I regularly gift the book called In Praise of Shadows .

I read a lot. I think there are some really poor books at the airport, I really do. For me, I like more of a practical application book. I like a book like Mark Cuban’s Sport of Business. I Like it because it gets me fired up. I like it because it’s a real story from a real guy, just saying it like it is and it’s easy reading. It’s not so analytical and things like that. So that’s the book I like.

Zen Mind, Beginner’s Min d used to be one that I would recommend years ago. So it depends on, on the time and who the person is. But I think more recently talking about performance, when I’m working with clients, there’s a book called The Three Laws of Performance . That’s a really good one.

I’m very suspicious about recommending books to people because there’s the risk they might listen to what you say. And if you’re recommending to them the book that is not the most valuable next book they should read, in a sense, you’re wronging them. So I don’t give people books that often. One thing I try to encourage people to do is to read more about music and the arts, not a particular book. But I say take the creators you love, whoever, whatever they may be, and read about them. If it’s The Beatles, great. If it’s Beethoven, and really dig into what you might think of as your hobbies, but to read about them in an intense way. And just think about Beethoven. How did he manage his career? What were his productivity tricks, what did he do wrong? And think through some of the questions you’ve written and talked about at length, but in the context of your cultural heroes. If it’s like, what do I tell people to read most often? I am not myself religious, but usually I’ll tell my non-religious friends they ought to go read the Bible. It’s a wonderfully deep and brilliant book and most non-religious people, even most religious people, barely know it, or Shakespeare.

Probably the biggest impact for something less than $100.00 would be a mole skin diary. I’ve got them all lined up for every year. I’ve had them since 1986. So, in there, in a very tactile way, I have like lists in the back, movies, books. And then, I write in the back the name of the book and then who recommended the book.