An accessible but entertaining guide to seventy essential smart-thinking titles.

From Zeno's Paradoxes to contemporary bestseller Freakonomics's exploration of 'the hidden side of everything', a concise and insightful journey through over 70 of the most influential smart-thinking books ever published


This very readable guide examines the crème de la crème of smart-thinking books, including thought-provoking classics on psychology, mindfulness, rationality, the brain, mathematical and economic thought and practical philosophy.


Included are books that focus on self-improvement as well as fascinating accounts of how the mind works. The tour starts as far back as the Epictetus classic TheEnchiridion and Bertrand Russell's charming TheABC of Relativity, before proceeding through more recent bestsellers such as Edward de Bono's Lateral Thinking and on into the digital era with titles such as The Shallows and Big Data. The chronological arrangement draws attention to some of the interesting connections between the books and the way the genre has developed over time.


A 'speed read' for each book delivers a bite-sized impression of what the writer is like to read and a highly compressed summary of the main points of each book.