What Are The Top 20 Books of All Time? Best Books to Read

You have often heard that there can be no better friend than books. And this is absolutely true. Every book says something but a good book not only says but also listens to us. Tries to get to know us. And tells us what we are and where we can get to.

Reading books gives you access to the author’s mind. Not easy to reach physically. That’s why the world’s top leaders must-read books.

If you want to be a leader, you have to be a reader. So in this article, I am going to share the top 20 books of all time that will have a positive impact on your life.

Top 20 Books of All Time

Here is a full review of those books that will help you to live a successful and happy life. If you read these books and follow them, these books will change your way of thinking and make you successful.

1: Managing Oneself 

If you have never read a self-help book and you are wondering which book to start with, then you can start with this book. Because it is a little short and easy to read. Very important for all of us.

After reading this, you will find out some things about yourself that can be very useful for you to move forward. The author of this book is Peter Drucker, a teacher, management consultant, and author of many famous management books.

His books are used worldwide in many management courses today. In this book, the author has explained very well how we can move forward using our best. By managing our most important asset which we are ourselves.

2: The Alchemist

This book is the best seller book for the last 25 years. The author of this book is Paulo Coelho. The Alchemist is the story of a shepherd who wants to travel the world and find the treasure of the whole world.

After a very long journey and difficulties, he finds the treasure, then he realizes that the treasure was already with him which was himself. The Alchemist teaches us how we can overcome our fears and how we can hear the voice of our hearts.

I would recommend reading this book to anyone who thinks my dreams can’t come true. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to see the world from a different perspective.

3: Think and Grow Rich

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is the first book written on the subject of becoming rich. And it is the most popular book on our list.

Andrew Carnegie, the richest man of his time, gave Napoleon Hill an offer to learn from the richest, greatest, and most successful people in the world.

And develop such a philosophy. Create a book of success that any normal person in the world can read and have the capabilities to become the most successful person in the world. And they will not pay them to do this work. Napoleon Hill accepted this offer in one minute.

And then he spent twenty years learning from successful people, accumulating their knowledge and wisdom, and then he wrote this amazing book, which he named Think and grow rich.

Many things in this book are very accurate and good to me. So you must read this book once.

4: The Power of Your Subconscious Mind

This book says that our brain consists of two parts: one conscious mind and the other subconscious mind. This book is written by Joseph Murphy.

And in this book, he explains the scientific principles of how you can make maximum use of your subconscious mind.

And how can you make the most of your subconscious mind? In this book, the author has shown us the difference between our conscious and subconscious minds through many examples.

If you are interested in books and want to be successful in your life then you must read this book The power of your subconscious mind.

5: How to Stop Worrying And Start Living

The author of this book is Dale Carnegie. Dale Carnegie says that before writing this book 35 years ago I was one of the most unhappy boys in New York City.

His life was full of problems and then he lived under a lot of stress. But when he went to the library, he noticed that some books were written hardly on the subject of worry.

But there were more than 90 books on warms. Then he realized that he must write a book on worry.

In the book “How to Stop Worrying And Start Living”, the author explains how stress is the biggest problem of today’s time. Which is ruining people’s lives. And making them sick day by day.

That’s why he has explained many practical steps in this book to deal with stress or any critical situation.

You can eliminate your stress by following these practical steps. And in actuality, you can enjoy your life. Then no matter how bad the time.

This course will provide you so many practical and empowering tools, resources, and solutions to actively face the crisis directly and become aware of what is truly important to you to actually create the life you want to live.

I highly recommend this course for those who have gone through or are going through a crisis as well as mental health professionals supporting individuals in crisis.

6: Antifragile 

Nassim Taleb, the author of the Antifragile book, says a mirror is something that is fragile. This means that if you put pressure on it, it can break easily. Then what would its opposite mean antifragile? Iron, stone, etc. But this answer is wrong.

Because Fragile means brittle then Antifragile meaning will not be strong. Rather, antifragile refers to something that becomes stronger when pressed. And the best example of Antifragile is Humans.

For example, by doing Gym, we put pressure on ourselves and break our muscles, which makes us stronger. This is how you will see people who face bad situations do the big things in their lives and they are also very strong mentally.

In this book, the author explains how stress and problems are actually good for us that make us strong with time. While other people who don’t handle these bad things have enough weeks in their life.

7: Man’s Search For Meaning 

This is a really amazing book. Which you should definitely read. The author of this book is Viktor Frankl. Victor’s story is so powerful that it makes people think.

