13 Books That Changed My World View

I spent the first half of my life reading crap. I was mostly "informed" by my own rhetoric, repeating statements I heard intelligent people make and that seemed to land well on those to whom I repeated the statements. I learned to say those intelligent things over and over, perhaps fooling some with my confidence but likely not fooling as many as I thought.

I remember the day I realized my own ignorance. I was in Sarajevo on a date, and a young State Department guy I knew came to sit with us. He started to have an in-depth conversation with my date about the history of her country, her culture, the broader regional issues and more. Conversations I had not had with her or any girlfriend. I went to work later that day and looked at my stack of "literature." It included Stuff Magazine, and whatever its competition was at the time.

Initially, I over-corrected and immersed myself in political, geographical and socio-economic magazines, websites, podcasts, and more. In a few years I was the hyper-political and socially-aware person who I regretted not being on that date. However, I was still ignorant. I didn't understand the complexities of people, history or thought even. I had only learned to recite more things. It was then I started to read books. Many books. Different books, from unique authors. Books from different time periods. Books examining and challenging other books.

It was when I started reading books that I learned to question my own knowledge, and to listen to others (who perhaps weren't authors, but had a story to tell). I started to ask what I didn't know and find books to inform myself. I found leads in books to other books, and continued to read. Most important, I read books that others recommended, and learned more about what informed them and their interests. I became better connected to people from the past and present. Better connected to those in my life and those who have likely influenced my life, and my way of life.

I have listed below 13 random books that influenced my world view. I recommend any as a starting point for one's own list (as opposed to reading all that I've listed). I encourage you to discover what you don't yet know, and share what you've learned with others. Then listen to what they recommend, and continue your reading adventure. In fact, please list your own recommendations in the comments!

1. The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford

If you want to know how a company like Starbucks sells three people the same coffee for different prices, why you choose to eat McDonalds' crappy burger instead of a better one, or why Whole Foods is not the overpriced grocery story your father thinks it is, then this light read will scratch your itch. Tim Harford opened my eyes to the economic forces that shape my decisions. Any of the Freakonmics books or You Are Now Less Dumb by David McRaney are great follow-ons.

2. Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford

Genghis Khan invented mounted warfare and paper money, sparked the global transfer of knowledge and goods, inspired expeditions that led to the Western discovery of the Americas, and was the only leader of an empire to die peacefully in his own bed. And if you're an American educated in the ... well probably in any decade, you might think he was just a "Mongol" (whatever that means to you). Surely that is what Chinese and Western powers benefited from you believing. The fact is Genghis Khan had more of an impact on our modern world than I knew. His influence was so powerful and long lasting, the Russian government felt the need to hide (or restrict access to) his burial site well into the 20th century.

3. A People's History of the United States of America by Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn is probably the first historian to intentionally take a biased approach to American history, towards the "losing" side. He starts with Christopher Columbus's self-described genocide of Caribbean natives, and (in updated versions) finishes with the flaws of the Iraq war. His book isn't the "correct" version of American history. It's just the version you've likely never read. A good follow-on book is A Skeptic's Guide to American History by Mark Stoler.

4. America's Secret War by George Friedman

I once heard that in a survey posed to American politicians asking them to list their most trusted intelligence resources, George Friedman's Stratfor publication was listed above classified reporting as the most trusted source. That is my understanding of the impact of his analytic products. Among other great publications of Friedman's, this book stood out to me as a thoughtful examination of why we went to war with Saudi Arabia (uh, I mean Iraq) and an introduction to underlying forces that may influence events we thought we understood.

5. Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold Story of English by John McWhorter

I'm fascinated by true linguist, meaning those people whose profession it is to study language (not just someone who speaks a lot of languages). I spent the first 30 years of my life stressing about whether it is "he and I," or "she and him," only to later learn the English language was arbitrarily "frozen" sometime around the early 20th century, for no apparent reason whatsoever. What I was taught in school to believe is "proper" or "correct," was really just a segment of a long evolution of the English language. In fact, the English language is still evolving. We have just been conditioned to ignore it and fumble with "whom, who, whose," instead. This book made me lose all kinds of preconceptions about how people should speak English. A great follow on is Talking Back, Talking Black (which I just now realized is also by McWhorter).

