Here are a few books or book sets that I highly recommend.

1. Atlas Shrugged. Provocative, a fail on interpersonal relations, but nails the moral foundation of capitalism and what happens when society’s most productive members aren’t valued.

2. The Psychology of Money. Financial success? It’s about mindset and behavior, and a little luck.

3. How to Make a Few Billion Dollars. How to build a massive business.

4. The Road Less Traveled. Discipline, responsibility and what love really means.

5. The Eight. Like chess? An intellectual thriller across centuries.

6. Super-Agers. How to die early, or alternatively, stay sharp for years to come.

7. The Best and the Brightest. The very definition of hubris, and why we got into Vietnam.

8. The Dark is Rising series. My favorite books as a kid. Great for adults too.

9. The Passion of the Western Mind. The best way to trace western thought from before Aristotle to the present day.

10. Cocaine: An Unauthorized Biography. This guy is hilarious. Great history of cocaine, couldn’t stop laughing while reading it.

11. The Rational Male series. What I wish I’d known at age 20: a realistic look at male/female relations.