Evolving Reading Interests

For the past few months, i've kinda lost my interest in reading technical books and have been focusing on reading other books instead. I still can't bring myself to read fiction, so i've focused more on stuff that you can actually learn from. I suppose it started last year when a friend of mine recommended Philip Zimbardo's The Lucifer Effect. That book is pretty heavy, but i really enjoyed reading it and learned a lot about how people think and react to certain situations.

Then about 2 months ago someone recommended Robert Greene's The 48 Laws Of Power. If you've got certain goals in your life but are not quite sure how to achieve them, then i would certainly recommend it. Hell, i'd recommend it to anyone because it's just that good and valuable. If i had read that book back when i was stuck in Enterprise Hell, i would've gotten through that period with a lot less friction and a lot more results. And for the record, that book isn't necessarily about how you should use the power that you have, or how to put yourself in a position of power, but it's a good guide on how to protect yourself against people who have power or are trying to gain power at your (or other people's) expense.

That book lead me to The 50th Law which is a collaborative effort between Robert Greene and 50 Cent. Now, if you're closed minded and don't want to read a book that has a gangsta rapper associated with it, be my guest, but rest assured that you're missing out on some very interesting and valuable stuff.

Next up on my reading list is The Prince and The Art Of War by Niccolò Machiavelli.

Now you might be wondering why i'm reading these kinds of books. Basically, because they really teach you a lot about how plenty of people think and react to things. That doesn't mean that you have to follow the advice or the guidelines in those books, but it does certainly help you put certain things in perspective and understand certain situations better. And after all, if we are about self-improvement on a technical level, then we certainly should be open-minded enough to read books that could help us improve our understanding of other things in life as well. And i can guarantee you that the stuff you read in those books can help you in your professional life as well.

I'd definitely be interested in any other kind of non-technical, non-fictional book that you can recommend for whatever reasons