Top 100 Best Personal Development Books
Photo by: Judith P. Abrahamsen
Although I was a literature major in college, lately I find the only thing my mind is interested in consuming for my daily reading is non-fiction, and particularly books that will provide insight and tools for me to live a better life.
Using the genre of “Personal Development” as a springboard for my search, I decided to seek out a list of the most effective, most popular, and best-selling Personal Development books not only as resource for my readers, but as a tool for myself.
Determining The Rankings: Sales, Effectiveness, Cultural Reach
Instead of simply compiling a list from memory based on my personal take on Personal Development books that I have already read, I decided to take a more scientific approach to my search process. As this list is a resource for myself to expand my own awareness and development, obviously I couldn’t rely only on the books that I’ve already read. In addition, I didn’t want my personal bias to come into play.
So what I did was use Amazon to find out what their top 200 best-selling books were, and assigned a score for each of these books. I then did another search, this time sorting the books according to customer reviews, both in the quantity of the actual reviews and the aggregate score that the customer reviewers assigned to the books. I deemed this to be a measure of effectiveness, and assigned a score for each of these books. Finally, I did a Google search for each and every one of these books, tabulating how many web pages referred to each book, so as to measure what I call Cultural Reach, or how much that particular book as permeated the collective consciousness as measured by Google.
There were a few books that made it on the lists that either weren’t really “Personal Development” books, like books about investing, or had too narrow of a scope, like a book for men only about how to please women. These books I eliminated from the list.
Finally, with a score in a each of these three categories, I again rank-ordered the books, assigning a final score, which I believe is a compelling, unbiased measure of Top 100 Personal Development books.
Didn’t Make The List?
There are a lot of great books that aren’t on this list. Perhaps Amazon categorizes them differently or their sales don’t match up to current sales figures for these other books. Regardless, if you know of a book out there that you’ve had success with that didn’t make this list, please shoot me an email and let me know what it was and why you think it should be on this list.
So without further ado, here is the list…
2. A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle
3. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow
4. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
5. How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
6. The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren
7. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen
8. The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle
9. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss
11. The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
12. You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay and Joan Perrin Falquet
13. Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton
14. Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson by Mitch Albom
15. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini
16. My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor
17. The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A. J. Jacobs
18. How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
19. The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz
20. The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
21. What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful by Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter
22. Change Your Thoughts – Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao by Wayne W. Dyer
23. A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future by Daniel H. Pink
24. Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by Bruce M. Patton, William L. Ury, and Roger Fisher
25. Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny by Suze Orman
26. The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
27. The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason
28. The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be by Jack Canfield and Janet Switzer
29. Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices, and Priorities of a Winning Life by Tony Dungy and Nathan Whitaker
30. Difficult Conversations by Douglas Stone, Sheila Heen, and Roger Fisher
31. Change Your Brain, Change Your Life: The Breakthrough Program for Conquering Anxiety, Depression, Obsessiveness, Anger, and Impulsiveness by Daniel G. Amen
32. Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: The Classic Guide to Understanding the Opposite Sex by John Gray
33. Body for Life: 12 Weeks to Mental and Physical Strength by Bill Phillips and Michael D’Orso
34. Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ by Daniel Goleman
35. Ask & It Is Given by Jerry Hicks and Esther Hicks
36. The Power of Intention by Wayne W. Dyer
37. Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy by David D. Burns
38. Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship With Money & Achieving Financial Independence by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
39. PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives by Frank Warren
40. The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke by Suze Orman
41. Boundaries Participant’s GuideRevised: When To Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life by Henry Cloud and John Townsend
42. Merle’s Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog by Ted Kerasote and Patrick Lawlor
43. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
44. Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself by Melody Beattie
45. It’s All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff by Peter Walsh
46. Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
47. Getting the Love You Want by Harville Hendrix
48. I Can Make You Thin: The Revolutionary System Used by More Than 3 Million People by Paul McKenna
49. Debt Cures “They” Don’t Want You to Know About by Kevin Trudeau
50. Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza
51. Law of Attraction: The Science of Attracting More of What You Want and Less of What You Don’t by Michael J. Losier
52. Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle
53. The One Minute Manager by Kenneth H. Blanchard and Spencer Johnson
54. Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff
55. Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein, and Sean Pratt
56. The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything by Guy Kawasaki and Paul Boehmer
57. The UltraMind Solution: Fix Your Broken Brain by Healing Your Body First by Mark Hyman
58. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values by Robert M. Pirsig
59. The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything by Stephen M.R. Covey, Stephen R. Covey, and Rebecca R. Merrill
