The Cultivated Reading List

Books on work, creativity, communication, learning, and personal practice

Some books entertain you.
Some books inform you.
A few rearrange the architecture in your mind.

This is a working library of books that have shaped how we think at Cultivated — about work, communication, creativity, learning, and the ongoing craft of building a good life.

These are books returned to over years, not just read once and shelved. Some are practical. Some are philosophical. Some sharpen your judgement. Some help you take care of yourself and others. Others simply help you see more clearly.

This is not a curriculum.
It is not a syllabus.
It is a shelf.

A shelf of books that have influenced the thinking behind this body of work — across organisational design, psychology, leadership, philosophy, creativity, and personal practice.

You do not need to read them all.
You do not need to read them in order.
This is a place to wander, follow a thread, and find the book that meets you at the right moment.

If you want to think better, communicate more clearly, grow in your work, or build a deeper creative life, this is a good place to begin.

This library will keep evolving, as all good libraries do.

Communication

Books on how meaning travels, how people interpret signals, and how to communicate with clarity.

• Bareknuckle Presenter – Graham Davies – Good book on doing great presentations.
• What Every Body Is Saying – Joe Navarro – Great book on decoding body language and changing yourself to elicit the truth
• How to talk to anyone – Leil Lowndes – Brilliant book with plenty of ideas on how to talk to people
• Louder Than Words – Joe Navarro – Another book about body language from ex FBI Investigator
• How To Win Friends And Influence People – Dale Carnegie – Classic book on influence
• Steal the show – Michael Port – Brilliant guide for presenters
• Get The Truth – by Philip Houston, Michael Floyd and Susan Carnicero.
• The etymologicon – by Mark Forsyth
• Trust me I’m lying – by Ryan Holiday
• The Science of Story telling – by Will Storr
• The art and craft of storytelling – by Nancy Lamb
• The elements of style – Strunk and White
• Rhetoric – The Art of Persuasion
• Slideology – Nancy Duarty
• Presentation Zen – Garr Reynolds
• The Elements of Graphic Design - by Alexander W. White
• Essential Radio Journalism by Paul Chantler
• A Modern Guide to Public Relations - Amy Rosenberg
• This is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn To See
• How to Get the Part...Without Falling Apart!
• Order Out of Chaos: A Kidnap Negotiator's Guide to Influence and Persuasion

Systems, Organisations, and Work

Books on how organisations function and how ideas become outcomes.

• How the mighty fall – Jim Collins
• John Wooden on Leadership – John Wooden
• Smart Retail – Richard Hammond
• I Want You To Cheat – John Seddon (Masterpiece)
• Growing a Business – Paul Hawken  (Must Read!)
• Who – A Method – Geoff Smart and Randy Street
• The Toyota Way – Jeffrey Liker
• The Toyota Kata – Mike Rother
• Reinventing Leadership – Paul Thomas
• The Fifth Discipline (systems thinking) – Peter M Senge
• Extreme Ownership – Jocko Willink
• The E-Myth revisited – why small businesses don’t work – Michael E Gerber
• Eleven Rings – Phil Jackson
• Like a virgin – Richard Branson
• Freedom from Command and Control – John Seddon
• Good Strategy, Bad Strategy – Richard Rumelt
• How I raised myself from failure to success in selling – Frank Bettger
• Profit First – by Mike Michalowicz
• Traction – by Gino Wickman
• Thinking in Systems – by Donella Meadows
• Superbosses – by Sydney Finkelstein
• Let my people go surfing – Yvon Chouinard
• Genghis Khan and the Making of the modern world
• Art of the Long View: Planning for the Future in an Uncertain World
• Extrapolation Factory - Operator's Manual: Publication version 1.0 - includes 11 futures modelling tools
• Selling the Invisible - Harry Beckwith
• Obvious Adams - by Robert R. Updegraff
• Scientific Advertising - Claude Hopkins
• How to get rich – Felix Dennis
• The Millionaire Messenger (Brendon Burchard)
• The Way Of The Wolf – Straight Line Selling – Jordan Belfort
• To sell is human – Daniel H Pink
• Priceless – William Poundstone
• The Rules of Wealth – by Richard Templar
• Economic Facts and Fallacies by Thomas Sowell

Learning and Capability

Books on how people change behaviour, build skills, and compound knowledge.

