The way to know life is to love many things. -Vincent van Gogh
Since I was a very young boy, I have been fascinated with the world around me and everything in it! I can remember how hard I found it to focus for long periods of time on one thing, because something else would “call to me” for attention. After decades of living, I still deal with this phenomenon. I thrived in the public-school system, because the teacher would focus on one topic for a short length of time, and then they would change to another. When I got to junior high, this process was formalized in one-hour blocks, and I even got to change rooms and teachers!
Along the way, I started to feel drawn to certain subjects—a lot of them actually. I found them so interesting, that I couldn’t seem to get enough from the standard snippets I got from my teachers in class.
One of the seminal experiences I had in elementary school was my first trip to the school library. I will never forget the incredibly rich sensory experience that presented as I walked through that door. First, I noticed a wonderful smell—the smell of books. (To this day, I love the smell of libraries and bookstores.) Next, I noticed the many shelves packed with books of all sizes and colors. Finally, I noticed the peaceful, relaxing atmosphere that permeated that room—I felt strangely at home in this new place. When the librarian explained to us how to navigate the rows of shelves to find books on subjects we were interested in, I was hooked—for life! I had found my “happy place.”
As the years passed and I advanced through the various grades, I, one day, found myself sitting across from the guidance counselor in high school. The purpose of our meeting was to determine what kind of a career I was interested in pursuing after high school. I’ll never forget the words the counselor spoke to me: “Well, Mark Swain, according to your assessment scores, you have the ability to be anything in this world you choose to be. You are a person who is equally adept at both right-brain and left-brain thinking. So, what do you want to do for your life’s work?” I had no idea what to say—I felt overwhelmed. I couldn’t imagine spending my whole life doing one thing, because I was interested in so many different things.
I decided to attend the University of Utah hoping to develop a clearer picture of my way forward—career wise. I ended up changing majors three times before graduating. Truth to tell, if I had had the financial resources, I might have spent the rest of my life on campus—starting at one end and working my way to the other—learning everything there was to learn!
When I graduated from the University of Utah, I went to work for AT&T. Our department designed and sold voice and data networks.
One day, a man came to my office, introduced himself as a reporter for the business park newspaper, and asked if he could interview me. I looked at him incredulously and asked why on Earth would he want to interview me. He proceeded to tell me that he had been given an assignment to find and then interview the “most interesting” employee at AT&T and write an article on that person. He then explained to me that when he had entered our building, he had randomly asked a number of people who the most interesting person who worked for AT&T was. He said that they had all given him my name! I was deeply moved and humbled by that statement. I had no idea so many of my colleagues felt that way about me.
When he published his article, “AT&T’s Mark Swain—A Renaissance Man of Many Talents,” I was blown away. I had never been called that before. I thought of people like Leonardo DaVinci and Isaac Newton when I heard that term. I just thought of myself as a person who was passionate about many different things. I went and found a dictionary and looked up the term. (Ren·ais·sance man /ˈˌrenəˈˌsäns man/ noun 1. a person with many talents or areas of knowledge.)
As I sat there, I started thinking about my many interests and pursuits—drawing and painting, astronomy, playing piano and composing music, singing, microbiology, writing, public speaking, sports, construction, literature, scuba diving, building high-performance motorcycle and automobile engines, mathematics, collecting minerals and fossils…
Since that day, decades ago, I have been called a renaissance man and a polymath by many people. To myself, inside, I am still that little boy who is just fascinated by the world and everything in it.
Over the years, many people have asked me if I would give them a list of my favorite books. I never really kept such a list, so I would usually give them a few of the recent titles I had read.
A few days ago, as I was sitting by our garden writing in my journal, I thought about that often-asked question. I decided to construct a list of the most important books I have come across in my life. I initially thought I’d make a list of 100. As I began the process, it quickly became apparent to me, that if I were to communicate what a “renaissance man’s” reading list really looks like, I would have to have representative works from the many different areas of study that I have pursued during my life. I finally settled on the number 200. Having read many hundreds of books, this was no easy task.
I must define what I mean by “important.” This is not necessarily a list of my favorite books or those I really enjoyed reading. This is a list of books that inspired me, challenged me, disturbed me, shaped my thinking, or that simply brought me a lot of joy while reading them. Some of these books were catalysts in directing my life in different directions. It almost seems uncanny, when I think of how some of these books showed up at just the right time in my life. I’m reminded of the popular saying, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” Such has definitely been the case with me as I look back over my life.
