 | The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracian
Buy new: $12.89 / Used from: $0.47 Pragmatic, down to earth, easy to understand.
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 | La Rochefoucauld Maxims (Dover Books on Literature & Drama) by La Rochefoucauld
Buy new: $5.95 / Used from: $2.73 Another remarkable list of aphorisms and advice, even if the author was a bit full of himself.
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 | Kama Sutra of Vatsayana by Vatsayana
Buy new: $11.90 / Used from: $0.01 The section on couples' gymnastics is fun, but the rest is far more important: it trains the reader to be successful in any social interaction.
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 | Fountains of Pleasure by Al Makzoumi
Buy used from: $2.79 Not nearly as wide-ranging as the Kama Sutra. Despite Arabic authorship around 1200AD, it has a very modern sound, though. Pays more attention to the ladies.
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 | Enchiridion (Dover Thrift Editions) by Epictetus
Buy new: $2.50 / Used from: $0.99 The classic Stoic: Take charge of yourself, because that's all you can take charge of. Be happy in yourself, because everything else can be taken away. Much happier and more comforting than it sounds.
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 | The Art of War by Sun Tzu
Buy new: $10.36 / Used from: $7.31 Strategic planning - easily applies far outside the field of battle.
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 | The Book of Five Rings (Shambhala Classics) by Miyamoto Musashi
Buy new: $10.10 / Used from: $2.25 Another great translation by Cleary, on tactics this time.
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 | Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai by Yamamoto Tsunetomo
Buy new: $13.57 / Used from: $9.41 Good one on personal conduct, among other things. Has especially clear insights on making the best use of people with weaknesses as well as strengths - and that's all of us, isn't it?
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 | The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life by Twyla Tharp
Buy new: $11.21 / Used from: $8.75 For anyone in any creative profession: scientist, artist, anyone.
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 | Advice for a Young Investigator (Bradford Books) by Santiago Ramon y Cajal
Buy new: $12.16 / Used from: $9.94 Pretty much interchangeable with Tharp's book, believe it or not.
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 | The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
Buy new: $10.07 / Used from: $2.84 Written from a Christian standpoint, but useful to anyone who wants to live a thoughtful, honest life.
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 | Holy Tradition of Working: Passages from the Writings of Eric Gill by Eric Gill
Buy used from: $19.90 Work: You're going to spend a lot of time at it. If it isn't a central and moral force in your life, are you doing it right?
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 | The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander
Buy new: $40.95 / Used from: $29.99 The Timeless Way of Building anything at all - not just buildings. (No one was more surprised than the author when he found an adoring cult among software developers.)
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 | The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon
Buy new: $16.77 / Used from: $2.94 Not advice, directly. Instead, a remarkable woman describes her life and the joys she finds in it.
Guys: ladies these days aren't all that different. Take Shonagon's advice, with a little thought, and your lady will love you for it. (Mine did.)
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 | Being Logical: A Guide to Good Thinking by D.Q. McInerny
Buy new: $9.32 / Used from: $5.95 Make sure you can present your case clearly, with sound reasoning. Also, learn to recognize when someone is slinging a steaming heap at you, and toss it right back. This is just a first introduction to rhetorical logic, but everyone has to start somewhere.
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 | Guesstimation: Solving the World's Problems on the Back of a Cocktail Napkin by Lawrence Weinstein
Buy new: $13.57 / Used from: $11.95 Sooner or later, you're bound to have to make some totally off-the-wall kind of estimation - this helps you practice.
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 | How to Solve It: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method (Princeton Science Library) by G. Polya
Buy new: $12.89 / Used from: $11.00 Basics of how to attack a mathematical problem. You don't need to know much math - you just need to know how to use what you've got.
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 | The Prince (Bantam Classics) by Niccolo Machiavelli
Buy new: $4.50 / Used from: $0.01 It's a big bad world out there, and few people know that better - or have done more to make it that way.
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 | Maxims and Reflections (Ricordi) by Francesco Guicciardini
Buy new: $18.66 / Used from: $6.37 Could be the patron saint of enlightened self-interest. Equal parts citizen-statesman and rapacious grasper, and a close friend of Machiavelli.
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 | Han Fei Tzu: Basic Writings
Buy new: $20.65 / Used from: $2.97 More Machiavellian than Machiavelli - good if you want to be a tyrant or recognize one when you see one.
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 | The Selected Poems of Li Po (Poetica) by Li Po
Buy new: $16.57 / Used from: $21.23 Love someone, drink some wine, enjoy the beauty of the world and the people in it. Life's too short for all of it to be serious.
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