The Best Books To Make You Smarter
Best Books, Education, History, Nonfiction, Science & Nature

The Best Books To Make You Smarter

What are the best books to read if you want to become smarter?” We looked at 196 of the top books to increase your intelligence, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!

Reading pretty much any book will make you smarter. Even reading the trashiest of trash can help you learn a new word, idea, or realize something you didn’t previously know. The books in this list are a bit more engaging and educational than your everyday book, covering a wide array of information and subjects (some might even claim “nearly everything”).

Below you can find the top 18 books, all appearing on two or more lists, along with images, summaries, and links. The remaining 176 books, as well as the sources we used, are listed alphabetically at the bottom of the page.

Happy Scrolling!



Top 18 Books To Read To Increase Your Intelligence



Editors Choice) John Brockman Edited Books

john-brockman-books

The John Brockman edited series of yearly books aren’t going to give you a deep dive into any one subject, but they will, hopefully, spark an idea or interest you might not know existed. Definitely good jumping off points for ideas, and a great resource to have around the house for a quick dive in for inspiration.

These are a yearly series of books, a few of which I’ve linked to below:



18 .) Creativity Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces that Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace

creativity-inc-overcoming-the-unseen-forces-that-stand-in-the-way-of-true-inspiration-by-ed-catmull-amy-wallace
Lists It Appears On:

  • Business
  • Inc.

“Creativity, Inc. is a book for managers who want to lead their employees to new heights, a manual for anyone who strives for originality, and the first-ever, all-access trip into the nerve center of Pixar Animation—into the meetings, postmortems, and “Braintrust” sessions where some of the most successful films in history are made. It is, at heart, a book about how to build a creative culture—but it is also, as Pixar co-founder and president Ed Catmull writes, “an expression of the ideas that I believe make the best in us possible.”

For nearly twenty years, Pixar has dominated the world of animation, producing such beloved films as the Toy Story trilogy, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Up, WALL-E, and Inside Out, which have gone on to set box-office records and garner thirty Academy Awards. The joyousness of the storytelling, the inventive plots, the emotional authenticity: In some ways, Pixar movies are an object lesson in what creativity really is. Here, in this book, Catmull reveals the ideals and techniques that have made Pixar so widely admired—and so profitable.”

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17 .) Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

freakonomics-a-rogue-economist-explores-the-hidden-side-of-everything-freakonomics-1-by-steven-d-levitt-stephen-j-dubner
Lists It Appears On:

  • ListOgre
  • Why To Read

“Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? How did the legalization of abortion affect the rate of violent crime?

These may not sound like typical questions for an econo-mist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much-heralded scholar who studies the riddles of everyday life—from cheating and crime to sports and child-rearing—and whose conclusions turn conventional wisdom on its head.

Freakonomics is a groundbreaking collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, an award-winning author and journalist. They usually begin with a mountain of data and a simple question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field of study contained in this book: freakonomics.”

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16 .) On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin

the-origin-of-species-by-charles-darwin
Lists It Appears On:

  • ListOgre
  • Brain Pickings

On the Origin of Species (or more completely, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life), published on 24 November 1859, is a work of scientific literature by Charles Darwin which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. Darwin’s book introduced the scientific theory that populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection. It presented a body of evidence that the diversity of life arose by common descent through a branching pattern of evolution. Darwin included evidence that he had gathered on the Beagle expedition in the 1830s and his subsequent findings from research, correspondence, and experimentation.

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15 .) The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison

the-empathy-exams-essays-by-leslie-jamison
Lists It Appears On:

  • Bryn Donovan
  • Inc.

Beginning with her experience as a medical actor who was paid to act out symptoms for medical students to diagnose, Leslie Jamison’s visceral and revealing essays ask essential questions about our basic understanding of others: How should we care about each other? How can we feel another’s pain, especially when pain can be assumed, distorted, or performed? Is empathy a tool by which to test or even grade each other? By confronting pain―real and imagined, her own and others’―Jamison uncovers a personal and cultural urgency to feel. She draws from her own experiences of illness and bodily injury to engage in an exploration that extends far beyond her life, spanning wide-ranging territory―from poverty tourism to phantom diseases, street violence to reality television, illness to incarceration―in its search for a kind of sight shaped by humility and grace.

