A Look at Some High-Speed Reading Lists

What you do and how you do it are largely shaped by what you learn. One of the ways you can learn is through professional reading. Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin were avid readers. While in the Air Force, we were encouraged to read the books on the Air Force Chief of Staff Reading List. If you check out my book reviews, you can tell that I also find reading is important. Reading lists can help ground you in a vision that leaders have for an organization. Here is a consolidated list of reading lists from key leaders, innovators, and organizations. It is a good place to start if you are trying to find something to read over the break and into the new year. I am going to start with the first reading list I became aware of. (** – books I have read)

Air Force Chief of Staff Reading List 2013

• Hat In The Ring by Bert Frandsen
• West With The Night by Beryl Markham
• The Dead Hand by David E. Hoffman
• Flying Tigers by Daniel Ford
• Leading With Honor: Leadership Lessons from the Hanoi Hilton by Lee Ellis
• Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
• The Sovereignty Solution by Anna Simons, Joe McGraw, Duane Lauchengco
• I Always Wanted To Fly by Wolfgang W.E. Samuel
• Realizing Tomorrow by Chris Dubbs and Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom
• Counterstrike by Eric Schmitt & Thom Shanker
• China Airborne by James Fallows
• ** Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcom Gladwell
• No One’s World by Charles Kupchan
• Need, Speed, and Greed by Vijay Vaitheeswaran

The U.S. Army Chief of Staff’s Professional Reading List

• 19 Stars: A Study in Military Character and Leadership by Edgar F. Puryear Jr.
• Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest by Stephen E. Ambrose
• Between War and Peace: How America Ends Its Wars by Matthew Moten, ed.
• Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War by Robert Coram
• Command Culture: Officer Education in the U.S. Army and the German Armed Forces, 1901–1940, and the Consequences of World War II by Jörg Muth
• Constitution of the United States
• Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam by H. R. McMaster
• Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life by Carlo D’Este
• The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme by John Keegan
• The Forgotten Hero of My Lai: The Hugh Thompson Story by Trent Angers
• Grey Eminence: Fox Conner and the Art of Mentorship by Edward Cox
• Grunts: Inside the American Infantry Combat Experience, World War II Through Iraq by John C. McManus
• Lincoln and His Generals by T. Harry William
• A Message to Garcia by Elbert Hubbard
• Once an Eagle by Anton Myrer
• Partners in Command: George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower in War and Peace by Mark Perry
• Personal Memoirs: Ulysses S. Grant by Ulysses S. Grant
• The Profession of Arms by John Winthrop Hackett
• Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime by Eliot A. Cohen
• The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier’s Education by Craig M. Mullaney
• 1776 by David McCullough
• The AEF Way of War: The American Army and Combat in World War I by Mark E. Grotelueschen
• American Military History, vol. 2, The United States Army in a Global Era, 1917–2008 by Richard W. Stewart, ed.
• An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942–1943 by Rick Atkinson
• Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era by James M. McPherson
• The Battle of Hürtgen Forest (Spellmount Siegfried Line Series, vol. 4) by Charles Whiting
• A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam by Neil Sheehan
• Cambridge Illustrated History of Warfare: The Triumph of the West by Geoffrey Parker, ed.
• East of Chosin: Entrapment and Breakout in Korea, 1950 by Roy E. Appleman
• Intelligence in War: Knowledge of the Enemy from Napoleon to Al-Qaeda by John Keegan
• The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
• On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society by Dave Grossman
• The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War by Robert B. Strassler, ed.
• A Stillness at Appomattox by Bruce Catton
• Summons of the Trumpet: U.S.-Vietnam in Perspective by Dave R. Palmer
• Supplying War: Logistics from Wallenstein to Patton by Martin Van Creveld
• This Kind of War: The Classic Korean War History by T. R. Fehrenbach
• Tip of the Spear: U.S. Army Small-Unit Action in Iraq, 2004–2007 by Jon T. Hoffman, ed.
• Transformation Under Fire: Revolutionizing How America Fights by Douglas A. Macgregor
• The U.S. Military Intervention in Panama: Origins, Planning, and Crisis Management, June 1987–December 1989 by Lawrence A. Yates
• We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young: Ia Drang—the Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam by Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway
• The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us and What We Can Do About It by Joshua Cooper Ramo
• Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire by Chalmers Johnson
• Cables from Kabul: The Inside Story of the West’s Afghanistan Campaign by Sherard Cowper-Coles
• A Choice of Enemies: America Confronts the Middle East by Lawrence Freedman
• Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner
• The Devil You Don’t Know: Going Back to Iraq by Zuhair al-Jezairy
• Discourses on Livy by Niccolò Machiavelli
• The Dynamics of Military Revolution, 1300–2050 by MacGregor Knox and Williamson Murray, eds.
• Flawed by Design: The Evolution of the CIA, JCS, and NSC by Amy B. Zegart
• ** For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
• How: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything . . . in Business (and in Life) by Dov Seidman
• The Instigators: How a Small Band of Digital Activists Risked Their Lives and Helped Bring Down the Government of Egypt by David Wolman
• Leading Change by John P. Kotter
• Makers of Modern Strategy: From Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age by Peter Paret, ed.
• The Masks of War: American Military Styles in Strategy and Analysis by Carl H. Builder
• The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom by Evgeny Morozov
• Rethinking the Principles of War by Anthony D. McIvor
• The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom
• Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath
• Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision Makers by Richard E. Neustadt and Ernest R. May
• Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century by P. W. Singer
• The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World by Niall Ferguson
• Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World by Michael Lewis
• On China by Henry A. Kissinger
• The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order by Samuel P. Huntington
• Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid
• Forgotten Continent: The Battle for Latin America’s Soul by Michael Reid
• The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire by Edward N. Luttwak
• A History of Modern Iran by Ervand Abrahamian
• Kevlar Legions: The Transformation of the U.S. Army, 1989–2005 by John Sloan Brown
• Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror by Mary Habeck
• The Longest War: The Iran-Iraq Military Conflict by Dilip Hiro
• Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power by Robert D. Kaplan
• The Most Noble Adventure: The Marshall Plan and How America Helped Rebuild Europe by Greg Behrman
• My Life with the Taliban by Abdul Salam Zaeef
• Prodigal Soldiers: How the Generation of Officers Born of Vietnam Revolutionized the American Style of War by James Kitfield
• The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World by Daniel Yergin
• That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back by Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum
• The Utility of Force: The Art of War in the Modern World by Rupert Smith
• The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman
• A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of Peace, 1812–1822 by Henry A. Kissinger

