Systems are now more complex. New rules apply.
- The Republic of Tea — Mel Ziegler, Bill Rosenzweig and Patricia Ziegler This book is brilliant. A series of faxes between people starting up a tea business. It’s hard to get. Even harder to put down.
- The Tao of Warren Buffett: Warren Buffett's Words of Wisdom. Mary Buffett, David Clark. There is some very down to earth business advice here. It is down with great wit, and in a homespun way. Pure gold.
- Think and Grow Rich — Napoleon Hill This book has sold millions of copies. It works by helping you understand what motivates you. It’s a masterpiece.
Creativity
These are the books that inspire us, we hope they inspire you too.
- Baked in — Alex Boguski Old rule was: Create safe, ordinary products + mass marketing. New rule is: Create truly innovative products = your unique story
- Blink — Malcolm Gladwell Do you trust your instinct? Should you do it more? Should you do it less? For me, Malcolm’s this is his best book.
- Branded Youth — Bruce Weber Maybe it’s me, but no one does this as well as Bruce Weber. One of the all time great photographers. Pictures tell stories too.
- Burning Book — Jessica Bruder If you want to have interesting ideas, make sure you go to interesting places. They don’t come any more interesting than Burning Man.
- Creative Mischief — Dave Trott Short chapters of wisdom from one of Britain’s top advertising writer’s . If you liked Paul Arden’s book, this you’d like as well.
- Eating the Big Fish — Adam Morgan Its never been a better time to be small, nimble company that has idea about changing something. Number 1’s watch out.
- Funky Business — Kjell Nordstrom How to think differently about business. Lots of examples. And they make it sound like fun. Which is maybe the answer anyway.
- Herd — Mark Earls Mark investigates how we are less driven by independent thought than we would like to believe, and more by peer influence.
- Ignore Everybody — Hugh MacLeod It’s funny. It’s angry at times. But in between those are some sagely wisdom. He’s like Warren Buffett but can draw.
- Inside Steve's Brain: Business Lessons from Steve Jobs — Leander Kahney This book gives you an idea of what makes Steve Jobs tick. It’s a good read, and gives clues about the guy who is Apple.
- It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be — Paul Arden This book will take minutes to read. But will stay with you for a lifetime. It’s common sense which isn’t that common really.
- Leaving Microsoft to Change the World — John Wood If you think you can’t change your situation, follow your passion and build a new life, then you need to read this.
- Life Style — Bruce Mau A thinker who just happens to design. Bruce thinks differently and big whilst at the same time thinks like a customer. Rare.
- Making Ideas Happen — Scott Belski Ideas are 1% inspiration. And 99% perspiration. This book gets it & shows you ways to make more happen more quickly.
- PostSecret — Frank Warren Simple idea. Brilliant idea. Scalable. People send in their secrets without putting their name to them.
- Presenting to Win — Jerry Weissman A story can be powerful. It can change things. But a story needs to be told well. This book gives you the skills to do that.
- Taxi Driver Screenplay — Paul Schrader In the first page of this book, the writing is so economical, you could put it down and know what was going to happen.
- The Checklist Manifesto — Atul Gawande This is a system to get things done. Jack Dorsey at Twitter gives this book to everyone he employs. Really good.
- The Starfish and the Spider — Ori Brafman Cut off a spider’s head, and it dies; cut off a starfish’s leg and it grows a new one. Are leaderless Organizations the future?
- Tibor Kalman: Perverse Optimist — Peter Hall Tibor designed colors magazine. And this book is something you will read. And come back to. And learn something each time.
- Under Milk Wood — Dylan Thomas Rage, rage, rage against average. Learn how to describe something in the minimum of amount of words.
Environment
These are the books that inspire us, we hope they inspire you too.
- A Prosperous Way Down — Howard & Elisabeth Odum How can the future be peaceful and prosperous with less fuel? How can economy work? How will everything work?
- An Inconvenient Truth — Al Gore The truth about the climate crisis is an inconvenient one: It means we are going to have to change the way we live our lives.
- Biomimicry — Janine M. Benyus Innovation inspired by nature. How business can learn from nature and not just take from it. A seminal book. Must read.
- Cradle to Cradle — William McDonough & Michael Braungart Less bad isn’t the answer. This is why we have to remake the way we make things. Big ideas in a zeitgeist that needs them.