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14 .) The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller

the-one-thing-the-surprisingly-simple-truth-behind-extraordinary-results-by-gary-keller
Lists It Appears On:

  • Medium
  • MCK Publishing Group

YOU WANT LESS. You want fewer distractions and less on your plate. The daily barrage of e-mails, texts, tweets, messages, and meetings distract you and stress you out. The simultaneous demands of work and family are taking a toll. And what’s the cost? Second-rate work, missed deadlines, smaller paychecks, fewer promotions–and lots of stress. AND YOU WANT MORE. You want more productivity from your work. More income for a better lifestyle. You want more satisfaction from life, and more time for yourself, your family, and your friends. NOW YOU CAN HAVE BOTH–LESS AND MORE. In The ONE Thing, you’ll learn to * cut through the clutter * achieve better results in less time * build momentum toward your goal* dial down the stress * overcome that overwhelmed feeling * revive your energy * stay on track * master what matters to you The ONE Thing delivers extraordinary results in every area of your life–work, personal, family, and spiritual. WHAT’S YOUR ONE THING?

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13 .) The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg

the-power-of-habit-why-we-do-what-we-do-in-life-and-business-by-charles-duhigg
Lists It Appears On:

  • Why To Read
  • Business

In The Power of Habit, Pulitzer Prize–winning business reporterCharles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. Distilling vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives that take us from the boardrooms of Procter & Gamble to sidelines of the NFL to the front lines of the civil rights movement, Duhigg presents a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential. At its core, The Power of Habit contains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, being more productive, and achieving success is understanding how habits work. As Duhigg shows, by harnessing this new science, we can transform our businesses, our communities, and our lives.

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12 .) The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

the-prince-by-niccolo-machiavelli
Lists It Appears On:

  • Bryn Donovan
  • Brain Pickings

“The original blueprint for realpolitik, The Prince shocked sixteenth-century Europe with its advocacy of ruthless tactics for gaining absolute power and its abandonment of conventional morality. For this treatise on statecraft, Machiavelli drew upon his own experience of office under the turbulent Florentine republic, rejecting traditional values of political theory and recognizing the complicated, transient nature of political life. Concerned not with lofty ideals, but with a regime that would last, this seminal work of modern political thought retains its power to alarm and to instruct.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.”

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11 .) The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

the-wealth-of-nations-by-adam-smith
Lists It Appears On:

  • Bryn Donovan
  • Brain Pickings

The Wealth of Nations was published 9 March 1776, during the Scottish Enlightenment and the Scottish Agricultural Revolution. It influenced a number of authors and economists, as well as governments and organizations. For example, Alexander Hamilton was influenced in part by The Wealth of Nations to write his Report on Manufactures, in which he argued against many of Smith’s policies. Interestingly, Hamilton based much of this report on the ideas of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, and it was, in part, Colbert’s ideas that Smith responded to with The Wealth of Nations. Many other authors were influenced by the book and used it as a starting point in their own work, including Jean-Baptiste Say, David Ricardo, Thomas Malthus and, later, Ludwig von Mises. The Russian national poet Aleksandr Pushkin refers to The Wealth of Nations in his 1833 verse-novel Eugene Onegin.

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10 .) Think and Grow Rich: The Original 1937 Unedited Edition by Napoleon Hill

think-and-grow-rich-by-napoleon-hill-ben-holden-crowther
Lists It Appears On:

  • Malan
  • MCK Publishing Group

“The most famous of all teachers of success spent a fortune and the better part of a lifetime of effort to produce the Law of Success philosophy that forms the basis of his books and that is so powerfully summarized and explained for the general public in this book.