6. Dark Pools by Scott Patterson

The stock market always felt kind of "grimey" to me, but Dark Pools revealed just how bad it can get. Patterson describes how a computer "geek" changed the way the stock market works, and just how far behind the average investor and regulators are in understanding the rapidly evolving stock trading business. I learned how algorithms determine who makes millions and how significantly unbalanced the system is.

7. Junkyard Planet by Adam Minter

Did you know that when we started mass producing cars we had no way to dispose of them? People just left cars in fields or drove them into bodies of water. In fact, the last of those cars wasn't cleaned up until around 2008. Did you know our disposed steel drove the development of China's biggest cities, or that factories of people in China strip metal wire out of our old Christmas lights? Minter was the first in his family of "junkers" to graduate college, and he graduated with a journalism degree just in time to document the peak of the junking industry. He dissects the industry of trash and recycling, and opened my eyes to a whole world that exists beyond my trash can.

8. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass

Not until I read a book written by a slave did I truly appreciate the travesty of American slavery. Douglass (one of the great American heroes), holds nothing back in his detailed description of life as an American slave. From birth to his escape, Douglass details the brutality of the system in which he spent the first two decades of his life. His words put to rest any ideas a reader might have about the lesser evils of slavery.

9. Outliers by Malcom Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell has many great books. He's a great writer and his ideas are very interesting. In Outliers, he challenges the assumption that hard work and innate ability are the factors that lead to great success. He tells the story of several extremely successful, wealthy or famous individuals and examines the unique factors that led to their end state. Gladwell takes some analytic leaps, but he definitely made me question why certain people advance beyond others to achieve success, wealth and fame ... or why I have experienced success over others, for that matter.

10. Free Will by Sam Harris

Sam Harris starts this short book with a description of a truly gruesome murder. Then he tells the reader that they too would likely have committed the murder if they had the same genetic make-up and were exposed to the same environmental factors as the murderer. This is essentially the basis for an argument against the idea of "free will." Harris writes that free will is an illusion, and that we are instead driven by genetic pre-dispositions and the influencing events of our lives. You are not the conscious decision-maker you think you are, you are merely the conscious witness of your brain's activity.

11. Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

America is the global super power that it is today because of American spirit, ingenuity, or our collective hard work, right? Or is it because we have no regional adversaries, two borders protected by large bodies of water, and an extremely favorable climate? Why is any other country or civilization in its current state? Diamond explains most of the world's current disposition in a way that was never taught to me in school, and it calls into question any notion of our innate ability to achieve more or less than our global neighbors. A great follow-on book is Diamond's Collapse.

12. Stuff Matters by Mark Miodownik

One day I thought, "I'd like to know more about the world's natural resources and how those are used." I searched "best books for geology" and found Basin and Range by John McPhee, which was one of the worst books I've ever read. I gave it another try and found Miodownik's book, which actually takes into account that most people are not scientists. The book is full of fun facts, like all the world's gold fitting into a single townhome. I also learned how slight differences distinguish diamonds from so many other carbon-based materials of lesser value, and how metal is shaped through literally forcing atoms to change positions through blunt force (his description is much more precise and interesting).

13. The Cyber Effect by Mary Aiken PhD

We behave differently online, and what we experience online influences how we behave offline. The Internet is shaping development and behavior, societal norms, values, children, safety, security, and our perception of the world. However, Aiken points out that while business, researchers, and others benefit from all the Internet gleams from our use of it, no one protects its users (or they are doing a poor job) from the exploitation of children, compulsive tendencies, or organized cyber-crime, for example. We wouldn't let a child walk into a strip club after clicking a button to confirm he is 18, she argues. So why do we permit it online?

Women Authors

In writing this article, I noticed only one of the books was written by a woman author. On further examination, I found that most of the books I've read were written by male authors. So I am including a list of women authors whose books I also recommend.

1. Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence by Karen Armstrong
2. Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of WWII by Liza Mundy
3. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
4. Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee
5. The Residence by Kate Andersen Brower
6. The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert