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Mark Manson books: every book Mark Manson wrote and recommended
Across 8 podcasts. Every show Mark Manson appears on, in one place — not just one.
Books by Mark Manson
Mark Manson’s most recommended books
- The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
- The Game by Neil Strauss
- The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene, Joost Elffers
- A supposedly fun thing I'll never do again by David Foster Wallace
- All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
- Bury the Chains by Adam Hochschild
- The Everything Store by Brad Stone
- The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
- The swerve by Stephen Greenblatt
- Harry Potter by Unknown
Mark Manson is an American self-help author and blogger. During podcast appearances, Mark Manson discussed and recommended several influential books. He recommended Ernest Hemingway's novella The Old Man and the Sea, praising its sparse, simple, and heartbreaking style. He recommended Adam Hochschild's Bury the Chains during a conversation about Thomas Clarkson and the history of abolition. Mark Manson also discussed reading Brad Stone's biography The Everything Store, connecting it to his memories of early online shopping, and described buying David Foster Wallace's A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, which inspired him to pursue writing seriously. Additionally, he praised Anthony Doerr's novel All the Light We Cannot See as fantastic and recommended Stephen Greenblatt's The Swerve when talking about the Roman philosopher Lucretius. He also mentioned Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace to discuss its historical theories and character development, and addressed listeners who mistakenly asked him about Robert Greene's The 48 Laws of Power.
Books recommended by Mark Manson
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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“It was around that time I discovered The 4-Hour Workweek. I think it had just come out or been out for a year or something.”
Where to get it
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The Game
The Game by Neil Strauss is a non-fiction book that explores the secretive underworld of pickup artistry and social dynamics.
Discussed“about five years before that when I found Neil Strauss as the game”
Where to get it
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The 48 Laws of Power
The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene and Joost Elffers is a provocative guide examining historical strategies for acquiring and navigating power.
Discussed“the other thing that I get a lot which is weird because I didn't write it but people go like and so how do you square like all this stuff with the 48 Laws of Power or whatever like well I didn't write it”
Where to get it
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A supposedly fun thing I'll never do again
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace is a brilliant collection of sharp, deeply observant essays exploring contemporary American culture, media, and leisure through the author's trademark hyper-detailed lens.
Recommended“and I bought a supposedly fun thing I'll never do again the title piece of that book is the story behind it is actually pretty funny”
Where to get it
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All the Light We Cannot See
Anthony Doerr's acclaimed historical novel "All the Light We Cannot See" weaves together the lives of a blind French girl and a German boy during World War II.
Recommended“All the Light You Cannot See was fantastic.”
Where to get it
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Bury the Chains
Bury the Chains by Adam Hochschild is a powerful historical account detailing the abolition of slavery in the British Empire and the dedicated activists who fought to end the trade.
Recommended“and so Adam hos child has an amazing book on this called bury the chain”
Where to get it
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The Everything Store
The Everything Store by Brad Stone is a canonical history of Amazon's first twenty years and the leadership style of Jeff Bezos.
Recommended“yeah it's funny I read Bezos is um or the biography the I forget what the the everything store that's so good”
Where to get it
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The Old Man and the Sea
The Old Man and the Sea is a classic novella by Ernest Hemingway about an aging Cuban fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream.
Recommended“I love old man in the sea himing Way's Nolla that he won the Nobel Prize for it is so sparse and simple and like heartbreaking”
Where to get it
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The swerve
The swerve by Stephen Greenblatt is an acclaimed historical non-fiction work examining how the rediscovery of a long-lost Latin codex by Lucretius helped shape the emergence of the modern world.
Recommended“there's a great book by Stephen Greenblatt called the swerve”
Where to get it
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Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a globally celebrated fantasy book series following a young wizard's epic struggle against the dark wizard Voldemort.
Discussed“you know it's like if I expected my my next book to sell I don't know more copies than Harry Potter like that that that's absurd that's like a completely absurd metric of success”
Where to get it
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Iron John
Iron John by Robert Bly is a seminal work within the mythopoetic men's movement that retells traditional folklore to explore masculinity, father-child relationships, and male psychological development.
Discussed“the generation before that in the 90s it was men's groups and sweat lodges and iron John and things like that”
Where to get it
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It
It by Stephen King is a sprawling horror novel that chronicles a group of childhood friends facing an evil entity in their hometown, sparking generations of terror and nostalgia.
Discussed“probably like Middle School I remember I read Stephen King's it okay and I remember when I started I think it was sixth grade”
Where to get it
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Six Pillars of Self-Esteem
Six Pillars of Self-Esteem by Nathaniel Branden is a comprehensive psychological guide that outlines foundational practices for building and maintaining healthy self-esteem.
