Every Book Recommended on 203 Episodes of The Pathless Path Podcast

I went through all 203 episode transcripts and pulled out every book that came up in conversation. Books I recommended, books guests brought up, and books we just got liked talking about.

200 books total, plus 34 written by the guests themselves.

The most-mentioned book by far is The 4-Hour Workweek. I wrote about the connection between Tim’s book and mine in The Great Contemplation. Our books are sort of bookends of the same question, 15 years apart. It keeps coming up because guests reference it as the thing that first made them think differently about work.

The author I end up recommending the most is David Whyte: The Three Marriages, Crossing the Unknown Sea, The Heart Aroused, Consolations. His writing about the relationship between work and our inner lives is masterful and his books have been wonderful companions on my this journey.

The Most Recommended Books

These are every book mentioned in two or more episodes. The “Who” column tells you whether it was me, a guest, or both.

Honorable Mentions

Each of these came up in one episode. Grouped loosely by topic.

Work, careers, and the questions around them

• The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker (David Perell)
• Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl (Isabel Unraveled)
• Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman (Corey Wilks)
• The Burnout Society by Byung-Chul Han (Paul)
• Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber (Paul)
• The Organization Man by William H. Whyte (Paul)
• Cubed by Nikil Saval (Paul)
• Deep Work by Cal Newport (Craig Kulyk)
• The War of Art by Steven Pressfield (Rick Lewis)
• Range by David Epstein (Sam Spurlin)
• Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Sam Spurlin)
• Primed to Perform by Neel Doshi (Gary Ware)
• High Output Management by Andy Grove (Steve Schlafman)
• Lords of Strategy by Walter Kiechel (Venkatesh Rao)
• Extreme Programming Explained by Kent Beck (Rich Sheridan)
• The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge (Rich Sheridan)
• Transitions by William Bridges (Nina Simon)
• Profit First by Mike Michalowicz (Justin Jackson)
• The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau (Blake Boles)
• Small Giants by Bo Burlingham (Damien Peters)
• Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely (Noel Boyland)
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey (Jerel Bonner)
• Built to Sell by John Warrillow (Tanya Alvarez)
• Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore (Rich Sheridan)
• Discipline Is Destiny by Ryan Holiday (David Perell)
• Free Agent Nation by Dan Pink (Venkatesh Rao)
• Give and Take by Adam Grant (Will Bachman)
• Grit by Angela Duckworth (Jen Morilla)
• How We Learn by Stanislas Dehaene (Anne-Laure Le Cunff)
• Legacy by James Kerr (Cody Royle)
• Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis (Paul)
• No Excuses! by Brian Tracy (Tony Triumph)
• Onward by Howard Schultz (Mike Tannenbaum)
• Powerful by Patty McCord (Cody Royle)
• Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie (Mike Tannenbaum)
• The Antidote by Oliver Burkeman (Damien Peters)
• The Dip by Seth Godin (Paul)
• The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber (Venkatesh Rao)
• The Everything Store by Brad Stone (David Senra)
• The Good Jobs Strategy by Zeynep Ton (Sarah Kessler)
• The Lean Startup by Eric Ries (Tyler Tringas)
• The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg (Craig Kulyk)
• The Practice by Seth Godin (Claire Emerson)
• The Startup of You by Reid Hoffman (Ben Brooks)
• The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (Henry Oliver)
• Toyota Kata by Mike Rother (Rich Sheridan)
• Tribes by Seth Godin (Will Bachman)
• When by Daniel Pink (Craig Kulyk)
• Zero to One by Peter Thiel (Ali Abdaal)

Philosophy, spirituality, and inner life

• The Surrender Experiment by Michael Singer (Danny Miranda)
• A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle (Danny Miranda)
• Consolations by David Whyte (Jonny Miller)
• Crossing the Unknown Sea by David Whyte (Paul)
• The Heart Aroused by David Whyte (Russ Roberts)
• Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (Billy Oppenheimer)
• Think on These Things by Jiddu Krishnamurti (Lawrence Yeo)
• Seeing That Frees by Rob Burbea (Pranab Sachi)
• The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith (Russ Roberts)
• In Praise of Idleness by Bertrand Russell (Uri Bram)
• Escape from Freedom by Erich Fromm (Paul)
• The Journey of Soul Initiation by Bill Plotkin (Paul)
• Education in a Time Between Worlds by Zach Stein (Paul)
• This Is Water by David Foster Wallace (Pranab Sachi)
• Peace Pilgrim (Tasshin Fogleman)
• Outrageous Openness by Tosha Silver (Jenny Blake)
• The Spiritual Child by Lisa Miller (Erin Doppelt)
• Authentic Happiness by Martin Seligman (Claire Emerson)
• Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Taleb (Russ Roberts)
• Sabbath by Wayne Muller (Christine Bader)
• The Fear Book by Cheri Huber (Nita Baum)
• The Spectrum of Consciousness by Ken Wilber (Oshan Jarow)
• The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer (Erin Doppelt)
• The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin (Will Bachman)
• Personal Development for Smart People by Steve Pavlina (Derek Sivers)
• How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler (Kyle Kowalski)
• Aftermath by Susan Brison (Uri Bram)
• Against the Grain by James C. Scott (Andrew Taggart)

