10 Books Recommended by Your Favorite Writers

What do Malcolm Gladwell, Stephen King, and Walter Isaacson read

Did you ever wonder what your favorite authors read?

We love their books and constantly try to get the latest publication, but we forget they share the same love for books as we do. Besides being great writers, they are avid readers.

From Malcolm Gladwell, Stephen King, and Walter Isaacson, we could write an entire article about each one’s work. However, this time I wanted to focus on what books they read when they are not creating the next bestseller.

Here is a list of the 10 books each author recommended, either on their interviews, back covers, books they wrote, or podcasts.

Malcolm Gladwell

“For every hour I spend writing, I spend three hours thinking about writing.” — Malcolm Gladwell

The author of “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference,” “Outliers: The Story of Success,” and “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking,” among others. He loves to read detective novels, psychology, and productivity books.

1. Jack Reacher (29 books)

By Lee Child Jack Reacher is a 36 years old ex-US Army military police mayor, who travels the United States with little baggage, and no attachments. Living on odd jobs, which often wrap him in investigating frequently dangerous situations.

2. Merchant Princes

An Intimate History of Jewish Families Who Built Great Department Stores By Leon A. Harris Americans love to shop, and before Amazon, malls, and other online sites, department stores ruled the retail industry. This is the story of how renowned Jewish families like the Filenes, Gimbels, Marcuses, and others, created their empires and transformed America’s way of shopping.

3. Strangers to Ourselves

Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious By Timothy D. Wilson An eye-opening tour of the unconscious into a hidden mental world of judgments, feelings, and motives showing us the path to introspection. But is this the best road to self-knowledge? What are we trying to discover, anyway? The author shows a way to “Know ourselves,” our potentials, feelings, and motives instead of the out-of-touch story we created.

4. The Big Short

Inside the Doomsday Machine By Michael Lewis The author of “Liar’s Poker,” “Moneyball,” and “The Blind Side,” among others, tells the story of how when we learned about the 2008 U.S. stock market crash, it was old news for many people. In a funny but well-documented plot, he explains how some folks became millionaires while big financial corporations went bankrupt.

5. The Checklist Manifesto

How to Get Things Right By Atul Gawande Pilots are famous for using checklists to fly sophisticated aircraft. But the author explains how they are used in hospitals to fight flu epidemics, save avalanches, reduce the mortality caused by viruses in hospitals, investment banking, skyscraper construction, and businesses of all kinds.

6. The Little Drummer Girl

A Novel By John le Carré Charlie, an aspiring actress on vacation in Greece, meets Joseph, an Israeli intelligence officer who recruits her as a double agent to flush out the leader of a Palestinian terrorist group responsible for a string of deadly bombings.

7. The Russia House

By John le Carré The CIA recruits Blair, a British publisher, to investigate its editor, Katya Orlova, to find a manuscript detailing the Soviet Union’s nuclear missile capabilities. As Blair learns about the manuscript’s origin with Russian military secrets, he falls in love with Katya and fights to protect her family.

8. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

George Smiley, Book 3 By John le Carré Before retiring, British spy Alec Leamas takes one last dangerous assignment as an undercover agent, posing as a drunken, disgraced former MI5 agent in East Germany, and find some captured colleagues.

9. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

George Smiley, Book 5 By John le Carré England’s MI6 chief sends an agent to meet with a Hungarian general and find the identity of an infiltrated Soviet spy. When the mission goes wrong, the agency’s top leaders bring agent George Smiley back from forced retirement to ferret the mole and stop the flow of vital British secrets to the Russians.

10. Together

The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World By Vivek H Murthy M.D. The desire of humans to connect and form lasting bonds with others, help one another, and share life experiences may be the solution to the current loneliness crisis. Simply put, we are stronger together. The author, also the 19th general of the United States, argues loneliness is a public health concern responsible for many of the problems we face today, such as alcohol and drug addiction, anxiety, depression, and violence.

