Take a break and read a book
Looking for some good reading over spring break? We’ve got you covered.
Looking for some good reading over spring break? We’ve got you covered. Check out our expanded innovation and entrepreneurship book collection, updated as of March 2019. Stop by the LaunchPad in Bird Library where you’ll see the collection on special shelves just out front. Many are also available in e-versions. Whether you’re spending time in an airport, or chilling at home or on a beach, reading a book is a great way to keep your creative juices going while adding some mental benefits to your vacation. Taking a break can inspire you, and the downtime you find on vacation can sometimes be just what you need to think about your next big idea.
Research shows that reading boosts your imagination and creativity. It also connects your brain, because it creates a zone of silence and mindfulness, helping your brain become clear and focused. So if you want to really recharge over break, read a book. Especially a book about creativity and innovation!
Here is our list:
Title, Author
- #Girlboss, Sophia Amoruso
- $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living Do What You Love and Create a New Future, Chris Guillebeau
- 101 Design Methods, Vijay Kumar
- 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, Timothy Ferris
- ABA Consumer Guide to Obtaining a Patent: A Practical Resource for Helping Entrepreneurs & Innovators Protect Their Ideas, Rich Goldstein
- Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think, Peter H. Diamandis
- Adventures of Ideas, Whitehead
- Age of Insight, Eric R. Kandel
- Agile Product Development: How to Design Innovative Products That Create Customer Value, Tathagat Varma
- Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions. (No Rights Us), Brian Christian
- All in Startup: Launching a New Idea When Everything is on the Line, Diana Kander
- All Marketers are Liars: The Underground Classic That Explains How Marketing Really Works– and Why Authenticity Is the Best Marketing of All, Seth Godin
- Art of Critical Making, Rosanne Somerson and Mara Hermano
- Art of People: 11 Simple People Skills That Will Get You Everything You Want, Dave Kerpen
- Art of The Start 2.0: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything, Guy Kawasaki
- Art of The Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything, Guy Kawasaki
- Art of War, Sun Tzu
- Ascent of Money: A Financial History of The World, Niall Ferguson
- Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin
- B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as A Force for Good, Ryan Honeyman
- Be Fearless: 5 Principles for a Life of Breakthroughs and Purpose, Jean Case
- Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, Walter Isaacson
- Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, And the Universe Itself, Sean Carroll
- Biomimicry for Designers: Applying Nature’s Processes and Materials in The Real World, Veronika Kapsali
- Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, Janine Benyus
- Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies: A Comprehensive Introduction, Arvind Narayanan
- Black Woman Millionaire: A Revolutionary Act that Defies Impossible, Venus Opal Reese
- Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant, Chan Kim
- Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in An Interconnected World, Jacqueline Novogratz
- Bold: How to Go Big, Achieve Success, and Impact the World, Peter H. Diamandis
- Boulevard of Broken Dreams: Why Public Efforts to Boost Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Have, Josh Lerner
- Brand Brilliance: Elevate Your Brand, Enchant Your Audience, Fiona Humberstone
- Building A Social Business, Muhammad Yunus
- Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, Jim Collins
- Burn the Business Plan: What Great Entrepreneurs Really Do, Carl Schramm
- Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers, Alexander Osterwalder
- Business of Good: Social Entrepreneurship and The New Bottom Line, Jason Haber
- Business Plans Handbook (Volumes 32 & 37),
- Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds, David Goggins
- Challenger Customer: Selling to The Hidden Influencer Who Can Multiply Your Results, Brent Adamson
- Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation, Tim Brown
- Chief Marketing Officers at Work, Josh Steimle
- Confidence Gap: A Guide to Overcoming Fear and Self-Doubt, Russ Harris
- Contagious: Why Things Catch on, Jonah Berger