In Think and Grow Rich, Hill draws on stories of Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and other millionaires of his generation to illustrate his principles. This book will teach you the secrets that could bring you a fortune. It will show you not only what to do but how to do it. Once you learn and apply the simple, basic techniques revealed here, you will have mastered the secret of true and lasting success.

Money and material things are essential for freedom of body and mind, but there are some who will feel that the greatest of all riches can be evaluated only in terms of lasting friendships, loving family relationships, understanding between business associates, and introspective harmony which brings one true peace of mind! All who read, understand, and apply this philosophy will be better prepared to attract and enjoy these spiritual values.”

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9 .) Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

think-like-a-freak-freakonomics-3-by-steven-d-levitt-stephen-j-dubner
Lists It Appears On:

  • Business
  • Inc.

With their trademark blend of captivating storytelling and unconventional analysis, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner take us inside their thought process and teach us all how to think a bit more productively, more creatively, more rationally. In Think Like A Freak, they offer a blueprint for an entirely new way to solve problems, whether your interest lies in minor lifehacks or major global reforms. The topics range from business to philanthropy to sports to politics, all with the goal of retraining your brain. Along the way, you’ll learn the secrets of a Japanese hot-dog-eating champion, the reason an Australian doctor swallowed a batch of dangerous bacteria, and why Nigerian e-mail scammers make a point of saying they’re from Nigeria.

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8 .) A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

a-brief-history-of-time-by-stephen-hawking
Lists It Appears On:

  • Cool Material
  • ListOgre
  • MCK Publishing Group

“A landmark volume in science writing by one of the great minds of our time, Stephen Hawking’s book explores such profound questions as: How did the universe begin—and what made its start possible? Does time always flow forward? Is the universe unending—or are there boundaries? Are there other dimensions in space? What will happen when it all ends?

Told in language we all can understand, A Brief History of Time plunges into the exotic realms of black holes and quarks, of antimatter and “arrows of time,” of the big bang and a bigger God—where the possibilities are wondrous and unexpected. With exciting images and profound imagination, Stephen Hawking brings us closer to the ultimate secrets at the very heart of creation.”

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7 .) Cosmos by Carl Sagan

cosmos-by-carl-sagan
Lists It Appears On:

  • Listverse
  • Why To Read
  • Business

Cosmos is one of the bestselling science books of all time. In clear-eyed prose, Sagan reveals a jewel-like blue world inhabited by a life form that is just beginning to discover its own identity and to venture into the vast ocean of space. Featuring a new Introduction by Sagan’s collaborator, Ann Druyan, full color illustrations, and a new Foreword by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, Cosmos retraces the fourteen billion years of cosmic evolution that have transformed matter into consciousness, exploring such topics as the origin of life, the human brain, Egyptian hieroglyphics, spacecraft missions, the death of the Sun, the evolution of galaxies, and the forces and individuals who helped to shape modern science.

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6 .) Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcom Gladwell

outliers-the-story-of-success-by-malcolm-gladwell
Lists It Appears On:

  • Cool Material
  • Why To Read
  • Business

“In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of “”outliers””–the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?

His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band. “

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5 .) The Art of War by Sun Tzu

the-art-of-war-by-sun-tzu
Lists It Appears On:

  • Bryn Donovan
  • Business
  • Brain Pickings

Conflict is an inevitable part of life, according to this ancient Chinese classic of strategy, but everything necessary to deal with conflict wisely, honorably, victoriously, is already present within us. Compiled more than two thousand years ago by a mysterious warrior-philosopher, The Art of War is still perhaps the most prestigious and influential book of strategy in the world, as eagerly studied in Asia by modern politicians and executives as it has been by military leaders since ancient times. As a study of the anatomy of organizations in conflict, The Art of War applies to competition and conflict in general, on every level from the interpersonal to the international. Its aim is invincibility, victory without battle, and unassailable strength through understanding the physics, politics, and psychology of conflict.