Chief of Naval Operations Professional Reading Program (CNO-PRP)

• A Sailor’s History of the U.S. Navy by Thomas Cutler
• The Crisis of Islam by Bernard Lewis
• 1812: The Navy’s War by George C. Daughan
• Cyber War by Richard A. Clarke
• Execute Against Japan by LT Joel Holwitt, USN
• In the Shadow of Greatness by Joshua Welle, John Ennis, Katherine Kranz and Graham Plaster
• Monsoon by Robert Kaplan
• Navigating the Seven Seas by Melvin G. Williams, Sr. and Melvin G. Williams, Jr.
• SEAL of Honor by Gary Williams
• Shield and Sword edited by Edward J. Marolda and Robert J. Schneller Jr.
• The Gamble by Thomas E. Ricks
• Wake of the Wahoo by Forest J. Sterling
• Neptune’s Inferno by James D. Hornfischer
• Red Star Over the Pacific by Toshi Yoshihara and James Holmes
• The Man From Pakistan by Catherine Collins and Douglas Frantz
• The Morality of War by Brian Orend
• Time Management From The Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern
• Wired for War by P.W. Singer

United States Coast Guard Reading List Commandant’s Choice

• Bearing Drift, by Peter Eident
• Fire on the Beach: Recovering the Lost Story of Richard Etheridge and the Pea Island Lifesavers, by David Wright & David Zoby
• The Skipper & The Eagle, by Gordon McGowan
• Rescue Warriors: The U.S. Coast Guard, America’s Forgotten Heroes, by David Helvarg
• The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership, by Steven Sample
• Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow
• Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras
• Character in Action: The U.S. Coast Guard on Leadership, by Donald Phillips and ADM James Loy, USCG (Ret.)
• The Founding Fathers on Leadership: Classic Teamwork in Changing Times, by Donald Phillips

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon Reading List

• The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro
• Sam Walton: Made in America, by Sam Walton
• Memos From the Chairman, by Alan Greenberg
• The Mythical Man-Month, by Frederick P. Brooks Jr.
• Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, by Jim Collins
• ** Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … and Others Don’t, by Jim Collins
• Creation: Life and How to Make It, By Steve Grand
• The Innovator’s Dilemma, by Clayton Christensen
• The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvements, by Eliyahu Goldratt
• Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, by James Womanck
• Data-Driven Marketing: The 15 Metrics Everyone in Marketing Should Know, by Mark Jeffery
• The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, by Nassim Taleb

Bill Gates Summer Reading List for 2013

• The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? By Jared Diamond
• The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger by Marc Levinson
• However Long the Night: Molly Melching’s Journey to Help Millions of African Women and Girls by Aimee Molloy
• How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character by Paul Tough
• Japan’s Dietary Transition and Its Impacts (Food, Health, and the Environment) by Vaclav Smil and Kazuhiko Kobayashi
• Made in the USA: The Rise and Retreat of American Manufacturing by Vaclav Smil
• Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do (Issues of Our Time) by Claude Steele
• Patriot and Assassin by Robert Cook

Bill Gates indicated that he would take a two week break twice a year just to focus on reading. He would then weave his notes and ideas back into the products he built.

Do you have a favorite reading list? Please share in the comments.