Stephen King

“Reading a good long novel is in many ways like having a long and satisfying affair.” — Stephen King’s Skeleton Crew

One of the most prolific suspense of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. However, when he is not writing, he likes to read other authors’ novels in the same genre as his work or maybe detective plots.

1. And Then There Were None

By Agatha Christie Ten people, an isolated mansion on an island, and the secrets they hide. One by one, they all start to die without their host appearing. Cut from civilization, they have to escape the shadows of their own past lives while trying to survive. Which among them is the killer, and who will survive?

2. Carrion Comfort

A Novel By Dan Simmons Saul Laski escapes the notorious Chelmno extermination camp only to face a greater evil than the Nazis and begin a dark journey that will last for decades. These vampire-like creatures Manipulate others with their psychic ability to kill and create havoc. Saul wants to end mankind’s violence, but others wish to sabotage his plan

3. Charlesgate Confidential

By Scott Von Doviak After the biggest heist at the Boston museum, a group of criminals gets caught without any trace of the stolen art. When the last surviving thief gets out of jail forty years later, he goes hunting for the loot with the help of some college students, with no luck. Thirty years pass, and now the former college kids have grown up, they plan to find the still-missing treasure. A fascinating story jumping through those years and back.

4. Cold Storage

A Novel By David Koepp When a highly mutative organism is buried in a cold storage escape, Roberto Diaz a bioterror operative, races across the country to help contain the threat and figure out how to quarantine this horror again to save all of humanity.

5. Dying is Easy

By Joe Hill A disgraced ex-cop-turned stand-up comic is accused of killing the man who blamed him to steal his jokes. Now he has to use all his investigation skills to find the real killer before the police get him.

6. Elevator Pitch

A Novel By Linwood Barclay When a series of elevators plummet to the ground, making all people in Manhattan opt for the stairs. Two New York detectives and a journalist must find out what the fingerless body found on the High Line have to do with these acts of terrorism before the city’s tallest residential tower opens.

7. Mission Flats

A Novel By William Landay A man’s dead body lies in a deserted cabin on a lake in Maine’s forest. The autopsy reveals the dead man was an elite D.A. from Boston’s neighborhood of Mission Flats. Small-town police have to investigate the murder leading him into a dangerous world.

8. Shaker

A Thriller By Scott Frank New York detective Roy Cooper finds himself in the middle of a crime after a powerful earthquake hits Los Angeles. Four teen-gang members kill a mayoral candidate and shut Detective Cooper twice, sending him to a hospital in critical condition. When Roy recovers consciousness, he discovers he is seen as a hero, making him the gang leader’s target.

9. Ninth House

Alex Stern, Book 1 By Leigh Bardugo Laying in a hospital bed as the sole survivor of an unsolved multiple homicide, Alex Stern, a 23 years old school dropout daughter of a hippie mom, receives a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most prestigious universities. What’s the catch, and why her? Little did Alex know the price she had to pay to study among the rich and powerful, whose occult activities are more sinister and extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive. Tampering with forbidden magic, raising the dead, and preying on the living.

10. The Border

A Novel Don Winslow When your workplace runs from the deserts of Mexico to Wall Street and the slums of Guatemala to the marbled corridors of Washington, you are either the ruler of a Sinaloa Cartel or the DEA’s agent who has sworn to get you. Art Keller is the man at war with the drug cartels and his government in a tale of vengeance, violence, corruption, and justice.

Water Isaacson

We love his biography work about Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Leonardo da Vinci, and Steve Jobs, among others, but what kind of books does he like to read? Isaacson is more inclined to read about current events, productivity books, and an occasional biography.

1. A Shot to Save the World

The Inside Story of the Life-or-Death Race for a COVID-19 Vaccine By Gregory Zuckerman COVID-19 took the world by surprise. Politicians, government officials, business leaders, and public health professionals were unprepared for the most devastating pandemic in a century. It took months for the most diverse group of scientists to develop a vaccine. The author tells the story inside the top-secret laboratories, corporate clashes, and high-stakes government negotiations leading to the creation of an effective vaccine.

2. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

By Mark Twain Twain’s famous novel is about a boy’s adventures through the Mississippi River, with funny and colorful dialogue, standing against injustice and the evils of slavery, and defending the values and dignity of human beings. This is a book everyone has to read in their life. No wonder it’s among the top 20 of The Ultimate “100 Books To Read Before You Die List.”

3. Destined for War

Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? By Graham Allison Thucydides’s Trap states violence is the likeliest result when a rising power threatens to displace a ruling one. Over the past five hundred years, war broke out in twelve of the sixteen times this has occurred. The author explains how China-U.S. relations, trade conflicts, cyberattacks, or an accident at sea could easily spark a major war.

4. Future Forward

Leadership Lessons from Patrick McGovern, the Visionary Who Circled the Globe and Built a Technology Media Empire By Glenn Rifkin Patrick McGovern founded the International Data Group (IDG), and magazines such as Computerworld, PCWorld, and Macworld shaped how we approach technology information. The author explains how McGovern defines the mission, success, staying ahead of the curve, expanding your business, and listening to your customers, among other concepts.

5. Measure What Matters

How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs By John Doerr You might recognize Larry Page and Sergey Brin as the founders of Google. However, you can say they owe their success to the author. Not only for investing $12 million in a remarkable technology startup but for teaching them the goal-setting system of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). In this book, Doerr explains where he learned OKR, implemented it, and how other companies have used this concept for their success.

6. The 4-Hour Workweek

Escape 9–5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich By Tim Ferriss Whether you want to retire early or travel the world, without worries, this book teaches how to eliminate 50% of your work in 24 hours, multiply your income by working less, or hire a private chef for less than $8 a meal. Easy-to-follow practical tips, case studies, real-world templates, the latest tools, tricks, and high-tech shortcuts to living like a millionaire without being one.

7. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

By Benjamin Franklin

“Cast as a letter to his son. It’s not some deep ruminations and things. It’s about how you make your way through this world.” — Walter Isaacson.

Based on Franklin’s unfinished Memoirs, written from 1771 to 1790 and published after his death, this book is considered one of the most influential examples of an autobiography ever written.

8. The Founders

The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley By Jimmy Soni PayPal’s founders and earliest employees are considered the technology industry’s most powerful network. Since leaving PayPal, who formed, funded, and advised companies like Tesla, SpaceX, Facebook, YouTube, Yelp, Palantir, and LinkedIn, among many others. With a description of PayPal’s early years and the stories of other individuals who were central to the company’s success but escaped the front pages.

9. The Only Game in Town

Central Banks, Instability, and Avoiding the Next Collapse By Mohamed A. El-Erian

“Today’s global economy is beset by low growth and rising inequality. By looking at the tools now being used by the world's major central banks, Mohamed El-Erian shows how we can instead promote inclusive economic growth. This is a must-read from one of the most astute financial analysts of our time.” — Walter Isaacson

10. Tools and Weapons

The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age Brad Smith

“A colorful and insightful insiders’ view of how technology is both empowering and threatening us. From privacy to cyberattacks, this timely book is a useful guide for how to navigate the digital future.” — Walter Isaacson

Take away

If you like to read as much as I do, you are probably constantly searching for book recommendations. This time I wanted to focus not on what the big technology wizards read but on what my writing heroes spend their free moments reading.

What surprised me is they sometimes fancy detective novels, maybe to switch from their work or search for ideas for their next bestseller.

I hope you find this book recommendation helpful list to find your next title to either download on your kindle or buy on the next trip to the library. Whatever the case, here, you have 30 titles to choose from.

And remember what Stephen King said about being a writer:

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”

© Copyright Jose Luis Ontanon, 2022