APPENDIX G: SAL Library / Bibliography of Recommended Reading

 

APPENDIX  G

SAL  Library of 

Recommended Reading

Note: This by no means represents a comprehensive list of potential titles that are both Freedom Focused and SAL-worthy. It simply represents a brief list of titles that Dr. JJ himself has either read, or with which he is familiar, and therefore personally endorses. We warmly welcome and enthusiastically invite other self-action leaders to add to this list. If you are feeling even more ambitious, we invite you to compile a library list of your own making. We simply ask that all such lists and their constituent titles comport with the spirit and vision of Self-Action Leadership and the personal and professional FREEDOM it engenders, champions, and promotes.     

Autobiography, Biography, and History

• The Story of Civilization (11 volume)....................................................................Will & Ariel Durant
• Heroes of History.................................................................................................................Will Durant

• Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know.............................................E.D. Hirsch, Jr.

• The World's Great Speeches................................................................Lewis Copeland, et al. (Editors)

• The Making of America: The Substance and Meaning of the Constitution..............W. Cleon Skousen

• The Federalist Papers.........................Alexander Hamilton (51 articles), James Madison (29 articles), and John Jay (5 articles)

• The Autobiography...................................................................................................Benjamin Franklin

• Benjamin Franklin.........................................................................................................Walter Isaacson

• His Excellency: George Washington................................................................................Joseph J. Ellis

• John Adams..............................................................................................................David McCullough

• Founding Mothers............................................................................................................Cokie Roberts

• Napoleon: A Concise Biography.......................................................................................David A. Bell

• Lincoln the Unknown......................................................................................................Dale Carnegie

• A. Lincoln...............................................................................................................Ronald C. White, Jr.

• Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.................................Doris Kearns Godwin

• The Narrative of Frederick Douglass......................................................................Frederick Douglass

• "Bayonet! Forward": My Civil War Reminiscences..............................Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

• Florence Nightingale.....................................................................................................Mark Bostridge

• Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth.......................................Mohandas Gandhi

• To Rescue the American Spirit: Teddy Roosevelt and the Birth of a Superpower.............................................................................................................................Bret Baier

• The Last Lion: Winston Churchill (3-volume biography).....................................William Manchester and Paul Reid (Volume 3).

• Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela................................Nelson Mandela

• Civilization: The West and the Rest................................................................................Niall Ferguson

Character Development, Religion, and Spirituality

• Poor Richard's Almanack..........................................................................................Benjamin Franklin

• Man's Search for Meaning............................................................................................Viktor E. Frankl

• The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth...................................................................................................................M. Scott Peck, M.D.

• Further Along the Road Less Traveled: The Unending Journey Toward Spiritual Growth (The Edited Lectures)................................................................................................................M. Scott Peck, M.D. 

• The Road Less Traveled and Beyond: Spiritual Growth in an Age of Anxiety.....M. Scott Peck, M.D.

• People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil.........................................M. Scott Peck, M.D. 

• Mere Christianity...................................................................................................................C.S. Lewis

• The Screwtape Letters...........................................................................................................C.S. Lewis

• Standing for Something: 10 Neglected Virtues that Will Heal our Hearts and Homes.....................................................................................................................Gordon B. Hinckley

• How Will You Measure Your Life?...................................................................Clayton M. Christensen with James Allworth & Karen Dillon

• The Holy Bible  (Christianity)

• The Holy Quran  (Islam)

• The Bhagavad Gita, Mahabharata, Vedas, and Upanishads  (Hinduism)

• The Tripitaka (Buddhism)

• The Analects / I Ching / Five Classics  (Confucianism)

• Tao te Ching  (Taoism)

• Guru Granth Sahib  (Sikhism)

• The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ  (Restoration Christianity)

• Talmud, Torah, and Tanakh  (Judaism)

• A Song of Humanity: A Science-Based Alternative to the World's Scriptures  (Atheism)........................................................................Only One Man (aka Dr. James G.S. Clawson)

Classical Literature

• Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing.........X.J. Kennedy & Dana Gioia

• The Divine Comedy.......................................................................................................Dante Alighieri

• The Canterbury Tales.................................................................................................Geoffrey Chaucer

• Don Quixote...............................................................................................................Miguel Cervantes

• The Complete Works.............................................................................................William Shakespeare

• The Pilgrims Progress........................................................................................................John Bunyan

• A Tale of Two Cities.....................................................................................................Charles Dickens
• A Christmas Carol........................................................................................................Charles Dickens
• The Life of our Lord.....................................................................................................Charles Dickens

• Les Misérables....................................................................................................................Victor Hugo

• War and Peace......................................................................................................................Leo Tolstoy

• Pride and Prejudice..............................................................................................................Jane Austen

• Frankenstein......................................................................................................................Mary Shelley

• The Scarlet Letter..................................................................................................Nathaniel Hawthorne

• The Story of King Arthur and His Knights........................................................................Howard Pyle