Memoir, narrative, and literature

• Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi (Paul)
• The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (Paul)
• Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion (Lauren Razavi)
• One Long River of Song by Brian Doyle (Russ Roberts)
• The Book of Delights by Ross Gay (Uri Bram)
• On Writing by Stephen King (David Senra)
• The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald (Henry Oliver)
• As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee (Alastair Humphreys)
• The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (Michael Ashcroft)
• The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (Michael Ashcroft)
• Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts (Erin Doppelt)
• Normal People by Sally Rooney (Ben Mercer)
• Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert (Lawrence Yeo)
• Fresh Off the Boat by Eddie Huang (Angie)
• American Bloomsbury by Susan Cheever (Paul)
• Living Dangerously by Ranulph Fiennes (Alastair Humphreys)
• The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard (Alastair Humphreys)
• A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf (Alex Pang)
• Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Rachael Woldoff)
• Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda (Amma Marfo)
• The Giver by Lois Lowry (Ali Greene)
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Michael McBride)
• The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin (Michael Ashcroft)
• When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors (Amma Marfo)
• The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch (Paul)
• 101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think by Brianna Wiest (Claire Emerson)

Money, economics, and systems

• The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins (Steph Smith)
• Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki (Stephen Warley)
• A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel (Nick Maggiulli)
• The Intelligent Asset Allocator by William Bernstein (Nick Maggiulli)
• Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher (Oshan Jarow)
• Stubborn Attachments by Tyler Cowen (Oshan Jarow)
• Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman (Oshan Jarow)
• Sacred Economics by Charles Eisenstein (Paul)
• The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi (Andrew Taggart)
• The Revolt of the Public by Martin Gurri (Visakan Veerasamy)
• $100M Offers by Alex Hormozi (Jack Moses)
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Mike Tannenbaum)
• Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth (Ben Keene)
• Winners Take All by Anand Giridharadas (Mike Tannenbaum)
• I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi (Nat Eliason)
• The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman (Paul)
• The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen (Isabel Unraveled)

Creativity, writing, and making things

• Perennial Seller by Ryan Holiday (Billy Oppenheimer)
• Beat the Dealer by Edward Thorp (David Senra)
• Masters of Doom by David Kushner (David Senra)
• George Lucas: A Life by Brian Jay Jones (David Senra)
• The Gutenberg Galaxy by Marshall McLuhan (David Perell)
• Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson (Matt Yao)
• Write Useful Books by Rob Fitzpatrick (Howard Gray)
• The Mum Test by Rob Fitzpatrick (Howard Gray)
• Things Become Other Things by Craig Mod (Paul)
• The Brass Check by Upton Sinclair (Sky King)
• The Gray Lady Winked by Ashley Rindsberg (Sky King)
• Don’t Believe Everything You Think by Joseph Nguyen (Lawrence Yeo)
• Impossible to Ignore by Carmen Simon (Paul)
• Conspiracy by Ryan Holiday (Sky King)
• Solve for Happy by Mo Gawdat (Bryan Victor)
• The 2-Hour Cocktail Party by Nick Gray (David Kadavy)
• Tiny Experiments by Anne-Laure Le Cunff (Paul)

Self-knowledge, psychology, and the body

• The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk (Paul)
• Waking the Tiger by Peter Levine (Jonny Miller)
• Emotional Agility by Susan David (Jenny Blake)
• Lost Connections by Johann Hari (Aida Alston)
• Stolen Focus by Johann Hari (Aida Alston)
• The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter (Dom Francks)
• The Charisma Myth by Olivia Fox Cabane (Moataz Ahmed)
• Reasons and Persons by Derek Parfit (Uri Bram)
• The Examined Life by Stephen Grosz (Jenny Blake)
• The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin (Paul)
• Late Bloomers by Rich Karlgaard (Aida Alston)
• Quiet by Susan Cain (Paul)
• The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (Hannah Frankman)
• Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto (Hannah Frankman)

Travel, adventure, and alternative living

• Vagabonding by Rolf Potts (Jonny Miller, Bilal Zaidi)
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (Mike Tannenbaum)
• Walden by Henry David Thoreau (Steven Foster)
• The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership by Jim Dethmer (Dom Francks)
• The High Sierra by Kim Stanley Robinson (Dom Francks)
• The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson (Dom Francks)
• The High Sierra: A Love Story by Kim Stanley Robinson (Dom Francks)
• The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod (Paul)

Parenting

• Expecting Better by Emily Oster (Sky King)
• Cribsheet by Emily Oster (Paul)
• The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin (Sky King)
• The Happy Sleeper by Heather Turgeon (Sky King)
• Listen by Patty Wipfler (Joe Hudson)

Cooking

• Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden (Myles Snider)
• Flavor by Yotam Ottolenghi (Myles Snider)
• The Food Lab by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt (Myles Snider)
• Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat (Paul)

Retirement and the later chapters

• Outlive by Peter Attia (Dennis Owen)
• The New Retirementality by Mitch Anthony (Dennis Owen)
• The Second Mountain by David Brooks (David Pakman)
• Life Is in the Transitions by Bruce Feiler (Aida Alston)

*I clearly have a crush on David Whyte because I’ve mentioned him in 13 episodes but who can deny the hypnotic energy of his prose?! Four different books (The Three Marriages, Crossing the Unknown Sea, The Heart Aroused, Consolations), recommended independently by me, Jonny Miller, and Russ Roberts. The most-referenced author on the podcast by a wide margin.

I’ll update this as new episodes come out.