As advanced as society has become, some things haven’t changed at all. Wheels still roll and fire still burns. And humans still pass down their wisdom through the written word in the hopes they will be read for generations to come. These ten books have succeeded, by speaking to the part of us that wants to know more and better ourselves. All of them are more than 50 years old, some of them two millennia old. And they continue to be popular for a reason: because they can each, in their own way, still change your life.
From 1880: The Art of Money Getting by P.T. Barnum
Showman Phineas Taylor Barnum—promotor of hoaxes and co-founder of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus—never, apparently, said there’s a sucker born every minute. But he did believe in using whatever it took to attract customers to his shows. Just as long as they left satisfied. And he compiled what he learned into 20 golden rules on making money. Broken into short chapters you can read in one afternoon, he shares stories of farmers and shoemakers; those in boarding houses and on steamships.
He advises choosing the right work (“Unless a man enters upon the vocation intended for him by nature, and best suited to his particular genius, he cannot succeed”) and avoiding debt (“getting into debt for what you eat and drink and wear is to be avoided”). And that when you have a goal, to act on it. “If you hesitate,” writes Barnum, “some bolder hand will stretch out before you and get the prize.”
From 1923: Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins
In this era of self-branding and social media marketing, we’re all in advertising—which is what makes this classic on the fundamentals as relevant as ever. “Nobody should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book seven times,” wrote advertising guru David Ogilvy in the 1963 re-issue of the book. Michigan-born Claude Hopkins began his career in sales for companies that included the Bissell Carpet Sweeper Company, and his years on the ground led to his approach that the best ads focus on nothing but the service it provides. “The people you address are selfish, as we all are. They care nothing about your interests or profit,” writes Hopkins. “They seek service for themselves. Ignoring this fact is a common mistake and a costly mistake.”
Hopkins was a pioneer in using research, test campaigns and sampling; tracking coupons to measure the effectiveness, and analyzing buyer responses to shape products themselves. “The only purpose of advertising is to make sales,” he writes. “It is profitable or unprofitable according to its actual sales.”
[$4.29; amazon.com] Courtesy image From 475 B.C.E.: The Art of War by Sun Tzu
This book on ancient warfare has since become a bible of business strategy. Legend says Sun Tzu (or Sunzi) was a Chinese military leader for the Wu State. And his guide on battle tactics, first translated into English in 1905, presents insights like “appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak” in a numbered list, best read in short spurts.
General Colin Powell believed every American soldier should read the book. Bill Belichick said in 2019, the last year the Patriots won the Super Bowl, that the one sign in their locker room was the Sun Tzu quote, “Every battle is won before it is fought.” And when Tony Soprano told his therapist he was reading it on a 2001 episode of The Sopranos, the book required a new printing to keep up with demand. Ultimately, this treatise on war is about avoiding it. “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting,” writes Tzu. “The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.”
[$12.99; amazon.com] Courtesy image From 1931: The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer
This user manual for your kitchen has more than 20 million copies in print. Missouri-homemaker Irma Rombauer self-published the first 3,000 copies after becoming a single mother of two in her fifties during The Great Depression after her husband tragically died by suicide. Rombauer was the first to deliver recipes beside personal anecdotes and puns (like today’s cooking blogs that tell stories for pages).
But it has stood the test of time because along with legacy recipes like Gooey Butter Cake and creamed spinach, the cookbook is full of foundational tips that have been updated for every generation by Rombauer’s daughter, grandson and now great grandson. In wartime, they added suggestions for rationing and how to skin a rabbit; and the current 75th anniversary edition contains tips to to always pat fish dry before cooking, that “you never want to actually boil eggs, but rather, gently simmer them” and how certain produce should be stored separately, as “apples give off ethylene gas, which can overripen vegetables, and onions cause potatoes to spoil quickly.”
[$17.85; amazon.com] Courtesy image From 1936: How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
It’s the ultimate rags to riches inspiration. Born to poor farmers in Missouri, Dale Carnegie worked as a traveling salesman and tried his hand at acting before merging his skills to teach public speaking at the YMCA. After tapping into his students’ need for self-confidence, he changed the spelling of his name from “Carnegey” to match that of wealthy steel industrialist Andrew Carnegie, then published the book that has since sold more than 15 million copies.
Some consider his advice (to smile, not argue, and ask questions of others rather than talking about yourself) superficial and manipulative; but far more seemed to appreciate his insight on social behavior. How it’s worth it, he says, to remember someone’s name, “the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” And why he believes you can make more friends in two months being interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you. “Of course, you are interested in what you want. You are eternally interested in it,” writes Carnegie. “But no one else is. The rest of us are just like you: we are interested in what we want.”
