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Taste & recommendation

Which book do you recommend most often to others, and what makes you pass it on?

82 answers answered between 1986 and 2026

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Titles mentioned in 1 member answer written without reading others first. Public-figure quotations are not included.

  1. The power of the mind 1 mention

    Josef Morphy

    The power of the mind — Josef Morphy: 1 mentions, rank 1
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On the record

Public figures who have answered a question like this elsewhere. Quoted from the source shown, not written for FLAPSS.

Read by field Everyone Science and medicine 13 Arts and letters 28 Politics and public life 9 Business and finance 19 Technology 8 Sport 4
Read by age Any age Before thirty 3 In their thirties 7 In their forties 10 In their fifties 21 In their sixties 14 Seventy and beyond 8
Mohamed ElBaradei Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, 1997-2009; Nobel Peace Prize 2005
Unfortunately, I don’t. My wife now reads fiction. I don’t have the time to read fiction. My wife reads the fiction and summarizes it to me, but I wish at one point I’ll have time again to read fiction. It is a luxury I cannot afford right now.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, 2006 source ↗
Mark Bittman American journalist, food writer
I buy a one-off; I see a book someone will like and I buy that. I have bought Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott for a number of people who’ve told me they were struggling with writing, because I think it’s a really great writing book and it’s a good read anyway.
Recorded Tim Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, 19 June 2018 source ↗

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