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4 .) The Courage to Write by Ralph Keyes

the-courage-to-write-how-writers-transcend-fear-by-ralph-keyes
Lists It Appears On:

  • Listverse
  • Barnes & Noble
  • Business

“In The Courage to Write, Ralph Keyes, an author who has taught writing for more than thirty years, assures us that anxiety is felt by writers at every level, especially when they dare to do their best. He describes the sequence of “”courage points”” through which all writers must pass, from the challenge of identifying a worthwhile project to the mixture of pride and panic they feel when examining a newly published book or article.

Keyes also offers specifics on how to root out dread of public “”performance”” and of the judgment of family and friends, make the best use of writers’ workshops and conferences, and handle criticism of works in progress. Throughout, he includes the comments of many accomplished writers — Pat Conroy, Amy Tan, Rita Dove, Isabel Allende, and others — on how they transcended their own fears to produce great works.”

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3 .) Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

thinking-fast-and-slow-by-daniel-kahneman
Lists It Appears On:

  • Why To Read
  • Cool Material
  • Business
  • Buzzfeed

In the international bestseller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, the renowned psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The impact of overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning our next vacation―each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems shape our judgments and decisions.

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2 .) Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared M. Diamond

guns-germs-and-steel-the-fates-of-human-societies-by-jared-diamond
Lists It Appears On:

  • Cool Material
  • Why To Read
  • ListOgre
  • Buzzfeed
  • Listverse

In this “artful, informative, and delightful” (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, Jared Diamond convincingly argues that geographical and environmental factors shaped the modern world. Societies that had had a head start in food production advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, and then developed religion –as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war –and adventured on sea and land to conquer and decimate preliterate cultures. A major advance in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way that the modern world came to be and stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science, the Rhone-Poulenc Prize, and the Commonwealth club of California’s Gold Medal.

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1 .) A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

a-short-history-of-nearly-everything-by-bill-bryson
Lists It Appears On:

  • Business
  • Buzzfeed
  • Cool Material
  • Listverse
  • Why To Read

In A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson trekked the Appalachian Trail—well, most of it. In A Sunburned Country, he confronted some of the most lethal wildlife Australia has to offer. Now, in his biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand—and, if possible, answer—the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the world’s most advanced (and often obsessed) archaeologists, anthropologists, and mathematicians, travelling to their offices, laboratories, and field camps. He has read (or tried to read) their books, pestered them with questions, apprenticed himself to their powerful minds. A Short History of Nearly Everything is the record of this quest, and it is a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only Bill Bryson can render it. Science has never been more involving or entertaining.

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The #19-196 Additional Best Books To Make You Smarter



 

#BookAuthorLists
(Books Appear On 1 List Each)
1910:04Ben LernerThe Huffington Post
20A History of Western PhilosophyBertrand RussellLifehack Lane
21A New Earth: Create a Better LifeEckhart TolleMCK Publishing Group
22A People’s History of the United StatesHoward ZinnListverse
23A PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAYOSCAR WILDEMens XP
24A Walk In The Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian TrailBill BrysonBarnes & Noble
25Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New ChinaEvan OsnosInc.
26All Quiet on the Western FrontErich Maria Remarque.Bryn Donovan
27AmericanahChimamanda Ngozi AdichieThe Huffington Post
28An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with TruthM.K. Gandhi, Sunil Khilnani, Mahadev Desai, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Mahatma GandhiMCK Publishing Group
29An Incomplete EducationListOgre
30And So It Goes And So It GoesCharles J. ShieldsNPR
31AntifragileNassim NicholasStop Start Do
32At Home: A Short History of Private LifeBill BrysonListverse
33Atlas Shrugged (Penguin Modern Classics)Ayn RandMCK Publishing Group
34Awaken The Giant Within: How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial LifeTony RobbinsMCK Publishing Group
35Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My HeartJoyce Carol Oates.Bryn Donovan
36Behind the Beautiful Forevers: LifeKatherine Boo.Bryn Donovan
37Believing BullshitStephen LawBuzzfeed
38Beowulftranslation by Seamus Heaney.Bryn Donovan
39Between the World and MeTa-Nehisi CoatesThe Huffington Post
40Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole WorldDalai LamaMCK Publishing Group
41Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond FearElizabeth GilbertMCK Publishing Group
42BoldPeter H. DiamandisStop Start Do
43Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall StreetJohn BrooksForbes
44CA$HVERTISING: How to Use More than 100 Secrets of Ad-Agency Psychology to Make Big Money Selling Anything to AnyoneMalan
45Can’t and Won’tLydia DavisThe Huffington Post
46Catch-22Joseph Heller.Bryn Donovan
47Chasing the North StarRobert MorganShe Knows
48Circling the SunPaula McLainShe Knows
49Cloud AtlasDavid Mitchell.Bryn Donovan
50Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt: The Story of a Daughter and a Mother in the Gilded AgeAmanda MacKenzie StuartBarnes & Noble
51Contrary NotionsMichael ParentiListverse
52Daily Rituals: How Artists WorkMalan
53Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One’s LookingChristian RuderInc.
54DawnOctavia E. ButlerBryn Donovan
55Democracy in AmericaAlexis de Tocqueville.Bryn Donovan
56Diamond HeadCecily WongShe Knows
57Discourse on Method and Meditations on First PhilosophyRené DescartesBryn Donovan
58Dissident GardensJonathan LethemThe Huffington Post
59Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?Philip K. DickBryn Donovan
60Do the WorkMedium
61Dominion: The Power of Man, The Suffering of Animals, and a Call to MercyMatthew ScullyBryn Donovan
62Don QuixoteCervantes.Bryn Donovan
63Einstein: His Life and UniverseWalter IsaacsonForbes
64Everyday SexismLaura BatesInc.
65Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind, Fifth EditionDavid BussMCK Publishing Group
66Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful LifeWilliam DeresiewiczInc.
67Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local–and Helped Save an American TownBeth MacyInc.
68Five Easy Decades: How Jack Nicholson Became the Biggest Movie Star in Modern TimesDennis McDougalMCK Publishing Group
69FlatlandListOgre
70Flight of DreamsAriel LawhonShe Knows
71FlowMedium
72For Love of Country: What Our Veterans Can Teach Us About Citizenship, Heroism, and SacrificeHoward Schultz and Rajiv ChandrasekaranInc.
73Fun HomeAlison BechdelThe Huffington Post
74Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 ChaptersMatt RidleyBryn Donovan
75Gulliver’s TravelsJonathan SwiftBrain Pickings
76Gulp: Adventures on the Ailmentary CanalMary RoachBarnes & Noble
77Half of a Yellow SunChimimanda Ngozi AdichieBryn Donovan
78Humiliation: And Other Essays on Honour, Social Discomfort and ViolenceWilliam Ian MillerLifehack Lane
79I Always Loved YouRobin OliveiraShe Knows
80I Am ThatNisargadatta MaharajLifehack Lane
81In the WoodsTana French.Bryn Donovan
82InfidelAyaan Hirsi AliLifehack Lane
83Influence: The Psychology of PersuasionListOgre
84Into the Savage CountryShannon BurkeShe Knows
85INTO THE WILDJOHN KRAKAUERMens XP
86Intuition PumpsDaniel DennettBuzzfeed
87IshmaelListOgre
88It Works: The Famous Little Red Book That Makes Your dreams Come True!R H JarrettMCK Publishing Group
89James MadisonRichard BrookhiserNPR
90John BrownW.E.B. DuBoisBryn Donovan
91Jump Start Your Business BrainDoug HallBusiness
92Leave Your Mark: Land Your Dream JobAliza LichtBryn Donovan
93Life Is What You Make ItPeter BuffettForbes
94London, a BiographyPeter Ackroyd.Bryn Donovan
95Machete Season: The Killers In Rwanda SpeakJean HatzfieldLifehack Lane
96Man’s Search For Meaning: The classic tribute to hope from the HolocaustViktor E FranklMCK Publishing Group
97Managing Oneself (Harvard Business Review Classics)Peter F. DruckerMCK Publishing Group
98MasteryRobert GreeneStop Start Do
99Meditations, Marcus Aurelius, a newish translationGregory HaysBryn Donovan
100Monocle Guide to Better LivingAndrew Tuck and Santiago Rodriguez TarditiCool Material
101Mother Teresa: An Authorized BiographyKathryn SpinkMCK Publishing Group
102NudgeMedium
103Of GrammatologyJacques Derrida.Bryn Donovan
104Oryx and CrakeMargaret Atwood.Bryn Donovan
105Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday LifeMalan