• The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood..............................................................................Howard Pyle

• To Kill a Mockingbird..........................................................................................................Harper Lee

Finance

• The Gospel of Wealth.................................................................................................Andrew Carnegie

• The Richest Man in Babylon......................................................................................George S. Clason

• Think and Grow Rich.......................................................................................................Napoleon Hill

• Rich Dad, Poor Dad.....................................................................Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter

Leadership and Personal Development

• Acres of Diamonds.......................................................................................................Russell Conwell

• Character Building Thought Power..........................................................................Ralph Waldo Trine

• How to Win Friends and Influence People......................................................................Dale Carnegie
• How to Stop Worrying and Start Living..........................................................................Dale Carnegie

• The Magic of Thinking Big.......................................................................................David J. Schwartz

• The Greatest Salesman in the World..................................................................................Og Mandino
• The Greatest Secret in the World........................................................................................Og Mandino

• The Power of Positive Thinking...................................................................................Norman Vincent Peale

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People...................................................................Stephen R. Covey
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families................................................................Stephen R. Covey
• Principle Centered Leadership...................................................................................Stephen R. Covey
• First Things First.......................................................................................................Stephen R. Covey, A. Roger Merrill, & Rebecca R. Merrill
• The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness.......................................................Stephen R. Covey

• The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management...............................Hyrum W. Smith
• What Matters Most: The Power of Living Your Values..............................................Hyrum W. Smith

• Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box...........................................Arbinger Institute

• The Wisdom of Solomon at Work: Ancient Virtues for Living and Leading Today...........................................................................................................................Charles C. Manz, Karen Manz, Robert D. Marx, and Christopher P. Neck.

• The New SuperLeadership: Leading Others to Lead Themselves...............................Charles C. Manz and Henry P. Sims, Jr. 

• Leading Quietly: An Unorthodox Guide to Doing the Right Thing................Joseph L. Badaracco, Jr.

• The Extraordinary Leader: Turning Good Managers into Great Leaders...........................Jack Zenger

• The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything.............................Stephen M.R. Covey

• Finding Your Flow: How to Identify Your Flow Assets and Liabilities—The Keys to Peak Performance Every Day..............................................................................................Bruce H. Jackson

• The Leadership Wisdom of Jesus: Practical Lessons for Today..................................Charles C. Manz

• The 6 Most Important Decisions You'll Ever Make (for teenagers)....................................Sean Covey

• Leading with Honor: Leadership Lessons from the Hanoi Hilton...........................................Lee Ellis

• Self-Leadership: The Definitive Guide to Personal Excellence............................Christopher P. Neck, Charles C. Manz, and Jeffery D. Houghton

• Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More than IQ...........................................Daniel Goleman

• Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships..................................Daniel Goleman

• The Tipping Point.....................................................................................................Malcolm Gladwell

• Outliers......................................................................................................................Malcolm Gladwell

• On Becoming a Leader....................................................................................................Warren Bennis

• FLOW: The Psychology of Optimal Experience............................................Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

 

Philosophy

• Dialogues of Socrates.....................................................................................................................Plato

• The Republic...................................................................................................................................Plato

• Nichomachean Ethics and other Works of Aristotle.................................................................Aristotle

• Meditations...................................................................................................................Marcus Aurelius

• Philosophical Works of Immanuel Kant (Duty Ethics)..................................................Immanuel Kant

• Philosophical Works of John Stuart Mill (Utilitarianism)............................................John Stuart Mill

• Essays, Poems, Journals, Letters, etc..................................................................Ralph Waldo Emerson

• Walden; or, Life in the Woods.............................................................................Henry David Thoreau

• History of Philosophy........................................................................................................Julián Marías

• Existentialism: For and Against.....................................................................................Paul Roubiczek

• The Story of Philosophy......................................................................................................Will Durant
• The Greatest Minds and Ideas of all Time...........................................................................Will Durant
• On the Meaning of Life.......................................................................................................Will Durant

• A Guide for the Perplexed...........................................................................................E.F. Schumacher
 

Poetry

• One Hundred and One Famous Poems: With a Prose Supplement.......................Roy J. Cook (Editor)

• An Introduction to Poetry........................................................X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia (Editors)

• Immortal Poems of the English Language.......................................................Oscar Williams (Editor)

• The Sonnets...........................................................................................................William Shakespeare

• Poems of William Wordsworth

• Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

• Poems of Emily Dickinson

• Other Poetry Anthologies

• Psalms of Life: A Poetry Collection.............................................................................Jordan R. Jensen

Culture, Science, Miscellaneous, Etc.

• Confucius Lives Next Door: What Living in the East Teaches Us About Living in the West.........................................................................................................................................T.R. Reid

• A Brief History of Time.............................................................................................Stephen Hawking

• Conceptual Physics.........................................................................................................Paul G. Hewitt

—Dr. JJ

Wednesday, June 10, 2026

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA

Author's Note: This is the 525th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 308th consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.   

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