Victor was a survivor Holocaust. Who survived 4 Nazi concentration camps. There are thousands of people he saw dying before his eyes for various reasons.

Which sadly included his wife and child. He endured many hardships that no one should face. But in that bad time, he noticed something strange.

He pointed out that those who survived the concentration camp were the ones who had some meaning left in their lives to survive. By reading this book you will realize how lucky we are that we were not in their place.

8: Rich Dad Poor Dad 

This is the first self-help book I read. And really this book had a very positive effect on my mentality. Since then I have been interested in reading books. So I suggest this to you too.

I will make sure that you read this book. It is also an easy-to-read and very interesting book. In this book, the author Robert Kiyosaki is giving us very important financial advice. By telling his own story.

Here he had two fathers. One was his real father who was a professor and poor. While his other father was his friend’s father who was very rich.

His second father taught them how to become rich and successful people. By following this he himself becomes a millionaire in the end.

And Robert Kiyosaki has also really become a millionaire. From this book, you will know many valuable things and facts. Therefore, you must also read this book.

9: Start With Why 

In this book, the authors are teaching us how to use ‘Why’ instead of these two questions ‘What’ and ‘How’. The ‘Why’ question should be given the most attention.

A lot of people always ask the question how do I do it, how do I get good marks, or what do most people ask what to do?

While according to Simon Sinek, the first question they have to ask themselves is what do I do? Why do I want to work? Because the biggest problem nowadays is that people’s ‘Why’ is not clear.

You need a job because you want to make money. But most people are making money in many other ways besides jobs.

That is why I am recommending this book to you so that your why is ‘clear’. When your why will be ‘clear’. Then what and how to do it will be very easy.

10: How to win friends and influence people

How to Win Friends and Influence People was published in 1936. It has sold more than 15 million copies. This book contains 214 pages. This book is written by Dale Carnegie.

The book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” was one of the bestselling self-help books of his time. Dale Carnegie helps you to achieve your maximum potential through this book.

Remember that 75% of a person’s success depends on his social and communication skills, even if he is a person in the technical field. And I do not think that there can be a better book in the beginning to improve social skills.

After reading this book, your social skills will be much better which is very important for moving forward in any field.

In this book, Dale Carnegie explained his concept with many Beautiful and Real stories.  You will also enjoy reading it. This book had an unbelievable effect on my practical life.

And I’m sure you can get whatever you want by reading this book. And you can make friends with whomever you want. There are about 30 principles in this book. By following them you can improve your personal life.

In this book, the author has mentioned 6 principles if you follow them people will like you. In addition, there are twelve principles that you can get people to do your work.

And here are nine principles you can follow to change people’s minds without a fight. If you want to make more money, this book will tell you many ways by which you can make more money.

I also share the summary and PDF of this book in my previous post. You can read that post if you don’t have time to read a full book. 

11: The Power of Habit

It is true that you cannot control your future. But you can control your habits. A person who learns to control his habits also begins to control his future. Habit is a powerful weapon that will keep you alive for a long time in the war of life.

So, focus on your habits as much as you can. The Power of Habit was written by Charles Duhigg.

In this book, you will learn how to make good habits and how to get rid of bad habits. Because it is also a fact that it is difficult to make good habits. But on the other hand, bad habits are easy to make.

Once it becomes a bad habit, it makes life difficult. Therefore, with this book, you must learn to make good habits and eliminate bad habits. The author explains these things very well in this book after eight years of research.

12: The Four Agreements

The Four Agreements was written by Don Miguel Ruiz. This is also a life-changing book in my opinion.

The four agreements taught in this book can make you a very intelligent, wise, and successful person. People nowadays take everything very personally. They get angry and do not understand others.

Because of this they can neither succeed nor be happy in their personal and professional life. After reading this book, you will start to understand people better.

This book will make your relationships better. Your happiness will increase and because of this, you will live a successful and happy life.

13: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Stephen R. Covey was the writer of the book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. He published his bestselling book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” in 1989.

Stephen R. Covey has researched in detail about rich and successful people. And in his book, he told us about 7 such habits that are found in every successful person.

Here are 7 habits of successful people, The first three habits teach us to manage things. How to manage time. How to manage your thinking and how to manage situations etc. are included.

If you want to be successful then this book is very good for you. By following these habits and making them our own habits, we too can be successful and rich that are told in this book.

If you want to be like someone. So you should start doing things like that. Think like them and develop their habits. This book is very useful for you. And this book will play an important role in your success.