106Persepolis: The Story of a ChildhoodMarjane Satrapi.Bryn Donovan
107Philosophy 101Paul KleinmanCool Material
108Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time TravelMichio Kaku.Bryn Donovan
109Play It As It LaysJoan DidionBryn Donovan
110Predictably IrrationalDan ArielyListverse
111Radioactive Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love & FalloutLauren RednissNPR
112Reasons and PersonsDerek ParfitLifehack Lane
113RivetedJim DaviesMCK Publishing Group
114SagaBrian K. VaughanBryn Donovan
115Salt to the SeaRuta SepetysShe Knows
116Sapiens: A Brief History of HumankindYuval Noah HarariMCK Publishing Group
117Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant TeacherRichard P. FeynmanWhy To Read
118Stars over Sunset BoulevardSusan MeissnerShe Knows
119Steve Jobs A BiographyWalter IsaacsonNPR
120Stones in the RoadE.B. MooreShe Knows
121Strong PoisonDorothy L. Sayers.Bryn Donovan
122Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Mad WorldMark Miodownik.Bryn Donovan
123SuperFreakonomicsSteven D. Levitt and Stephen J. DubnerCool Material
124SuperintelligenceNick BostromLifehack Lane
125Swamplandia!Karen RussellThe Huffington Post
126Tao of Jeet Kune DoBruce LeeListverse
127Tenth of DecemberGeorge SaundersThe Huffington Post
128Terrible VirtueEllen FeldmanShe Knows
129Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical AgeW. Bernard CarlsonBryn Donovan
130The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good LifeMalan
131The 5 Elements of Effective ThinkingMedium
132The Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New ChinaEvan OsnosBryn Donovan
133The Age of ReasonThomas PaineBrain Pickings
134The American Way of DeathJessica MitfordBarnes & Noble
135The Annotated AliceLewis Carroll, Notes by Martin GardnerBarnes & Noble
136The Apple Experience: Secrets to Building Insanely Great Customer LoyaltyGalloMCK Publishing Group
137The Arabian Nightstranslated by Muhsin Mahdi and Husain HaddawyBryn Donovan
138The Bad Guys WonJeff Pearlman.Bryn Donovan
139The Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of CapitalismHa-Joon ChangBryn Donovan
140The Better Angels of Our NatureSteven PinkerBuzzfeed
141The Bhagavad Gitatranslated by Eknath EaswaranBryn Donovan
142The BibleBrain Pickings
143The Black SwanNassim Nicholas TalebCool Material
144The Bully Pulpit: Theodore RooseveltDoris Kearns GoodwinBryn Donovan
145The Catcher in the RyeJ.D. SalingerForbes
146The Count of Monte CristoListOgre
147The Demon-Haunted WorldCarl SaganBuzzfeed
148THE DHARMA BUMSJACK KEROUACMens XP
149THE DRIFTERSJAMES MICHENERMens XP
150The Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American HistoryS.C. GwynneBryn Donovan
151The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of AmazonBrad StoneMCK Publishing Group
152The First 20 HoursMedium
153The Flight of Garuda: The Dzogchen Tradition of Tibetan BuddhismKeith DowmanLifehack Lane
154The Greatest Salesman in the WorldMandino OgMCK Publishing Group
155The Greatest Secret in the WorldOg MandinoBusiness
156The Guns of AugustBarbara Tuchman.Bryn Donovan
157The Holographic UniverseMichael TalbotListverse
158The Holy QoranLifehack Lane
159The Human Age: The World Shaped by UsDiane AckermanInc.
160The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?Seth GodinMCK Publishing Group
161The IliadHomer (a new translation by Peter Green)Bryn Donovan
162The Immortal Life of Henrietta LacksRebecca Skloot.Bryn Donovan
163The Innovator’s DilemmaClayton M. ChristensenForbes
164The Intelligent InvestorBenjamin GrahamForbes
165The Journalist and The MurdererJanet MalcolmLifehack Lane
166The Last WordThomas NagelLifehack Lane
167The Magic MountainThomas Mann.Bryn Donovan
168The Maltese FalconDashiell Hammett.Bryn Donovan
169The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We AreRobert WrightWhy To Read
170The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of ColorblindnessMichelle AlexanderBryn Donovan
171The Organized MindMedium
172The Republic (Penguin Classics)PlatoMCK Publishing Group
173The Rise and Fall of the Third ReichWilliam L. ShirerBryn Donovan
174The Selfish GeneRichard DawkinsBuzzfeed
175The Sound and the FuryWilliam Faulkner.Bryn Donovan
176The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and DiseaseDaniel E. LiebermanMCK Publishing Group
177The System of the WorldIsaac NewtonBrain Pickings
178The Tale of the Dueling Nuerosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and RecoverySam Kean.Bryn Donovan
179The Theory of Everything: The Origin and Fate of the UniverseStephen W. HawkingMCK Publishing Group
180The Thirty-Nine StepsJohn BuchanBryn Donovan
181The Tibetan Book of the DeadBryn Donovan
182The Universe WithinNeil ShubinBuzzfeed
183The Year of Magical ThinkingJoan DidionLifehack Lane
184ThinkSimon BlackburnBuzzfeed
185This Is How You Lose HerJunot DíazThe Huffington Post
186This Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your ThinkingJohn BrockmanWhy To Read
187Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Happier LifeArianna HuffingtonMCK Publishing Group
188TO KILL A MOCKING BIRDHARPER LEEMens XP
189Train Your Brain Su DokuWayne Gold.Barnes & Noble
190Under the Wide and Starry SkyNancy HoranShe Knows
191Van Gogh The LifeSteven Naifeh and Gregory White SmithNPR
192What Every BODY is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading PeopleListOgre
193What If?Randall MunroeCool Material
194Where Good Ideas Come FromSteven JohnsonStop Start Do
195Woman Hollering Creek and Other StoriesSandra CisnerosThe Huffington Post
196You Are Not Your BrainJeffrey SchwarzBusiness