- Creative Economy: How People Make Money from Ideas, John Howkins
- Creative Intelligence: Harnessing the Power to Create Connect and Inspire, Bruce Nussbaum
- Creative Priority: Putting Innovation to Work in Your Business, Jerry Hirshberg
- Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers, Geoffrey Moore
- Data Science for Business, Foster Provost
- Data Visualisation: A Handbook for Data Driven Design, Andy Kirk
- Design as Art, Bruno Munari
- Design Basics, Stephen Pentak
- Design of Everyday Things, Donald A. Norman
- Design Process, Karl Aspelund
- Design Studies: A Reader, Hazel Clark and David Brody
- Design Thinking for The Greater Good: Innovation in The Social Sector, Jeanne Liedtka
- Design Thinking: New Product Development Essentials from the PDMA, Michael Luchs, Scott Swan, Abbe Griffin
- Diffusion of Innovations, Everett M. Rogers
- Do More Faster: Techstars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup, David Cohen
- Do the Kind Thing: Think Boundlessly, Work Purposefully, Live Passionately, Daniel Lubetzky
- Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common-Sense Approach to Web Usability, Steve Krug
- DotCom Secrets: The Underground Playbook for Growing Your Company Online, Russell Brunson and Dan Kennedy
- Drawing Is Thinking, Milton Glaser
- Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Daniel H. Pink
- Driver in The Driverless Car: How Our Technology Choices Will Create the Future, Vivek Wadhwa and Alex Salkever
- Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done, Peter Drucker
- Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, And the Quest for A Fantastic Future, Ashlee Vance
- Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, Daniel Goleman
- Entrepreneur Equation: Evaluating the Realities, Risks, and Rewards of Having Your Own Business, Carol Roth
- Entrepreneurial Bible to Venture Capital: Inside Secrets from The Leaders of The Startup Game, Andrew Romans
- Entrepreneurial Group: Social Identities, Relations, And Collective Action (Kauffman Foundation Series on Innovation and Entrepreneurship), Martin Ruef
- Entrepreneur’s Guide to Law and Strategy, Constance E Bagley
- Entrepreneurship for The Creative and Cultural Industries, Bonita M. Kolb
- Entrepreneurship in The Creative Industries: An International Perspective, Edited by: Colette Henry
- Everything Store: Jeff Bezos And the Age of Amazon, Brad Stone
- Evil by Design: Interaction Design to Lead Us Into Temptation, Chris Nodder
- Executive Director’s Guide to Thriving as A Nonprofit Leader, Mim Carlson
- Experimental Capitalism: The Nanoeconomics Of American High-Tech Industries (Kauffman Foundation Series on Innovation and Entrepreneurship), Steven Klepper – Edited By: Serguey Braguinsky, David A. Hounshell, John H. Miller
- Explaining Creativity, Keith Sawyer
- Exponiential Organizations: Why New Organizations Are Ten Times Better, Faster, and Cheaper Than Yours (and What to Do About It), Salim Ismail
- Fire Starter Sessions: A Soulful + Practical Guide to Creating Success on Your Own Terms, Danielle Laporte
- Form A Partnership: The Complete Legal Guide, Denis Clifford
- Foster Your Passion: A Guide To Finding Your Passion And The Tools You Need To Foster It, Hayley Foster
- Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days, Jessica Livingston
- Founder’s Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup, Noam Wasserman
- Four Steps to the Epiphany, Steve Blank
- Functional Art: An Introduction to Information Graphics and Visualization, Alberto Cairo
- Fundable Startup: How Disruptive Companies Attract Capital, Fred M. Haney
- Future Agenda: Six Challenges to the Next Decade, Caroline Dewing and Tim Jones
- Geek Girl Rising: Inside the Sisterhood Shaking Up Tech, Heather Cabot
- Geek Silicon Valley, Ashlee Vance
- Getting Beyond Better: How Social Entrepreneurship Works, Roger L. Martin
- Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, Roger Fisher
- Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women, Catherine Thimmesh
- Good Profit: How Creating Value for Others Built One of The World’s Most Successful Companies, Charles Koch
- Good to Great, Jim Collins
- Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, Angela Duckworth
- Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration Paperback, Keith Sawyer
- Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building A Business When There Are No Easy Answers, Ben Horowitz
- HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business, Richard Ruback
