Best Success Biographies

tip-o-the-morning

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I’ve received numerous emails and comments requesting that I provide a list of recommended biographies. Before I do, I thought I’d share the daily routine that enables me to do my daily reading.

DAILY BOOK-READING ROUTINE

  • Wake between 3:30am – 5am.
  • Read for 20 minutes at desk in home office during workweek. During weekend: 30 – 60 minutes.
  • Read for 5-10 minutes on toilet – I keep 2 or more books in my bathroom for this purpose.
  • Listen 90 – 120 minutes to audiobooks while commuting to and from my CPA job. I subscribe to Simply Audiobooks. My subscription = max of 2 audio books. I read one, then mail it back to them. They send me a new book in about 4 days. I also buy about 5-10 audio books a year from Barnes and Noble or Amazon. I will go through 1-2 audio books a week. I give each book about 30 minutes. If it sucks, I stop listening and return it immediately to get another book. 75% of the books I listen I return immediately. Don’t waste your time reading or listening to books that suck.
  • Read 15 – 30 minutes at night, prior to sleep. 50% of the time, this = entertainment reading. My entertainment reading includes Science Fiction/UFO books/Pre-history books.
  • I maintain a BOOK BINDER.  In my BOOK BINDER I summarize every book worth summarizing. One to ten pages is the average. I do this for all of my books, but it is especially beneficial for the audiobooks that I return. It gives me a record of audiobooks I listen to which I must return. I stack my books to summarize. Once a month I spend about a week summarizing the books I’ve read.
  • At last count, I own approximately 1,600 books. Some hardcopy, some audio.
  • I read about 50 books a year. I listen to about 50 books a year.

BIOGRAPHIES I RECOMMEND

  • THE LAST LION – WINSTON CHURCHILL
  • SAM WALTON – MADE IN AMERICA
  • RICHARD BRANSON – THE INSIDE STORY (MICK BROWN)
  • TESLA (MARGARET CHENEY)
  • CARNEGIE (KRASS)
  • WINSTON CHURCHILL – AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT
  • THE LAST AMERICAN – THE LIFE AND TIMES OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
  • THE OUTSIDER (JIMMY CONNORS)
  • THEODORE REX
  • MORGAN (JEAN STROUSE)
  • GANGIS KHAN – CONQUEROR OF THE WORLD
  • EINSTEIN (RONALD CLARK)
  • THE SAM WALTON STORY
  • BE MY GUEST (CONRAD HILTON)
  • GHANDI (FISCHER)
  • THE UNIVERSE AND DR. EINSTEIN (LINCOLN BARNETT)
  • JOHN ADAMS (McCULLOUGH)
  • MAESTRO (WOODWARD)
  • ELON MUSK (VANCE)
  • GENERAL PATTON – A SOLDIERS LIFE (HIRSHON)
  • IOCOCCA – AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY (IOCOCCA)
  • COLUMBUS (BERGREEN)
  • DUTCH
  • NAPOLEON (MARKHAM)
  • COOLIDGE (AMITY SHALES)
  • CHURCHILL & ORWELL (THOMAS RICKS)
  • COACH WOODEN AND ME (JABBAR)
  • EINSTEIN – HIS LIFE AND UNIVERSE (ISAACSON)
  • ALEXANDER HAMILTON (CHERNOW)
  • BEYOND BASKETBALL – COACH K’S KEYWORDS FOR SUCCESS (MIKE KRZYZEWSKI)
  • HIS EXCELLENCY – GEORGE WASHINGTON (JOSEPH ELLIS)
  • ADAMS VS. JEFFERSON (FERLING)
  • THOMAS JEFFERSON – THE ART OF POWER
  • ALEXANDER THE GREAT AND HIS TIME (SAVILL)
  • NAMATH – A BIOGRAPHY (KRIEGEL)
  • REAGAN (H. W. BRANDS)
  • FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT (JENKINS)
  • TEH RISE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT (EDMUND MORRIS)
  • THE SOUL OF A BUTTERFLY – MUHAMMAD ALI
  • STEVE JOBS
  • THE FIRST TYCOON = THE EPIC LIFE OF CORNELIUS VANDERBILT
  • EINSTEIN (ISAACSON)
  • FOUNDING RIVALS (CHRIS DEROSE)
  • ON WRITING (STEPHEN KING)
  • RENEE DECARTES
  • HARRY HOUDINI (SLOMAN)
  • A LIFE OF RICHES – THE BIOGRAPHY OF NAPOLEON HISS (RITT & LANDERS)
  • THE MATCH (FROST)
  • SIR ISAAC NEWTON
  • GALILEO’S DAUGHTER
  • ONE NATION (BEN CARSON)
  • LEONARDO DEVINCI
  • PISTOL PETE
  • MILTON FRIEDMAN – FREE TO CHOOSE
  • THE ROAD TO SERFDOM (F. A. HAYEK)
  • THE AMERICAN CREED – BIOGRAPHY OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE ( CHURCH)
  • KEYNES HAYEK (NICHOLAS WAPSHOTT)
  • LINCOLN (DAVID HERBERT DONALD)
  • MARRIOT
  • E=MC2 – A BIOGRAPHY OF THE WORLD’S MOST FAMOUS EQUATION (DAVID BODANIS)
  • JOHN JACOB ASTOR – AMERICA’S FIRST MULTIMILLIONAIRE (MADSEN)
  • THE LAST FOUNDING FATHER (UNGER)
  • ST. THOMAS ACQUINAS (McINERNY)

 

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Thomas C. Corley About Thomas C. Corley

Tom Corley is a bestselling author, speaker, and media contributor for Business Insider, CNBC and a few other national media outlets.

His Rich Habits research has been read, viewed or heard by over 50 million people in 25 countries around the world.

Besides being an author, Tom is also a CPA, CFP, holds a master’s degree in taxation and is President of Cerefice and Company, a CPA firm in New Jersey.
 
Phone Number: 732-382-3800 Ext. 103.
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Comments

  1. I really like the idea of a book binder! I have read or listened to many books and I have a hard time remembering what I read or what the focus of a book was after a few years. Great idea!

  2. Hello,
    are there any female leaders you are inspired by as well? Maybe I missed something on this list…
    Thanks,
    Dalia

  3. Hi , I really appreciate and thank you for your thoughts and recommendations It really helps

  4. Thanks for the list Tom. I have read many of these and even interviewed some of the authors.For books on the Founding Fathers, Harlow Unger can’t be beat.

  5. Maria Rossoto says:

    Thanks for all the great Tips O the Day. This one is super, too, but I have to remark at the dearth of biographies written about women. It is time for the great stories of all great women to be on the shelves! We have so much to teach, to demonstrate through our lives. Half of the story of humanity and the full breadth of ways that courage, strength and determination show up through character is lost when women’s lives are un-examined. It’s not on you, Tom. I’m just reminding folks that because women’s lives are not captured in print at the same rate as men’s, no one is getting the full picture of life’s potential.

  6. Davene Meehan says:

    This will certainly keep me busy for awhile! Thank you so much.

  7. Logan Burke says:

    It is really fascinating that you shared your system for reading so many books.
    But what I would like to know is, with the amount of information you are absorbing on a weekly basis, how do you implement the insights into your life? From your next post about self help books this is even more relevant.
    I read a fair amount, but just feel like I am drowning in the amount of new habits, insights, and life changing information I am getting all the time, so I wanted to ask how you handle this situation, especially with reading so voraciously.

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