You can only succeed by changing your habits and way of thinking. Many people have benefited from this book. You should definitely read this book in your life for success.

14: The Intelligent Investor

Benjamin Graham was the writer of the book “The Intelligent Investor”. He is also known as the teacher of Warren Buffet. The Intelligent Investor book is very useful for those who want to invest.

This book is the best book on investing which is also called the Bible of investing. Every successful investor in the world has read this book.

Warren Buffet is the third richest person in the world and has a net worth of $109.8 billion. Warren Buffet is the No.1 investor in the world. 

He himself says that the reason for my success in this book “The Intelligent Investor”.

In this book, Benjamin Graham has explained the fundamentals of investing in a very beautiful way.

According to this book, there are three types of investors. First defensive investor, second aggressive investor, and third enterprising investor. And the author advises us to be defensive investors.

15: 4 Hours Work Week

Nowadays everyone wants to be rich. But the author of the “4 Hours Work Week” book “Timothy Ferriss” says that we do not know the meaning of the word rich. 

We think that the person who has more money or the person who earns more money is rich. The author says This thinking is absolutely wrong.

In addition to money, freedom is also necessary to become rich. Freedom from Time and Space means that you have a lot of money but no time at all.

You have no time to do what you want to do. Or you have no time for your family. And your business only works when you are there and it closes in your absence.

The author says that such people are not rich. We should create another source of passive income along with our job. Whether you work on it or not, you get paid.

And you only have to work on it for a few hours a week. For example, you start an online business, Blog, Youtube channel, etc.

In addition, Timothy Ferriss has told us five principles that we can follow to become rich.

1: Passive income: Create a source of passive income. Start a business in which you are present or not, you continue to receive money.

2: Take a risk to follow your passions: Don’t be afraid to take risks because only by taking risks you can become successful and rich.

3: Do more in less time: Do as much work as possible in less time. Don’t waste time. For this, you can follow the 20/80 principles.

4: Outsourcing: Just do the necessary work yourself and outsource the rest of the work so you can do more in less time.

5: Relative Income: Increase your relative income.

16: Rework

This book was written by Jason Fried, founder of the Basecamp company. This is a short and straightforward book about tackling challenges both in the business world and the creative world.

They are literally uncountable and interesting lessons are packed in this book. However for me, one of the biggest things I took from it was the openness and willingness to change my mind.

If circumstances change your decisions can change. Decisions are temporary. I love this quote because for me this quote was one of my biggest takeaways

Besides this, there are a lot of life-changing lessons in this book that will help you to succeed in your personal as well as professional life. So, you must read this book. And don’t forget to share your favorite lessons you learn from this book by comments.

17: Atomic Habit

We all want to build better habits and in this book, James Clear talks about practical steps that we take in order to build better habits.

What I liked about this book was the practical elements of it a lot such as the two-minute rule and habit stacking to give us the necessary things that we need to build better habits.

This book is incredibly valuable for anyone wanting to understand how to implement better habits into their life and also for people who are trying to get rid of negative ones.

If you are new to habit formation I think this is a great book for you to try and understand the key principles that go behind creating better habits.

18: The Magic of Thinking Big

The Magic of Thinking Big is all about thinking big and it’s written by Dr. Schwartz David. The main message of this book is “You are what you think and you can set your own limitations”.

Meaning, if you think that you can achieve big then you will achieve big and if you think you can achieve small then you will achieve small.

This book is a very easy-to-read and lite book. If you never read any book before then this book is a good start.

19: First 20 Hours

The First 20 Hours by Josh Kaufman is a very helpful and interesting book. Most of us want to learn new skills. But we never have enough time to learn new skills. So, We never learn any new skills.

To solve this problem, Josh Kaufman shares tips to learn new skills in only 20 hours after a lot of research in this book. In 20 hours you not only learn a new skill but you can also become the master of that skill.

I highly recommend this book to those who love to learn new skills because it saves us a lot of time.

20: The Personal MBA

The Personal MBA was written by Josh Kaufman. I basically saw as you know a person’s guide to an MBA meaning rather than going to a college and getting this corporate MBA.

This is like the entrepreneur’s MBA in a single book and it really inspired me a lot of the time. Because it walks through so many different business models. And really gets you thinking about all the different businesses that exist.

It goes through like 15 or something completely different money-making structures and it could be anything from being like a broker of deals to taking commissions and percentages on things or processing feels.

The personal MBA for me was just a perfect intro to business showing me the structure, the possibilities, and the foundations to start a business.