- Heavy Hitter I.T. Sales Strategy: Competitive Insights from Interviews With 1,000+ Key Information Technology Decision Makers and Top Technology Salespeople, Steve Martin
- High Output Management, Andrew S. Grove
- Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, Nir Eyal
- How Did You Do It, Truett?: A Recipe for Success, Cathy Truett
- How Exceptional Black Women Lead: Unlocking the Secrets to Creating Phenomenal Success in Career and in Life, Avis Jones-DeWeever
- How the Internet Became Commercial: Innovation, Privatization, And the Birth of a New Network, Shane Greenstein
- How to Change the World, David Bornstein
- How to Use Graphic Design to Sell Things, Explain Things, Make Things Look Better, Make People Laugh, Make People Cry, and (Every Once in a While) Change the World, Michael Bierut
- How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World, Steven Johnson
- Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (A Little) Craziness And (A Lot Of) Success in America, John Gartner
- Idea Factory: Bell Labs and The Great Age of American Innovation, Jon Gertner
- In the Company of Women: Inspiration and Advice from Over 100 Makers, Artists, and Entrepreneurs, Grace Bonney
- Inevitable: Understanding The 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future, Kevin Kelly
- Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Cialdini, Robert B
- Infographic Guide to Science, Tom Cabot
- Innovating: A Doer’s Manifesto for Starting from A Hunch, Prototyping Problems, Scaling Up, And Learning to Be Productively Wrong, Luis Perez-Breva
- Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Peter Drucker
- Innovation and Scaling for Impact: How Effective Social Enterprises Do It, Christian Seelos
- Innovation Blind Spot: Why We Back the Wrong Ideas and What to Do About It, Ross Baird
- Innovation Code: The Creative Power of Constructive Conflict, Jeffrey Thomas Degraff
- Innovator’s Dilemma, Clayton Christensen
- Innovators: How A Group of Hackers, Geniuses, And Geeks Created the Digital Revolution, Walter Isaacson
- Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel, Benjamin Graham
- Invention of Enterprise: Entrepreneurship from Ancient Mesopotamia To Modern Times Edited (Kauffman Foundation Series on Innovation and Entrepreneurship), David S. Landes, Joel Mokyr, William J. Baumol
- It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be: The World’s Best-Selling Book by Paul Arden, Paul Arden
- King of Capital: The Remarkable Rise, Fall, And Rise Again of Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone, David Carey
- Knowledge is Beautiful, David McCandless
- Launch Pad: Inside Y Combinator, Silicon Valley’s Most Exclusive School for Startups, Randall Stross
- Lead Your Tribe, Love Your Work: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Creating a Culture that Matters, Piyush Patel
- Leadership Is an Art, Max Depree
- Leadership Step by Step: Become the Person Others Follow, Joshua Spodek
- Lean Out, Dawn Foster
- Lean Product Design and Development Journey: A Practical View, Marcus Vinicius Pereira Pessoa
- Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses, Eric Ries
- Lean UX: Designing Great Products with Agile Teams, Jeff Gothelf
- Lightning in A Bottle, David Minter and Michael Reid
- Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, And Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way, Richard Branson
- Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, Chip Heath and Dan Heath
- Managing the Nonprofit Organization, Peter Drucker
- Massive Change and the Institute Without Boundaries, Bruce Mau
- Mastering Bitcoin: Programming the Open Blockchain, Anas Antonopoulos
- Mastering the VC Game: A Venture Capital Insider Reveals How to Get from Start-Up to IPO On Your Terms, Jeffery Bussgang
- Mental Toughness for Women Leaders: 52 Tips to Recognize and Utilize Your Greatest Strengths, Larae Quy
- Microtheory Of Innovative Entrepreneurship, William J. Baume
- Money of Invention: How Venture Capital Creates New Wealth Hardcover, Paul A. Gompers
- Monk and the Riddle: The Education of a Silicon Valley Entrepreneur, Randy Komisar with Kent Lineback
- My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla, Nikola Tesla
- Myth of Meritocracy: Why Working-Class Kids Get Working-Class Jobs, James Bloodworth
- Networking China: The Digital Transformation of The Chinese Economy, Yu Hong
- Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as If Your Life Depended on It, Voss, Christopher
