10 Books That Have Had a Profound Effect On Me

A couple of weeks ago, as one of my clients and I came to the end of our work, he asked me if I could send him a reading list of 10 books he could or should read. Not just work-related things, he said...

One of the things about having a writing practice, is that your ears become attuned to the kind of things that could become a piece of writing, so that when Wednesday ticks round, you aren't sat staring at a blank page too long.

And so, here is a list of ten books that have had a profound impact on me. The perfectionist in me (or Maximiser, as the slightly kinder CliftonStrengths would call it) is feeling anxious at the idea of just ten books, and of course there could be many more. They won't all work for you, or be right for you, but here are ten which work for me.

1. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. It will come as no surprise to anyone who has followed my work to find Pressfield's masterpiece about the battles many of us face when trying to pursue creative work. But this isn't just about writing and painting (although it is about those things) it's about any calling we feel pulled to, anything that takes us out of our comfort zone, anything that requires us to grow. It is at once both normalising and inspiring, both incredibly practical and grounded in a deep spiritual belief in the power and importance of creativity. The War of Art is how I get things done.
2. The Art of Possibility by Ben Zander and Rosamund Stone Zander is probably the best mindset book I've ever read, partly because it barely comes across as a mindset book. It is a beautiful book to read, with deep wisdom threaded amongst powerful stories and beautiful storytelling from the lives of the authors and their experience as a conductor and family therapist respectively. And, if you prefer audiobooks, the audiobook version - complete with classical music coming in when it is discussed - is brilliant, too.
3. The Meaning Revolution by Fred Kofman. Whilst I could easily have chosen Conscious Business by the same author, in some ways this book is more accessbile. It is a business book, for the idealist AND the pragmatist. It is both a manifesto for how organisations could and should be - with values and honour at their centre - and a practical survival guide for times when our organisations are a nightmare to work in.
4. The Amazing Development of Men (2nd Edition) by Alison Armstrong. If I had to point at one resource that had contributed the most to my marriage being successful while my previous relationships weren't, it would be Armstrong's beautiful, practical and funny audiobook based on decades of research. It (and the novelised version my wife has read, The Queen's Code, and her separate audiobook, Understanding Women) has given us a shared language to talk about our differences and a deeper appreciation and patience for what makes men and women each so special.
5. The Rightous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided By Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt. In an increasingly polarised and nasty political world, Haidt's work should be taught to everyone, and is required reading for anyone who wants to understand the way human morality (and therefore politics) works. It is also a brilliant introduction to behavioural science and thoroughly backed by research. It has led me to far deeper political empathy than I had ever felt before, and a far clearer understanding of my own political views.
6. The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley flipped the way I saw the world. It contains so many arguments and perspectives that I had simply never heard before. The data that Ridley shares showed me how by so many measures we are truly lucky to live in today's world; this was completely different to the negative worldview I held and has enabled me to see much more clearly on so many of the most important issues facing us today. You don't have to agree with everything Ridley says to take away from this the incredible value of being careful about what we assume, and the amazing leaps forward that humanity has made.
7. The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks is a strange book and a brilliant one. Strange because the three main concepts - the Zone of Genius, The Upper Limit Problem and Einstein Time - don't feel (or didn't to me) like they naturally fit together here. Brilliant because each of them has the potential to compeltely change how you see yourself and the world.
8. Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps: How To Thrive In Complexity by Jennifer Garvey Berger has been my most-recommended book since I read it in 2019. Before then, I had never really bought into the idea that the world really was as complex as people always banged on about. This book - and a training course I took which Garvey Berger taught on - changed that. The ground that the author covers here wasn't all new to me - some showing up, for example, in The Art of Possibility, as well in as the amazing work of Brené Brown (who, now I think about it, should really be on this list!) - but I had never seen how clearly that it was the complexity of the world that was tripping me up until I read this book. And, Mindtraps is short and easy to read, which is always a bonus.
9. 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote To Chaos by Jordan Peterson, the Canadian Professor who became a lightning rod for the culture wars in 2018. I had heard of Peterson, but I only decided I needed to read it when not one but two clients referenced the same part of the book within a week of each other in Spring 2018. The rule that they mentioned - Tell The Truth-Or, At Least, Don't Lie - remains a practice that has been incredibly powerful for me. It is a self-help book, but it is more deep and complex than anything else on this list, and the number of people who tell stories about how Peterson's work has change their lives for the better demonstrates just how valuable a read this could be.
10. Sword In The Storm by David Gemmell. Gemmell is a novelist, but his books are much more than exciting page-turners (although they are that). His blending of history (in this case the Romans invading Britain) with his own fictional universes allows him to tell deeply human stories which transcend being a mere novel: they are a call to be a hero, to do the right thing and to live life while you still can. That was what inspired me to make a website about the wisdom in his work. I could have shared his early work (like Legend), his more directly historical fiction (like his Troy series), but Sword in the Storm is arguably his finest novel.

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This is the latest in a series of articles written in about twelve minutes (although I cheated this time - this took about 20!), proof read once with tiny edits and then posted online. LinkedIn's algorithms don't always show you everything people post, so if you want to be sure to know about other articles like this, sign up to my mailing list here to hear from me about my writing and other things, or read the archive of posts here.

You can read more about my work as a coach at www.robbieswalecoaching.com.