Person
Every book David Perell recommended on podcasts
Across 2 podcasts. Every show David Perell appears on, in one place — not just one.
David Perell’s most recommended books
- East of Eden by John Steinbeck
- The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
- The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
- Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham
- The Daily Pressfield by Steven Pressfield
- Rocket men by Robert Kurson
- Excellent Advice for Living by Kevin Kelly
David Perell is a writer and online educator known for teaching people how to write clearly and build an audience on the internet. He hosts the podcast How I Write, where he interviews prominent authors, thinkers, and creators about their creative processes. During his podcast episodes, Perell frequently recommends and discusses various books that highlight effective writing techniques, storytelling, and compelling narrative structures. He recommended Ward Farnsworth's books, specifically Farnsworth's Classical English Style and Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric, praising the former to close out an interview. Perell also discussed Phil Klay's Redeployment to highlight its gripping and intense opening chapter, and brought up Richard Powers's novel The Overstory, noting that it won a Pulitzer Prize in 2019 and was recommended to him by friends. To illustrate visual analogies and how to bring numbers to life in writing, Perell recommended Robert Kurson's Rocket Men, reading an excerpt to demonstrate its use of concrete detail. Finally, he recommended Mark Forsyth's The Elements of Eloquence to his listeners as a valuable tool for making writing more memorable and engaging.
Books recommended by David Perell
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East of Eden
East of Eden by John Steinbeck is a sprawling, multi-generational masterpiece that adapts the Cain and Abel story into twentieth-century California.
Discussed“and for an example i want to look at john steinbeck and his book his masterpiece east of eden”
Where to get it
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The Elements of Eloquence
The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth is a reference book that breaks down rhetorical figures and patterns of writing designed to make phrasing memorable and impactful.
Discussed“And now what I want to do is go through like 10 or 11 this from your book Elements of Eloquence.”
Where to get it
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The Great Gatsby
F.
Discussed“So, I read the book, I watched the DiCaprio Gatsby movie, I then watched the Robert Redford Gatsby movie, and then I went to the play.”
Where to get it
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Atomic Habits
Atomic Habits by James Clear is a widely praised guide on habit formation, behavior change, and systems over goals.
Discussed“For example, when James Clear when he did Atomic Habits, I think he had like 80 podcasts that launched that week. There's probably things around BookTok and Twitter and like clipping up different things that you've made about your book, that's more kind of guerrilla marketing tactics that are going to end up being more solo.”
Where to get it
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Tuesdays with Morrie
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom is a bestselling memoir chronicling the author's weekly visits with his former sociology professor who is dying of ALS.
Discussed“Do you know that is? He wrote a book called Tuesdays with Morrie. yeah, yeah.”
Where to get it
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The 4-Hour Workweek
The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss is a highly influential lifestyle design manual that challenges conventional career paths and encourages readers to automate, delegate, and escape the traditional nine-to-five grind.
Discussed“When Tim's writing process and this goes back to his very first book, The 4-Hour Workweek, where he clearly struggled through that book.”
Where to get it
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Hackers and Painters
Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham is a collection of essays that explores the intersections of computer programming, startup culture, and creative intellectual work.
Discussed“I mean, actually, that's why his book is called Hackers and Painters. Hackers and Painters, sort of that left side of the brain, skepticism, rigor, logic.”
Where to get it
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The Daily Pressfield
The Daily Pressfield by Steven Pressfield is a daily reader offering creative guidance and philosophical insights for writers and artists.
Discussed“What had happened was before the episode, Pressfield was like, yo, you got to read my new book, The Daily Pressfield.”
Where to get it
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Rocket men
Rocket Men by Robert Kurson is a gripping narrative nonfiction account detailing the historic Apollo 8 mission and the daring astronauts who journeyed to the moon.
Recommended“And to do that, I'm going to read you a quote from a book that I love called Rocket Men by Robert Kurson.”
Where to get it
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Excellent Advice for Living
Excellent Advice for Living by Kevin Kelly is a popular book of concise maxims, rules of thumb, and wisdom covering careers, relationships, parenting, finances, and personal innovation.
Recommended“The next is number two, Kevin Kelly, who wrote Excellent Advice for Living, which is a book of maxims and my favorite one is don't aim to be the best, be the only.”
Where to get it
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A short history of nearly everything
A short history of nearly everything by Bill Bryson is an engaging and accessible popular science journey that breaks down the vast mysteries of the universe, evolution, and human discovery into terms anyone can understand.
Discussed“You talk to people who like Bill Bryson, Bill Bryson wrote A Short History of Nearly Everything, 1927, The Body.”
Where to get it
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The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R.
Discussed“So, if we both read The Lord of the Rings and you say, "Hey, I'm going to describe the the Shire and then I do the same thing," our descriptions will be very different.”
