- A Confession by Leo Tolstoy
- On Writing by C.S. Lewis
- Keep Going by Austin Kleon
- William Blake vs. The World by John Higgs
- David Sedaris Diaries: A Visual Compendium by David Sedaris
- Show Your Work by Austin Kleon
- Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris
- Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Private Notebooks: 1914-1916 by Ludwig Wittgenstein
- The Daily Henry David Thoreau by Henry David Thoreau
- How to Be an Artist by Jerry Saltz
- Arbitrary Stupid Goal by Tamara Shopsin
- The Art Thief by Michael Finkel
- What It Is by Lynda Barry
- The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel
- The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
- His Majesty’s Airship by S. C. Gwynne
- John Adams by David McCullough
- Where I Lived, and What I Lived For by Henry David Thoreau
- A Life in Parts by Bryan Cranston
- Tunnel 29 by Helena Merriman
- Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper
- Furious Hours by Casey Cep
- Composed by Rosanne Cash
- In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick
- Right Thing, Right Now by Ryan Holiday
- Letters From a Self-Made Merchant To His Son by George Horace
- The Gospel in Brief by Leo Tolstoy
- High School by Tegan and Sara Quin
- The Art of Clear Thinking by Hasard Lee
- Left of Bang by Patrick Van Horne and Jason A. Riley
- The Greek Way by Edth Hamilton
- The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr
- This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff
- Creativity Sucks by Phil Hanson
- Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi
- The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
- Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller
- In My Time of Dying by Sebastian Junger
- Writing on Empty by Natalie Goldberg
- Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
- So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson
- Letters on Ethics: To Lucilius (The Complete Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca) by Seneca
- When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead by Jerry Weintraub and Rich Cohen
- Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
- The Obstacle is the Way Expanded 10th Anniversary Edition by Ryan Holiday
- The Daily Dad by Ryan Holiday
- The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi by Wright Thompson
- A Night to Remember by Walter Lord
- Truman by David McCullough
- The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon
- The Night of the Grizzlies by Jack Olsen
- Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer by Fred Kaplan
- Lincoln at Gettysburg by Garry Wills
- Slow Productivity by Cal Newport
- Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
- No Cure for Being Human by Kate Bowler
- The Tiger by John Vaillant
Favorites:
Philosophy
Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper
The Obstacle is the Way Expanded 10th Anniversary Edition by Ryan Holiday
Letters on Ethics: To Lucilius (The Complete Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca) by Seneca
The Gospel in Brief by Leo Tolstoy
A Confession by Leo Tolstoy
The Daily Henry David Thoreau by Henry David Thoreau
Creativity/Writing
Lincoln at Gettysburg by Garry Wills
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
What It Is by Lynda Barry
Narrative Nonfiction
The Night of the Grizzlies by Jack Olsen
Tunnel 29 by Helena Merriman
In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick
Memoir
Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller
Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris
High School by Tegan and Sara Quin
A Life in Parts by Bryan Cranston
Biography
Truman by David McCullough
The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
History
The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon
The Greek Way by Edith Hamilton
Misc.
The Daily Dad by Ryan Holiday
Right Thing, Right Now by Ryan Holiday
The Art Thief by Michael Finkel