I've put together this page because I tend to do a lot of reading and through trial and error I've encountered some terrible books, and some real gems. I've included my favourites here. These are books that have had a profound effect on my way of thinking about things or doing things. They come from categories of fashion, entrepreneurship, productivity, and marketing.


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Esquire: The Handbook of Style


In my opinion, this is the first book that any guy should own about fashion, and I do mean ANY guy. I can't think of a guy who wouldn't benefit from owning this book, especially if he's in business. While working in retail, I've often given it as a gift to my best clients. For many guys, this is probably the only book that they need to own. It covers the basics of all of the different clothing categories from shoes to suits, giving you an idea of the different variations, the brands that make the best examples, and how to take care of those items once you own them. It also recommends what you should splurge on, what you should save on, and what order to buy things in if you're working on a limited budget. It's a very practical book, and I really don't think any guy over the age of 16 will go wrong if he picks this up.

Dressing the Man: Mastering the Art of Permanent Fashion

If you are a little more interested in dressing up and dressing well, this is an excellent resource to have available, and it would be the second fashion book I recommend any guy pick up. One of the number one challenges I find guys have is that they don't know how to match patterns and colours to their complexion. That is what this books addresses, and it does a very good job at it. The book outlines the rules for mixing and matching colours and patterns of different scales and colour schemes. While it focuses on classic suits, shirts, ties, and sportcoats, with a little imagination it can be easily transferred to sweaters, sneakers, or anything else that you might wear, however it is most straightforward for men who wear suits most of the time. It has a section on complexion to help you figure out what will work best with your hair and skin colour, which is not something I've been able to find in any other books. Definitely a good read for the well-dressed man, and likely a resource you'll return to repeatedly.

Crush It!

This is one of the first books that I think anyone should pick up before creating something, anything, based around their passion. Gary Vaynerchuk is a complete maniac in the best way possible, and it comes through in his book "Crush It!". He details the various online channels to express yourself, how to create a following for your work and introduces you to ways to turn it into something profitable. This is a very easy and quick read because of it's conversational style. people in reviews I've read criticize this book because it focuses a lot on his personal experience, but I feel that if you can't adapt Gary's experience into personal lessons for yourself, then you are probably best just staying put with the blinders on and working in your cubicle one soul-crushing day after another. It's not just personal stories from Gary though, but information on how to follow the same path he did, or at least a similar path that's best for you. I loved this book, and it's one of the first I recommend to anyone who plans on doing something different with their life than just the cookie-cutter life-path that's recommended to all of us when we go through high school.

Making Ideas Happen

One of the problems that really creative people have is that they simply come up with TOO many good ideas. Ideas are easy, execution is hard. That is the mantra of this book, and for that it is well worth reading. This book doesn't focus on giving you great ideas, but what to do after you have them, and how to turn them into reality. It focuses on what it repeatedly calls the "99%". It also gives you tips on how to narrow down your ideas to discover which ones are the best, and how to keep going when other interesting opportunities present themselves that would only distract you. I hear from very creative all the time that they're good at coming up with ideas, but not following through on them. I used to be the same way, and then I read this. Now I follow through on ideas by creating circumstances that force me too, and I'm happier for it. My website, the company I'm building, and most of my other projects wouldn't exist if not for reading this book. So if you're a person with lots of ideas, read this.

Do More Faster

This is a really new book, but it quickly became one of my favourites, and I lament that I have it lent out right now. Honestly, there are a lot of terrible books for starting a new startup out there. This isn't one of them. Creating something from nothing to the extent that someone else wants to give you money for it is one of the hardest things to do in life, and for a small company, the world is fraught with challenges and missteps. This book gives out no nonsense advice in small doses and it's easy to read a few chapters and then come back for more later. The advice is eminently practical compared to the rest of the books in this genre and it covers a lot of ground in small steps. It's not going to hold you're hand, but it will give you a lot of advice on all areas of a startup company, and how to avoid falling into despair along the way. I highly recommend anyone that is starting off with their own company and wants to make it bigger picks up this book for some solid advice.

The New Rules of Marketing & PR

One of the toughest things for a new startup to do is get their name out there, and this book gives you the most bang for your buck in a broad range of marketing and PR subjects. I picked up another one just about Twitter, and it was useless compared to this one. I really liked the advice this book gave on getting lots of PR for nothing (crucial when your marketing budget is a can of coke and a snickers bar).  It's also got a very conversational tone, so reading it doesn't make you hate yourself. Topics included how to get in touch with the press, how to make them want to work with you (Spoiler alert: be easy to talk to and don't be a dick), how to optimize your site for reaching new users, and how to communicate with existing users in a way that will keep bringing them back to your product. If there's any weaknesses to this book it's probably that it's best optimized for tech start ups, but luckily those are the ones that I'm interested in. Definitely recommended if you're trying to market yourself on a zero dollar budget, and also a very good follow-up to read after "Crush It!" above.

Game-Based Marketing



This book might seem like a bit of an oddball, but I've been watching the evolution of game mechanics in the world of marketing and our day-to-day lives very closely and they are poised to completely change the way that we do things in our lives. This book was a great read for me because I think that there should be certain game elements in everything we do, and there already is to a certain extent. This book goes through the basics of game mechanics, the underlying psychological mechanisms involved, and how to apply them to whatever business you are involved in. They definitely apply better to some businesses than others, but the author gives a variety of examples for how to implement them into different business models. This book also showcases a fascinating in-depth look at how game-mechanics are used for Airmiles and other frequent shopper programs. It may be more of a curiosity for some, but it's worth reading whether you're interested in human behaviour, or implementing similar programs into your own upcoming project.