Well, without further ado, here is the list of the 200 most important books I have read thus far in my life:
Title, Author
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Verne
40 Watercolorists and How They Work, Meyer
7 Strategies for Wealth and Happiness, Rohn
A Collector’s Guide to Rock, Mineral, and Fossil Localities of Utah, Wilson
A Handbook for the Lifelong Learner, Gross
A People’s History of the United States, Zinn
A Whack on the Side of the Head—How You Can Be More Creative, von Oech, Willett
Acres of Diamonds, Conwell
Advanced Algebra and Calculus Made Easy, Made Easy Books
All About Telescopes, Edmond Scientific Co.
America: The Farewell Tour, Hedges
Angels and Demons, Brown
Animal Farm, Orwell
Auschwitz, Nyiszli
Benjamin Franklin, Isaacson
Big Magic—Creative Living Beyond Fear, Gilbert
Born Free, Adamson
Boy Scout Handbook, Boy Scouts of America
Brain Lock, Schwartz
Burnham’s Celestial Handbook (3 vols.), Burnham
Carol King—A Natural Woman, King
Carroll Shelby’s Racing Cobra, Friedman and Christy
Catch a Wave—The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, Carlin, Pinchot, et. al.
Cicero—The Life and Times of Rome’s Greatest Politician, Everitt
Civil Disobedience, Thoreau
Common Sense, Thomas Paine
Communicate with Confidence, Booher
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, Perkins
Conquering Mathematics, Motz, Weaver
Conversations with God, Walsch
Cry of the Kalahari, Owens and Owens
Deconstructing the Universe, Schneider
Divine Proportion—In Art, Nature, Science, Hemenway
Do What You Love the Money Will Follow, Sinetar
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, Edwards
Dune, Herbert
Educated, Westover
Encounters with Star People, Sixkiller-Clarke
Essays, Emerson
Exotic Marine Fishes, Axelrod and Emmens
Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury
Faith of My Fathers, McCain
Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, Jeffers
Feeling Good, Burns
Fly Girls, O’Brien
Ford Performance, Ganahl
Frankenstein, Shelley
Games Trainers Play (3 vols.), Newstrom and Scannell
Get the Life You Want, Bandler
Great Quotes from Great Leaders, Anderson and McKee
Handbook of Model Rocketry, Stine
Happiness Now, Holden
Hawaiian Reef Animals, Hobson and Chave
Hawaiian Seashells, Boom. and Kringel
History of Art, Janson
How to Build Max Performance Chevy Small Blocks on a Budget, Vizard
How to Win Friends and Influence People, Carnegie
I Am—The Power of Discovering Who You Really Are, Falco
I Can See Clearly Now, Dyer
If They Ask You, You Can Write a Song, Kasha and Hirschhorn
Inside the Third Reich, Speer
Inspire Any Audience, Jeary
Jesus and the Essenes, Cannon
Jesus the Master Teacher, Bennion
John Lingenfelter on Modifying Small-Block Chevy Engines
Journey of Souls, Newton
Kennedy’s Last Stand, Salla
Kon-Tiki, Heyerdahl
Landscape Painting in Watercolor, Szabo
Life and Death in a Coral Sea, Cousteau and Diole
Life Visioning, Beckwith
Live Your Dream, Brown
Lost Cities and Vanished Civilizations, Silverberg
Lost in the Jungle, Ghinsberg
Lost in Shangri-La, Zuckoff
Magnificent Obsession, Douglas
Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl
Many Lives Many Masters, Weiss
Marble Collector’s Handbook, Schiffer
Maui Revealed, Doughty
Me, Elton John
Muscle Cars, Cheetham
Music Theory Made Easy, Harp
My Antonia, Cather
Nature’s Wonderland Stamp Album, Breckenridge
Nineteen Eighty-Four, Orwell
No Bull Selling, Trisler
Norton’s Star Atlas
October Sky, Hickam
Og Mandino’s University of Success, Mandino
On the Edge of the Primeval Forest, Schweitzer
Outliers, Gladwell
Peak Performers, Garfield
Pen Drawings of Florence, Railton
Profit Over People, Chomsky
PT-109, Donovan
Reader’s Digest New Complete Do-It-Yourself Manual, Reader’s Digest
Red Giants and White Dwarfs, Jastrow
Sacred Geometry, Lundy
Seashores, A Golden Nature Guide
Shadow Divers, Kurson
Shakespeare—The Complete Works, Harrison