• Choose yourself – James Altucher
• How Successful People Think – John C Maxwell
• How To Fail At Almost Everything And Still Win Big – Scott Adams
• Die Empty – Todd Henry
• Tools of Titans – Tim Ferris
• Black Hole Focus – Isaiah Hankel
• Gamestorming – Dave Gray and Sunni Brown
• The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter -David Sax
• Switch – Chip and Dan Heath
• The Slight Edge – Jeff Olson
• The Compound Effect – Darren Hardy
• The Miracle Morning – Hal Elrod
• Key Person Of Influence – Daniel Priestley
• Atomic Habits – James Clear (Newsletter 49)
• Can’t hurt me – David Goggins
• Make Your Bed : Small things that can change your life…and maybe the world – William McRaven
• So good they can’t ignore you – Cal Newport
• Digital Minimalist – Cal Newport
• Smarter Faster Better – Charles Duhigg
• Authentic Happiness – Martin Seligman
• Positivity – Barbara Fredrickson
• Maximum Willpower: How to master the new science of self control – Kelly McGonigal
• The Power of When – Michael Breus
• Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway – Susan Jeffers (I read this and quit my job!!)
• Deep Work – Cal Newport
• 6 Months to 6 Figures – Peter Voogd
• Book yourself solid – Michael Port
• $100 startup – Chris Guillebeau
• Mastery – Robert Green
• 59 Seconds – Richard Wiseman
• Obliquity – John Kay
• Get out while you can, escape the rat race – George Marshall
• How to build your reputation – Rob Brown
• Never work again – Erlend Bakke
• Somebody should have told us – Jack Pransky
• Jab Jab Jab Right Hook – Gary Vaynerchuk
• The War of Art – Steven Pressfield
• Do the work – Steven Pressfield
• Turning Pro – Steven Pressfield
• Brand You – John Purkiss
• Rapt – Winifred Gallagher
• Positioning – Al Ries and Jack Trout
• The Shallows – Nicholas Carr
• How to get a grip – Matthew Kimberley
• The Start Up of You – Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha
• The Longer Tail – Chris Anderson
• Goals – How to get everything you want – Brian Tracy
• Emotional Intelligence and why it can matter more than IQ – by Daniel Goleman
• The Dip – by Seth Godin
• Perennial Seller : the art of making and marketing that lasts – by Ryan Holiday
• Discipline Equals Freedom – by Jocko Willink
• How to be your own bodyguard – by Nick Hughes
• The art of noticing – Rob Walker
• Oversubscribed – by Daniel Priestley
• Entrepreneur Revolution – Daniel Priestley
• School of Greatness – Lewis Howes
• ABCs of success – Bob Proctor
• Art and Fear – David Bayles and Ted Orland
• The complete BullS&*t-free and totally tested writing guide – Gabe Berman
• Show your work – Austin Kleon
• The way we are working isn’t working – Tony Schwartz
• Rules for a Knight – Ethan Hawke
• Staring At The Sun: Being at peace with your own mortality

Creativity and Meaning

Books on reframing, imagination, and cultivating a creative life.

• Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns and Abstractions
• The Notebook: Roland Allen
• A guide to the good life – William B Irvine
• Wisdom of Insecurity – Alan Watts
• Man’s search for meaning – Viktor E Frankl
• The Ego is the Enemy – Ryan Holiday
• Obstacle is the way – Ryan Holiday
• Wherever you go there you are – Jon Kabat-Zinn
• The importance of living – Lin Yutang
• The Daily Stoic – Ryan Holiday
• Happy – Derren Brown
• How to think like a Roman Emperor – Donald Robertson
• Loonshots – How to nurture the crazy ideas…. – by Safi Bahcall
• Artful Making – by Rob Austin
• Humble Inquiry – by Edgar H Schein
• Thinker Toys – by Michael Michalko
• Factfulness – by Hans Rosling
• Sculpting in Time: Reflections on the Cinema

Living Well and Sustaining Energy

This section brings together books on health, energy, and the conditions that support a good life.

• The Wild Diet – Abel James
• Primal Endurance – Mark Sissons, Brad Kearns
• Sleep Smarter – Shawn Stevenson
• The Depression Cure – Steve Ilardi
• Natural Solutions for Digestive Health – Jillian Sarno Teta
• Change your thoughts – Wayne Dyer
• Food Rules – Michael Pollan
• Pure, White and Deadly: How Sugar is killing us – John Yudkin
• Instinctive Fitness – Oliver Selway
• Survival of the fittest – Mike Stroud
• Big Fat Lies: How the diet industry is making you sick, fat and poor – David Gillespie
• Mindfulness for Busy People – Michael Sinclair, Josie Seydel
• Fatbot to Ironman – Jaan Larner
• Sugar Free For Life : How to remove the sugar from your diet – Daniel Adam
• Wheat Belly: Lose the wheat, lose the weight, and find your path back to health – William Davis
• Spontaneous Healing – Dr Andrew Weil MD
• Keep on running: The Highs and Lows of a Marathon Addict – Phil Hewitt
• Can’t Swim, Can’t Ride, Can’t Run : From Comman Man to Ironman – Andy Holgate
• Finding Ultra : Rejecting Middle Age – Rich Roll
• Eat and Run – Scott Jurek, Steve Friedman
• Why we get fat and what to do about it – Gary Taubes
• Unbeatable Mind – Mark Divine
• The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology is Rewriting our Understanding of Genetics, Disease and Inheritance – Nessa Carey
• Epigenetics: The Death of the Genetic Theory of Disease Transmission – Joel Wallach
• Ikigai : The Japanese secret to a long and healthy life – Hectar Garcia
• The Fatburning man Podcast – Abel James
• The Model Health Show – Shawn Stevenson
• Destressifying – Davidjii
• Write yourself happy – the art of positive journaling – Megan C Hayes
• The joy of mindful writing – Joy Kenward
• Self Confidence for actors - Alexa Ispas