Books which make you smarter

This book is packed with crucial knowledge on how to survive in a post-apocalyptic scenario, with a comprehensive guide on how we might go about restructuring in the ashes of an extinct civilization.

Because, when it comes down to it, most of us know very little about the fundamental principles of technology that hold up modern society. Could you harness the power of the sun, produce food from a simple seed, extract metals from rocks and make a lightbulb to light up the darkness again? Probably not, but this book teaches us the basics of these concepts and much, much more. From vampires and werewolves to pixies, gremlins, unicorns, and fairies, this book details over mysterious and mythical creatures , revisiting their often familiar legends.

Rich with Greek mythology, Biblical beasts, and some more modern incarnations of mysterious animals, this book examines the history, evidence, and facts behind each creature.

This book is beautifully illustrated and a joy to read, and imparts a wealth of knowledge and information to the reader along the way. Sun Tzu wrote his classic guide to military strategy over two thousand five hundred years ago, but its teachings are still influential to this day.

Even now, politicians, military leaders, businessfolk, and everyday individuals draw on the profound teachings in this book. It may have been originally intended as a Chinese warfare strategy, but the principles and philosophies in the chapters of this classic can be adapted to help anyone gain an advantage over their opponents in life.

This compilation of insanely smart yet still accessible scientific ideas will challenge what you think you know about science and the world around you. Their answers dance from the realms of economics, physics, psychology, philosophy, sociology, and beyond. It covers an incredible range of topics, everything from controlling attention, conquering your fear of the unknown, tapping cognitive intelligence, the multiple possible origins of life, and effective theorizing, just to name a few.

And so, like any true science geek with a sense of humor, Munroe decided to tackle these questions head-on. This is a fascinating, insightful, witty, and downright absurd collection of hypothetical What If questions that will open up a world of scientific knowledge while making you giggle along the way.

This bestseller by Nobel Laureate Kahneman is an intriguing account of the way the human brain works, with its two main manners of thinking and coming to decisions: namely, fast and slow. How do they differ? Is one of them better? Kahneman seeks to explore this, and more.

It tracks the three great revolutions that altered the course of humankind, and the way our brains and cultures developed and expanded. This short book undertakes to stimulate your brain in order to prevent its aging and loss of capabilities. It consists in a series of spreadsheets with daily exercises to boost your brainpower. This wildly popular book can boast of divulging complex scientific topics in an intelligible, accessible manner.

If you are looking for books that will make you smarter, skip the textbooks and instead try these easy to red books that make you smarter while holding your interest at the same time. Of course, I answer with an empathetic YES! Reading makes you smarter because it increases the connectivity in your brain, forging new pathways to make your brain even stronger. While I think all reading has its benefits, if you are looking for books that will make you smarter, these easy-to-read nonfiction books are a great starting point.

In his quest to expand his knowledge, Bryson sets out to interview and study with some of the greatest minds. Publication Date: 6 May Amazon Goodreads. Giving his thoughts on the biggest challenges facing mankind, Hawking uses his dry wit to give the reader a basic understanding of complex topics. Publication Date: 16 October Amazon Goodreads. Just so you are aware, even though this book is tiny, it is not a quick read. A great primer on a fascinating subject, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry is one of the best books that will make you smarter and a must-read for all the science lovers out there.

Publication Date: 2 May Amazon Goodreads. What if your cells suddenly stopped dividing? What if everyone only had one soulmate? Randall Munroe, the creator of the comic xkcd, answers all the not-so-important questions in life, using humor and a whole lot of science.

An enjoyable read, What If? Publication Date: 2 September Amazon Goodreads. In , Ken Jennings won 74 consecutive games of the trivia show Jeopardy! In Brainiac , Jennings shares his journey to becoming trivia king as well as his explorations into the world of trivia buffs. From college quiz bowls to Boston pubs, Jennings parses out what makes trivia so much more than just meaningless facts. Publication Date: 12 September Amazon Goodreads.

Do you want to make smarter decisions quicker? Journalist Charles Duhigg focuses on eight key productivity concepts that will help you become smarter and illustrates them with fascinating anecdotes and interesting statistics. In his groundbreaking work, Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel winner in economics, explains the two systems your mind uses. He shows the advantages and pitfalls of thinking fast, with emotion and intuition, versus thinking slow, with deliberation and logic.

Learning to balance these two systems will help you improve your decision-making process. Publication Date: 25 October Amazon Goodreads. In Blink , Malcolm Gladwell dives into those choices we make without thinking — the split-second decisions that can have lasting consequences.

With fascinating anecdotes, such as experts who can spot a fake in a glance and why New Coke was such a failure, Gladwell will make you rethink how you think. Publication Date: 11 January Amazon Goodreads. When looking for books to read to get smarter, why not try a book that will help you read faster? Kam Knight explains the tools and tricks you need to begin speed reading. With short chapters and practice exercises, Knight teaches you how to retrain your brain to read faster without sacrificing your reading comprehension.

In Atomic Habits , Clear outlines in detail the steps you can take to build good habits and break bad ones. This classic book of military strategy from Chinese warfare, accredited to Sun Tzu, still holds power today, whether you are facing your enemies on the battlefield, in a board room, or even online. How did the universe begin?

What makes time possible? In his landmark book, printed in and then updated 10 years later, Stephen Hawking explains how the universe works. From quarks to black holes, Hawking delves into the theoretical, the unexpected, and the astounding ways our world is the way it is. Publication Date: 1 April Amazon Goodreads. On top of teaching you how to be an antiracist, Ibram X.