- Hungry Planet: What the World Eats — Peter Menzel & Faith D’Aluisio What the World Eats, a comparative photo-chronicle of their visits to 30 families in 24 countries for 600 meals in all. Inspired idea.
- Last Child in The Woods — Richard Louv This is all about getting our kids to roam free again. He builds a case for unplugging our kids from the net.
- Let My People Go Surfing — Yvon Chouinard This book, from the founder of Patagonia, is an inspiring book about how to run a business using your head and your heart.
- No Logo — Naomi Klein This book made everyone think about brands, their power, their influence, their ability to be everywhere, from schools to public spaces.
- One-Straw Revolution — Masanobu Fukuoka From his many mistakes he develops a ‘natural farming’ technique. Less time and physical input to the land. A classic.
- Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth — Buckminster Fuller Buckminster Fuller was so far ahead of his time that he was akin to a 20th century Da Vinci.
- Radical Simplicity — Dan Price You can live very well with very little money. Dan draws about his life. And we are left to draw our own conclusions.
- Silent Spring — Rachel Carson This one book made the environmental movement sit up and start to fight back. A book every generation should read.
- Soil and Soul: People Versus Corporate Power — Alastair McIntosh If you doubt how a small community can take on a giant corporate, please read this book. It is empowering stuff, beautifully told.
- The Cloudspotter’s Guide — Gavin Pretor-Pinney Ever wished you could sit on a cloud? This book helps us to look up to those wonderful things called clouds.
- The Craftsman — Richard Sennett Why do people work hard, and take pride in what they do? Why making something with our hands is good for our head.
- The Ecology of Commerce — Paul Hawken Hawken believes that we have to find another way to do business. One that thinks of the planet as well as the customer.
- The Gift of Good Land — Wendell Berry A farmer who believes the land is a “gift” but one that has strings attached. We have it only on loan. A sage.
- The Giving Tree — Shel Silverstein “Once there was a tree…and she loved a little boy”. A cautionary tale that gets a powerful message over in the gentlest of ways.
- The Sea Ranch — Donlyn Lyndon & Jim Alinder Where Sonoma County coast meets the Pacific Ocean, a home community is harmonized with the environment.
- The Transition Handbook — Rob Hopkins As peak oil arrives, how will all work in the future? We will have re-think everything. Local is the big idea in this book.
- Wildlife Photographer of the Year: Rosamund Kid Cox It comes out every year. Always inspiring. Always reminds me that we have to do our best to look after this planet of ours.
Food
These are the books that inspire us, we hope they inspire you too.
- A Book About Innocent: Our Story and Some Things We've Learned They crushed some fruit. They bottled it. They asked their customers should they give up their day jobs. The answer was yes.
- A Day at El Bulli — Ferran Adrià 2 million people try to get into his restaurant each year. It can only cater for 8,000. That means 1,992,000 are disappointed each year.
- Ben and Jerry's Double-dip — Ben Cohen & Jerry Greenfield They went looking to see if there was another way to do business. A good read about the journey they had.
- Fast Food Nation — Eric Schlosser A well-written book that looks at the food industry from a human point of view: The customer, the meat worker etc.
- Food Rules: An Eater's Manual — Michael Pollan Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much. A short amusing book about eating a healthy diet. Poignant stuff.
- Forgotten Skills of Cooking — Darina Allen A return to simple things. To the things we forgot, or know how we were never handed down in the first place. Priceless.
- How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time — Howard Schultz This is a good read. There’s a lot to learn here for any business. A story of obsession, passion and a love of coffee.
- Omnivore’s Dilemma — Michael Pollan This is his journey through mass produced, organic, and hunter-gatherer food systems and he writes about it wonderfully.
- One-Straw Revolution — Masanobu Fukuoka From his many mistakes he develops a ‘natural farming’ technique. Less time and physical input to the land. A classic.
- Riverford Farm Cook Book — Guy Watson and Jane Baxter Guy Watson is a maverick. He believes in organic farming and delivers more organic vegetable boxes to people than anyone else.
- Tartine Bread — Chad Roberston Sourdough is the king of bread. It requires patience in a busy world. Chad’s book is as beautiful as the bread he bakes.
- The Art of Simple Food — Alice Waters In every generation there exists one memorable cookbook behind which all others pale in comparison. This is a classic.
- The Handmade Loaf — Dan Lepard Over 80 recipes from the home bakers of Europe. I was given this book. It tells you the story behind the bread as well the recipe.