21 Best Books That Will Make You Smarter Book Sources/Lists



SourceArticle
Barnes & Noble 7 Books Guaranteed To Make You Smarter
Brain Pickings Neil deGrasse Tyson Selects the Eight Books Every Intelligent Person on the Planet Should Read
Bryn Donovan 50 Books That Might Make Me Smarter…Have You Read Them?
Business Give Your Brain a Boost: 12 Books Guaranteed to Make You More Intelligent
Buzzfeed 10 Books Guaranteed To Make You Smarter
Cool Material 10 Books That Will Make You Seem Smarter Than You Really Are
Forbes 9 Creative Ways To Find Books That Will Make You A Genius
Granby.K12 100 Books That Will Make You More Interesting, More Attractive, and Sound Smart Even If You Aren’t (Yet)
Inc. 10 Books That Will Make You Smarter in 2015
Lifehack Lane 12 Books That Will Make You Smarter
ListOgre TOP 10 BOOKS THAT MAKE YOU SMARTER
Listverse 10 Books That Will Make You Smarter
Malan 5 Books That Will Make You Smarter
MCK Publishing Group Books That Will Make You Smarter
Medium These Books Will Make You Smarter
Mens XP Brain Food: Books That Make You Smarter
NPR The Lives Of Geniuses: Five Brilliant Biographies
She Knows 11 historical fiction books that will make you smarter
Stop Start Do 4 BOOKS THAT WILL MAKE YOU A GENIUS
The Huffington Post 10 Ingenious Books By Certifiable Geniuses
Why To Read 10 Easy To Read Books That Make You Smarter