Shipley Associates Style Guide, Freeman
Silent Messages, Mehrabian
Simon & Schuster’s Guide to Rocks and Minerals
Somebody Else Is on the Moon, Leonard
Something for Joey, McNeely and Peck
Statistics—Tool of the Behavioral Sciences, Johnson and Liebert
Team of Rivals, Goodwin
The 100—A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, Hart
The 100 Most influential People of All Time, Time
The 12th Planet, Sitchin
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Covey
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain
The Adventures of Robin Hood, Vivian
The Agony and the Ecstasy, Stone
The Alchemist, Coelho
The Analects of Confucius
The Art of Living, Proctor
The Art of Peter Max, Riley II
The Billboard Book of Songwriting, Pickow and Appleby
The Biology of Belief, Lipton
The Body Is the Hero, Glasser
The Book of Virtues, Bennett
The Boxcar Children, Warner
The Boys in the Boat, Brown
The Call of the Wild, London
The Customer Comes Second, Rosenbluth
The Dancing Wu Li Masters, Zukav
The Da Vinci Code, Brown
The Disclosure Project, Greer
The Element, Robinson
The Field, McTaggart
The Girl with Seven Names, Lee
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (whole series), Larsson
The Gospels (New Testament), Matthew, Mark, Luke, John
The Great Atlas of the Stars, Brunier and Fujii
The Hidden Messages in Water, Emoto
The Hollow Earth, Bernard
The Hound of the Baskervilles, Doyle
The Hunger Games (all volumes), Collins
The Instruction—Living the Life Your Soul Intended, McLeod
The Interrupted Journey, Fuller
The Jungle, Sinclair
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Irving
The Life and Works of Frank Lloyd Wright, Heinz
The Lives of a Cell, Thomas
The Long Walk, Rawicz
The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, Tolkien
The Magesty of Books, Sill
The Martian, Weir
The Messier Album, Mallas and Kreimer
The Most Beautiful Mathematical Formulas, Salem, Testard, Salem
The New Human Rights Movement, Joesph
The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway
The Photographer’s Mind, Freeman
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde
The Pillars of the Earth, Follett
The Power of Now, Tolle
The Power of Positive Thinking, Peale
The Precious Present, Johnson
The Red Badge of Courage, Crane
The Renaissance Soul, Lobenstine
The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorn
The Science Game—An Introduction to Research in the Behavioral Sciences, Agnew and Pike
The Seat of the Soul, Zukav
The Secret, Byrne
The Secret Garden, Burnett
The Sign of the Crooked Arrow, The Hardy Boy’s Mystery Stories, Dixon
The Structure of Magic (Volumes I and II), Bandler, Grinder
The Unseen Hand, Epperson
The Untethered Soul, Singer
The Utah UFO Display, Salisbury
The Winning Trainer, Eitington
The World of Leonardo, Time-Life Library of Art
They Call Me Coach, Wooden and Tobin
This is Earl Nightingale, Nightingale
Thomas Jefferson, His Essential Wisdom, Kelly-Gangi
Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius, Aurelius
Ultimate Journey, Monroe
Unbroken, Hillenbrand
Unlimited Power, Robbins
Up From Slavery, Washington
Utopia, More
Van Gogh, Schapiro
Walden; or Life in the Woods, Thoreau
Warman’s Matchbox Field Guide, Larson
Ways With Watercolor, Kautzky
Where the Red Fern Grows, Rawls
Who Moved My Cheese, Johnson
Who Rules the World?, Chomsky
Wild, Strayed
Wisdom of the Ages, Dyer
Witness to Roswell, Carey and Schmitt
Wizard—The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla, Seifer
Wuthering Heights, Bronte
You Can Heal Your Life, Hay
Your Artist’s Brain, Purcell
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Pirsig
Now that you’ve seen my list of most important books, I’d love to hear from you. Tell me what books have been most important to you during your life—I’m always adding to my reading list!
“My Best Friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read.” -Abraham Lincoln