Discussed“Nathaniel Brandon who's the the guy who kind of originated the term self-esteem if you go back and like read his book six Builders of self-esteem the original conceptualization of it is actually very very good”
Where to get it
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The Rules
Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider's The Rules provides a controversial set of dating guidelines for women seeking to secure long-term romance and marriage.
Critiqued“there was a book in the 90s called the rules which was all about it was teaching women you know stuff like don't pick up the phone the first time he calls”
Where to get it
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The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson is a popular self-help guide that uses blunt counterintuitive wisdom to help readers prioritize what truly matters in life.
Discussed“I remember going into my first publisher meetings for subtle art and they would ask me if I knew the demographics of my my blog audience and I said yeah it's you know it's like 55 women 45 men really and and they were shocked”
Where to get it
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The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Revised and Updated Edition
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Revised and Updated Edition by Mark Manson is a popular self-help guide that challenges conventional positive thinking by encouraging readers to embrace their limitations, flaws, and adversities.
Discussed“So one thing, the most surprising thing and the most difficult thing at the same time was The Subtle Art of not Giving a Fuck, came out in 2016, it hit number one early 2017.”
Where to get it
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Unbroken
Laura Hillenbrand's bestselling biography Unbroken tells the extraordinary World War II story of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner who survived a plane crash, weeks adrift on a raft, and brutal captivity in Japanese prison camps.
Discussed“I read Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand about World War II, incredible story.”
Where to get it
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War and Peace
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy is a sprawling Russian epic novel that chronicles elite society and military conflict during the Napoleonic era.
Discussed“The other one that I was that came to mind is completely opposite War and Peace”
Where to get it
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Will
Will is a candid memoir by Will Smith, co-authored with Mark Manson, detailing the actor's rise to fame and the internal psychological struggles that accompanied his massive success.
Discussed“I co-authored Will Smith's memoir, which came out last year. It's called Will.”
Where to get it
Questions about Mark Manson’s book recommendations
What book does Mark Manson recommend most?
The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. Mark Manson discussed it in 2 episodes.
How many books has Mark Manson recommended on podcasts?
We have found 19 books Mark Manson recommended or discussed, across 10 episodes of 8 podcasts. Ad reads and passing mentions are not counted.
What books are on Mark Manson's reading list?
The books Mark Manson has recommended most on podcasts are The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss, The Game by Neil Strauss, The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene, Joost Elffers, A supposedly fun thing I'll never do again by David Foster Wallace and All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. The full book list below has all 19.
What books has Mark Manson written?
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck (2016), Models (2016), Everything Is F*cked (2019) and Will (2020).
What did Mark Manson recommend on The Tim Ferriss Show?
The 4-Hour Workweek, All the Light We Cannot See and The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Revised and Updated Edition, among 5 books in all.
What is the latest book Mark Manson recommended?
The Old Man and the Sea, recommended on Never Enough (2024-07-12).
People who recommend the same books
Appearances
Other mentions (16: passing, ad reads, own books)
“So I went back, I'm like, well, I should probably read my book again. So I went back and I read it. It was like 2018, 2019. I went back and it was like all the … [ __ ] I just I've been spending the last 2 years dealing with.”
“no I became a business person cuz I just wanted to like party on beaches in Brazil and make money while I slept like you know the whole the whole 4-Hour Work week promise um that's why I got into it”
“It's funny because I was doing my book tour for Everything is F*cked, where I did most of this research and wrote about most of this stuff. A guy came up to me after one of the shows and asked if I had ever heard of optimistic nihilism, and I said I hadn’t.”
“When The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck came out and blew up, it was at the top of all the bestseller lists.”
“It's funny because 'The Subtle Art' is so massive now.”
“and this is ultimately what you know I wrote a book uh it's called models attract women through honesty”
“So, in in in Subtle Art, I talk about I make a distinction between happiness and highs.”
“So, so it's the core thesis that we just talked about of everything is comfortable and affluent that like [ __ ] with you.”
“like the world's an incredibly complicated place and i talk about this in my book everything is [ __ ]”
“and so so my book models was very much written i wrote it specifically to kind of to be like the antidote to that”
“like you know subtle art was so huge”
“I say oh it's called everything is - and they go oh okay and I said it's a book about hope”
“well I'm doing so I'm doing Will Smith's book yeah I know”
“and I wrote my my dating book in 2011 models attract women through honesty and and that was kind of like my farewell project”
“that's why like in subtle art there there are four there for story personal stories that I put in the subtle art”
“and that's why everything is [ __ ] is actually a book about hope”