[$11.34; amazon.com] Courtesy image From 170 C.E.: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius [Gregory Hays translation]
For a book never actually intended for publication, these second-century Roman Emperor’s journals have gained a laudable audience: Theodore Roosevelt carried a copy with him through South America. Bill Clinton is said to re-read it every year or two. Robert Louis Stevenson said “No one can read Meditations and not be moved.” And author Ryan Holiday based his bestselling 2014 book The Obstacle is The Way on it.
Written near the end of his life, Aurelius’ words are broken into many short books in which he lays bare his struggles as a leader and a human being with reflections like, “The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts,” “If you seek tranquility, do less” and “It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.” It’s best read as a workbook, taking stock of your own life the way Aurelius was doing with his. Ultimately, the value of the book boils down to this: If a Roman Emperor can struggle to find motivation and meaning in his life, it’s okay that we do, too.
[$7.99; amazon.com] Courtesy image From 1944: Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying by Wolfgang Langewiesche
While airplanes have come far in the last 80 years, the aerodynamics of flight are the same—which is why pilots will still say this primer on how planes actually fly is a must-read, one that can change everyone’s understanding of how the planes we use work. German-born Langewiesche began his career in economics before turning to aviation, teaching flight theory to the US Army and working as a test pilot for Cessna. Yet he realized that despite extensive training, airplane crashes were still far too prevalent—perhaps because too much knowledge “can be actually harmful if it is allowed to obscure the simpler fundamental fact of flight.”
So Langewiesche began simplifying aviation’s complex theories. He explains, for instance, that “the main fact of all heavier-than-air flight is this: the wing keeps the airplane up by pushing air down.” He also breaks down how an airplane’s “angle of attack” affects turns, and how he believed rudder pedals didn’t. In all, “Thousands of men, trying to learn to fly,” he writes, “are wasting tens of thousands of air hours simply because they don’t really understand how an airplane flies.” Thanks to his book, many finally learned.
[$28.88; amazon.com] Courtesy image From 1937: Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
In his thirteen steps to riches, Napoleon Hill references a “secret” he contends was shared with him when he spoke with tycoon Andrew Carnegie; a secret he says was used by millionaires like Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and President Woodrow Wilson; and a secret he won’t name, writing that those who are ready and searching for it will find it. We’ll spill it: The secret is manifesting; a belief that anyone can grow rich by faith, persistence, and autosuggestion, which he calls “playing a perfectly legitimate trick on your subconscious mind.”
The only issue? Hill was, by all accounts, a total charlatan accused of defrauding clients on business deals, creating a fake stock selling scheme, and swindling students who took him up on his fraudulent automobile college among other crimes. But Hill tapped into the New Thought movement that also spawned books like Norman Vincent Peale’s own 1952 bestseller, The Power of Positive Thinking, who credits Hill for inspiration. Because as fans of manifestation know, the “hidden” message in Hill’s book can actually be life-changing for those who try.
[$7.49; amazon.com] Courtesy image From 1967: The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done by Peter Drucker
Vienna-born Peter Drucker is considered the founding father of modern management. And this is his landmark guide for every “knowledge worker” who is responsible for a contribution that affects an organization’s ability to obtain results. Drucker was a consultant and advisor to top executives and the U.S. government, who espoused that being effective simply meant “doing the right things well.”
In his bestselling book, he breaks the skill down into simple practices that can be mastered, including managing your time, building on your own and others’ strengths, focusing on the areas where smart decisions can lead to superior results, and measuring success by outward contribution rather than effort. As Drucker’s client Don Keough, former president of The Coca Cola Company told it, Drucker lived what he taught and would say to him, “Don’t tell me you had a wonderful meeting with me. Tell me what you are going to do on Monday that’s different.”
[$11.99; amazon.com] Courtesy image From c. 1200 B.C.E.: The Bible
Reaching more people than the other books on this list put together, the Christian religion’s holy scripture is estimated to have sold between 5 and 7 billion copies to date. Created in two portions—The Old Testament and the New Testament—it together tells a story of how God created earth, then sent his Son Jesus to spread God’s message of kindness, humility and love. When England’s King James commissioned a new translation to unite warring religious factions under his rule, the book’s contemporary and engaging language made his 1611 version the most famous in history.
Readers continue to garner encouragement from the Bible’s guiding principles that include acceptance (“Love your enemies and do good and lend, expecting nothing in return”), and love (“Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude”). But above all it professes a message of faith so strong that even the burger chain In-N-Out shares it on its soda cups: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
[$15.79; amazon.com] Courtesy image