60. Money, and the Law of Attraction: Learning to Attract Wealth, Health, and Happiness by Esther Hicks and Jerry Hicks
61. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Take Hold and Others Come Unstuck by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
62. The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter, & Miracles by Bruce H. Lipton
63. Come On People: On the Path from Victims to Victors by Bill Cosby and Alvin F. Poussaint
64. When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron
65. No Limits: The Will to Succeed by Michael Phelps and Alan Abrahamson
66. Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else by Geoff Colvin
67. The Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker
68. Younger Next Year: A Man’s Guide to Living Like 50 Until You’re 80 and Beyond by Chris Crowley, Henry S. Lodge, Don Leslie, and Rick Adamson
69. Influence: Science and Practice by Robert B Cialdini
70. My Secret: A PostSecret Book by Frank Warren
71. Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall B. Rosenberg and Arun Gandhi
72. How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships by Leil Lowndes
73. Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow by Elizabeth Lesser
74. Leadership and Self Deception: Getting Out of the Box by The Arbinger Institute
75. The Definitive Book of Body Language by Barbara Pease and Allan Pease
76. Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy by Sarah Ban Breathnach
77. The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness by J. Mark G. Williams, John D. Teasdale, Zindel V. Segal, and Jon Kabat-Zinn
78. The Power of Positive Thinking by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
79. A Lifetime of Secrets: A PostSecret Book by Frank Warren
80. This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman
81. Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential by Joel Osteen
82. How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie
83. Happiness Now!: Timeless Wisdom for Feeling Good FAST by Robert Holden
84. The Power of Soul: The Way to Heal, Rejuvenate, Transform, and Enlighten All Life by Zhi Gang Sha
85. The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth by M. Scott Peck
86. Feel the Fear . . . and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers
87. Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle in Your Mind by Joyce Meyer
88. Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth by Richard J. Foster
89. Magnificent Mind at Any Age: Natural Ways to Unleash Your Brain’s Maximum Potential by Daniel G. Amen
90. The Secret Lives of Men and Women: A PostSecret Book by Frank Warren
91. Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance by Marcus Buckingham
92. The Great Eight: How to Be Happy (Even When You Have Every Reason to be Miserable) by Scott Hamilton and Ken Baker
93. Jesus: A Story of Enlightenment by Deepak Chopra
94. The Art of Extreme Self-Care: Transform Your Life One Month at a Time by Cheryl Richardson
95. Do What You Are: Discover the Perfect Career for You Through the Secrets of Personality Type by Paul D. Tieger and Barbara Barron
96. Heal Your Body by Louise Hay
97. The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook by Edmund J. Bourne
98. The Secret Daily Teachings by Rhonda Byrne
99. Spiritual Liberation: Fulfilling Your Soul’s Potential by Michael Bernard Beckwith
100. The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living by Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler
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I am a big fan of the book Think And Grow Rich. It has changed many people’s lives from wracked to rich. In fact, I share more wealth secrets at my blog continuously. I look forward we can connect with more wealth creation ideas.
Learn How To Use The Timeless Wealth Creation Principles Given By The Greatest People In Our History To Overcome Recession
Free ebook – Think And Grow Rich
http://www.wealthsecretsgroup.com/go/thinkandgrowrich.pdf
Thanks for reading and commenting, Frank. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is a timeless classic and #43 on our list.
Cheers,
The Monkey
“Change your Life in Seven Days” (bit.ly/3kf8Qg) is amongst the best books I have read on the subject of personal development. While PaulMcKenna does not introduce any new ideas (as there are no ‘new’ ideas on this topic – the law of attraction is eternal and has been around for numerous millenia if not longer), he does a fantastic job on summing up very effective techniques that hold true what he promises: If applied repeatedly, his book will start to transform your life in seven days towards the direction of your desires.
Another interesting choice is Steve Pavlina’s “Personal Development for Smart People” (bit.ly/185U8L). While the controversy about the autor is understandable, this piece of literature is of good quality and does a brilliant job on reassessing the level on congruence with the three core life principles our own lives have already achieved. The concept of truth, love and power as the three core life principles a human being has to apply to achieve true intelligence is well thought over and a seminal effort, from my perspective.
It is not important to have a complete list of good books on personal development and manifesting the life of your dreams, in my opinion. It is important to have a small number of very good books on your hand that offer comprehensive guidance. The problem with too many books is that most of them share core messages and that the reader gets caught up reading about personal development and intention-manifestation rather than getting out there and living the virtues in the real world – where it counts.
Stick to a few key books and try to live by their message. This will set you on course.
In love for life
Simon
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Another great parable in a similar vein as The Richest Man in Babylon, that takes the crucial next step of adding the power of manifestation.
Infinite Possibilities by Mike Dooley
From the creator of TUT and Thought from the Universe. Just started reading this and have only gotten through 2 chapters (I keep having to re-read passages as the content is very interesting).
Paul,
Just want to also share that I am enjoying your blog immensely. You and I seem to have been on parallel paths on the spiritual growth side. When I first ran across it, I kept flashing back to the night that Robbie, Dan, Josh and I corrupted you with our off post antics prior to graduation. Good times!
Regards,
Garry
Thanks for the recommended reads. Another awesome one is THE GREATEST SALESMAN IN THE WORLD by Og Mandino.
Cheers.
P
The Power of Soul by Dr. Zhi Gang Sha offers a lot of profound spiritual wisdom on accessing the power of the soul to heal. I have used several practices in this book to boost my energy, relieve pain and balance emotions. The practices are simple and effective and can open your spiritual channels. My clients especially appreciate the practices for improving relationships. Soul to soul communication can often be far more effective in healing relationships than mind to mind communication. I highly recommend this book.
Thanks for the input and thanks for reading!