Where to get it
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The Talented Mr. Ripley
The Talented Mr.
Discussed“Like So, I I think there's something immensely appealing for readers it of like that that that is what happens. Justice is served. That story is phenomenal. The Talented Mr. Ripley. Holy cow. I haven't read the book, but I've watched the movie and it is so good.”
Where to get it
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Understanding Media
Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan is a classic media theory text that examines how various communication channels shape human thought, culture, and society.
Discussed“And I had this with Marsh McLennan. I read Understanding Media when I was fresh out of college, and there was something about the way that McLennan explained the similarities”
Where to get it
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Where the wild things are
Maurice Sendak's Where the wild things are is a beloved children's picture book that follows a young boy named Max on an imaginative journey to a land of fantastical creatures before returning safely to his bedroom.
Discussed“I think about Where the Wild Things Are, obviously that's animals. 100%.”
Where to get it
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Zero to One
Zero to One by Peter A.
Discussed“Peter Thiel wrote Zero to One. But if you actually follow the thread, Zero to One is... A Christian book”
Where to get it
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The Overstory
The Overstory by Richard Powers is a sweeping, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that intertwines the lives of several Americans whose fates are connected to trees and environmental activism.
Recommended“Richard Powers won the Pulitzer Prize for the over story in 2019 and and I had some friends who recommended it to me”
Where to get it
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Los Náufragos Del Wager / the Wager
Los Náufragos Del Wager / the Wager by David Grann is a historical non-fiction book detailing a dramatic 18th-century shipwreck, mutiny, and the harrowing survival struggles of stranded sailors.
Discussed“And then there's The Wager. I can't think of a single book that more people I know have said that they just read [music] the entire thing from start to finish in one sitting.”
Where to get it
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$100M Leads
$100M Leads by Alex Hormozi is a business and marketing guide designed to help entrepreneurs scale their operations by mastering customer acquisition and lead generation strategies.
Discussed“take a 100 million doll leads”
Where to get it
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Building a Second Brain
Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte is a comprehensive guide to modern personal knowledge management, offering systematic frameworks for capturing, organizing, and retrieving digital information to enhance productivity.
Discussed“And you went back to that store when Building a Second Brain, the book came out, right? Yes. I felt like as you were writing Building a Second Brain, especially towards the end, that book almost broke you.”
Where to get it
The other 112 books David Perell recommended or discussed, ranked
- Discipline Is Destiny by Ryan Holiday
- Red Notice by Bill Browder
- The Godfather by Mario Puzo
- The Learning Game by Ana Lorena Fábrega
- The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
- The Terminal List by Jack Carr
- Against Method by Paul K. Feyerabend
- Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric by Ward Farnsworth, Cara Van Miriah
- Farnsworth's Classical English Style by Ward Farnsworth
- Read Write Own by Chris Dixon
- Redeployment by Phil Klay
- The Bed of Procrustes by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- The Boron Letters by Gary Halbert, Bond Halbert
- The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius
- The success equation by Michael J. Mauboussin
- “The” History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
- 1927 by Bill Bryson
- A Burglar's Guide to the City by Geoff Manaugh
- A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
- A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
- A Series of Unfortunate Events: Lemony Snicket by Lemony Snicket
- Adult Children of Alcoholics by Janet G. Woititz
- American Work Values by Paul Bernstein
- Angle of repose by Wallace Stegner
- Animal Farm by George Orwell
- Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
- Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera
- Bullies and Mean Girls in Popular Culture by Patrice A. Oppliger
- Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Courage Is Calling by Ryan Holiday
- Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen
- Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards
- Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss
- Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone by Hunter S. Thompson
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
- Flight by Unknown
- Forrest Gump by Winston Groom
- Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield
- Getting Real by 37 Signals
- Help, Thanks, Wow by Anne Lamott
- I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell by Tucker Max
- Impro by Keith Johnstone
- In defense of a liberal education by Fareed Zakaria
- In the Blood by Jack Carr
- Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane
- Is This Anything? by Jerry Seinfeld
- It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work by Jason Fried
- Jack Reacher Boxed Set by Lee Child
- John Adams by David McCullough
- Journal of a Novel by John Steinbeck
- Less by Andrew Sean Greer
- Macbeth by William Shakespeare
- Make Something Wonderful by Steve Jobs
- Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
- Night by Elie Wiesel
- No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
- On the Road by Jack Kerouac
- On Writing by Stephen King
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
- Outlive by Peter Attia, Bill Gifford
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
- Remote by Jason Fried
- Rework by Jason Fried
- Robert A. Caro's The Years of Lyndon Johnson Set by Robert A. Caro
- Same as Ever by Morgan Housel
- Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
- Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon
- Stolen Focus by Johann Hari
- The 30 Day Startup: How to Create a Successful Tech Startup in 6 Weeks for Less Than $50k by Will Schmidt
- The 4-Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss
- The 4-hour Chef by Timothy Ferriss
- The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene, Joost Elffers
- The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
- The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- The Body by Bill Bryson
- The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
- The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon. Vol. 2. [-3-4]. by Edward Gibbon
- The diary of a young girl by Cherry Gilchrist
- The Epic of Gilgamesh by Unknown
- The Faith of Our Fathers: Being a Plain Exposition and Vindication of the Church Founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ by James Gibbons
- The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
- The Four by Scott Galloway
- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Infernal Machine by Steven Johnson
- The Little Sister by Raymond Chandler
- The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
- The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
- The party decides by Hans Noel
- The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria
- The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro
- The Protestant ethic and the "spirit" of capitalism and other writings by Max Weber
- The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker
- The Story of Babar by Jean De Brunhoff
- The Technological Society by Jacques Ellul
- the two culture and the scientific revolution by c.p. snow
- The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
- The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki
- The World Is Flat -A Brief History OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY by Thomas L. Friedman
- There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak
- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
- Tinkers by Paul Harding
- Titan by Ron Chernow
- Trust Me, I'm Lying by Ryan Holiday
- Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
- Ulysses by James Joyce
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
- Ways of Seeing by John Berger
- White Noise by Don DeLillo
- Why They Can't Write by John Warner
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
Appearances
Other mentions (45: passing, ad reads, own books), the 30 most recent
“Robert Green's on the show today who's famous for writing books like The 50th Law and 48 Laws of Power.”
“Robert Green's on the show today who's famous for writing books like The 50th Law and 48 Laws of Power.”
“He's labored and labored and now he's out with a new book called Sublime.”
“Andy Weir's on the show today who's famous for books like Project Hail Mary and The Martian.”
“Andy Weir's on the show today who's famous for books like Project Hail Mary and The Martian.”
“I wanted the port in the back of my mind that the little needle would go into and then I had read John RS's political liberalism, right?”
“And it was from the hospital bed that she started writing for the New York Times, and then from there she wrote a memoir called Between Two Kingdoms, and a book about creativity itself called The Book of Alchemy.”
“And it was from the hospital bed that she started writing for the New York Times, and then from there she wrote a memoir called Between Two Kingdoms, and a book about creativity itself called The Book of Alchemy.”
“Michael Connelly is a crime novelist who's famous for series like Harry Bosch and The Lincoln Lawyer.”
“Michael Connelly is a crime novelist who's famous for series like Harry Bosch and The Lincoln Lawyer.”
“Bill Browder's written two books, Freezing Order and also a book called Red Notice, which was everywhere when it came out in 2015, and it is a page turner.”
“Bill Browder's written two books, Freezing Order and also a book called Red Notice, which was everywhere when it came out in 2015, and it is a page turner.”
“Yeah, more than Harry Potter, which is crazy.”
“Daniel Pink is one of the most successful non-fiction writers of the past 30 years. You've probably seen his books, Drive, The Power Regret, To Sell as Human.”
“Daniel Pink is one of the most successful non-fiction writers of the past 30 years. You've probably seen his books, Drive, The Power Regret, To Sell as Human.”
“Daniel Pink is one of the most successful non-fiction writers of the past 30 years. You've probably seen his books, Drive, The Power Regret, To Sell as Human.”
“Henry Shookman, a poet, a novelist, an essaist, and a longtime meditator.”
“If your readers enjoy this sort of thing, they got a whole book they can read. Let me just do an unapologetic plug for your book. I never do this, but I No, I absolutely love your books. They're so simple. They're so fun to flip through, and everyone who's serious about writing should have definitely rhetoric and style just”
“We recorded in Boston. She was fresh off the Pulitzer Prize for a novel called Nightw Watch.”
“I also recorded with him in Boston. He won the Pulitzer Prize for a novel called Tinkers.”
“You might know him from Killer to the Flower Moon, which Martin Scorsesi turned into a film.”
“He is The Psychology of Money, which is now sold more than 8 million copies.”
“I had you had Mitch Albom on the show, who wrote Tuesdays with Morrie. And um it's so funny that the two of you are so similar.”
“I haven't read it, but that's what a lot of people have told me about Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Haven't read it.”
“I haven't read it, but that's what a lot of people have told me about Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Haven't read it.”
“Dan Wong came on the show and he is one of the world's China experts and he's just written a new book called Breakneck.”
“I interviewed Jane Phillips who won the Puliter Prize for fiction for a novel called Nightw Watch.”
“Can you read this from machine dreams?”
“When you were writing Nightw Watch, I went back and studied 19th century Appalachian speech patterns. Yes. Tell me about that.”
“Jane Austin, love phonetics, pride and prejudice, sense and sensibility.”