- The Shamanic Way of the Bee — Simon Buxton Knowledge that we have learnt needs to be passed on. The ancient wisdom and healing practices of the bee masters is one good example.
- Who moved My Cheese — Dr Spencer Johnson It’s not really a food book. But it uses food to tell a great story about dealing with change in your work and in your life.
Sport
These are the books that inspire us, we hope they inspire you too.
- Everest: Alone at the Summit — Stephen Venables A riveting account of the first ascent of a previous unclimbed route on Everest.
- Let My People Go Surfing — Yvon Chouinard This book, from the founder of Patagonia, is an inspiring book about how to run a business using your head and your heart.
Technology
These are the books that inspire us, we hope they inspire you too.
- HTML5 for web designers — Jeremy Keith The HTML5 spec is 900 pages and hard to read. HTML5 for Web Designers is 85 pages and fun to read. Easy choice.
- Makers — Cory Doctorow What does the future look like? All sorts of things. Seashell robots that make toast, Boogie Woogie Elmo dolls that drive cars…
- The Steve Jobs Way — Jay Elliot Everyone wants to be the Apple of this or that, but they don’t know what that really means. This book will help.
- Wikinomics — Don Tapscott An interesting insight about how the wiki model has changed business models. Reminds you how awesome the internet is.
Well-being
These are the books that inspire us, we hope they inspire you too.
- Alchemist — Paulo Coelho The simple tale of Santiago, a shepherd boy, who dreams of seeing the world, and the many lessons Santiago learns along the way.
- As I walked out one Midsummer morning — Laurie Lee A young man walked to London to make his fortune. He lived by playing violin and labouring. Then, he decided to see Spain.
- Beachcombing at Miramar — Richard Bode An absorbing tale of quitting the fast lane for the simple life. It’s message is simple enough: You have a choice. Worth remembering.
- Bird by Bird — Anne Lamott It makes you realise in funny, dry prose, that those voices you hear in your head, well -all writers hear the same thing.
- Change your Body, Change the World — Frank Forencich Few writers tackle the subject of America’s failing health as well. He plants seeds of wisdom and wit. With a little dash of revolution.
- Dancing in the Streets: A history of collective joy — Barbara Ehrenreich An exploration of the origins of communal celebration in human biology & culture. It helps make sense of a super connected world.
- East of Eden — John Steinbeck A passionate and exhilarating epic, re-creates the seminal stories of Genesis through the intertwined lives of two American families.
- For whom the Bell Tolls — Ernest Hemingway Hemingway’s evocation of the pride and the tragedy of the civil war that tore Spain apart. In great danger, we become more human.
- I Can Make You Sleep — Paul Mckenna There’s nothing worse that not sleeping. There’s some simple rules here to follow. And a CD to play. Oh, and it works.
- Indian Nocturne — Antonio Tabucchi Craig Mod: “My favorite book ever. Short, beautiful, haunting — sums up so much of life and travel.”
- Knulp — Hermann Hesse This book is about the life of a vagrant who ponders the meaning of life and realizes his life had a purpose.
- Leaves of Grass — Walt Whitman An optimistic, inclusive, spirit-expanding life-gospel poetry collection. Read it and smile.
- Pedagogy of the Oppressed — Paulo Freire A seminal text in education looking at the roles of suppression, political domination and authoritarian teaching.
- Sebastian Faulks Birdsong — Pat Wheeler The most powerful insight into trench warfare, and the extremes to which men can be pushed, unimaginable. Insightful.
- Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger — Richard Bode A book on wisdom and decision-making written by a wise decision-maker going from Darwin to Munger.
- Spiritual Emergency — Stanislav Grof This book reveals that within the crisis of spiritual emergency lies the promise of spiritual emergence and renewal.
- The Craftsman — Richard Sennett Why do people work hard, and take pride in what they do? Why making something with our hands is good for our head.
- The Element: How finding your passion changes everything — Ken Robinson Do what you love. And you will be good at it. It’s simple. But most people don’t spend their life following their passion.
- The Little Engine That Could — Watty Piper It is a story of how kindness and perseverance can save the day, and how a positive attitude can achieve great things.
- Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel — Rolf Potts It’s about taking time off from your normal life. Travel without a plan or much money to discover the world on your own terms.
- Wind, Sand and Stars — Antoine Saint-Exupery In 1926 de Saint-Exupéry flew for the pioneering airline Latécoère opening up the first mail routes across the Sahara & beyond.