- Next Generation Business Strategies for The Base of The Pyramid: New Approaches for Building Mutual Value, Ted London
- Nolo’s Patents for Beginners, David Pressman
- Not So Obvious: An Introduction to Patent Law and Strategy, Jeffrey Schox
- On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker, A’Lelia Bundles
- Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need, Anthony Iannarino
- Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World, Adam Grant
- Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success, William Thorndike
- People’s Tycoon: Henry Ford and The American Century, Steven Watts
- Philanthro-Capitalism: How the Rich Can Save The World, Matthew Bishop
- Pitch Anything: An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, And Winning the Deal, Oren Klaff
- Platform Revolution, Sangeet Paul Choudary, Geoffrey G Parker, and Marshall Van Alstyne
- Platform: Get Noticed in A Noisy World, Michael Hyatt
- Pocket Universal Principles of Design: 150 Essential Tools for Architects, Artists, Designers, Developers, Engineers, Inventors, and Managers, William Lidwell
- Pour Your Heart into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at A Time, Howard Schultz
- Power of Little Ideas: A Third Way to Innovate for Market Success, David C Robertson
- Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely
- Predicting the Turn: The High Stakes Game of Business Between Startups and Blue Chips, Dave Knox
- Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience, Carmine Gallo
- Presentation Techniques: A Guide to Drawing and Presenting Design Ideas, Dick Powell
- Present-Future Leader: How to Thrive in Today’s Economy, Randall Wolken
- Principles: Life and Work, Ray Dalio
- Profit from Your Idea: How to Make Smart Licensing Deals, Richard Stim
- Purpose Economy, Aaron Hurst
- Purpose Is Profit: The Truth About Starting and Building Your Own Business, Ed McLaughlin
- Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity, Kim Scott
- Raising Venture Capital for The Serious Entrepreneur, Dermot Berkery
- Raw Data: Infographic Designer’s Sketchbooks, Steven Heller
- Research Methods for Product Design, Alex Milton
- Running Lean: Iterate from Plan A to A Plan That Works, Ash Maurya
- Scaling Up Excellence: Getting to More Without Settling for Less, Robert Sutton
- Screw Business as Usual, Richard Branson
- Seventh Sense: Power, Fortune, And Survival in The Age of Networks, Joshua Cooper Ramo
- Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 into a Billion Dollar Business, Barbara Corcoran
- Shoe Dog: A Memoir by The Creator of Nike, Philip H. Knight
- Sketching: Drawing Techniques for Product Designers, Koos Eissen
- Small Is the New Big: And 183 Other Riffs, Rants, And Remarkable Business Ideas, Seth Godin
- Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Productivity in Life and Business, Charles Duhigg
- Snowball: Warren Buffett And the Business of Life, Alice Schroeder
- Social Entrepreneur’s Playbook, Expanded Edition: Pressure Test, Plan, Launch and Scale Your Social Enterprise, Ian C. Macmillan
- Social Entrepreneurship: A Skills Approach, Christopher Durkin
- Solomon’s Knot: How Law Can End the Poverty of Nations (Kauffman Foundation Series on Innovation and Entrepreneurship), Robert D. Cooter, Hans-Bernd Schäfer
- Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, John Ratey
- Start Something That Matters, Blake Mycoskie
- Startup CEO A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Business, Matt Blumberg
- Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City, Brad Feld
- Startup Equation: A Visual Guidebook to Building, Launching and Scaling Your Startup, Steven Fisher
- Startup Game: Inside the Partnership Between Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs, William H. Draper
- Start-Up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career, Reid Hoffman
- Startup Playbook: Founder-to-Founder Advice From Two Startup Veterans, Rajat Bhargava and Will Herman
- Startup Way: How Modern Companies Use Entrepreneurial Management to Transform Culture and Drive Long-Term Growth, Eric Ries
- Startup: The Complete Handbook for Launching a Company for Less, Elizabeth Edwards
- Steal Like an Artist, Austin Kleon
- Steal the Show: From Speeches to Job Interviews to Deal-Closing Pitches, How to Guarantee a Standing Ovation for All the Performances in Your Life, Michael Port
- Storyscaping: Stop Creating Ads, Start Creating Worlds, Gaston Legorburu
- Succeeding at Social Enterprise: Hard-Won Lessons for Nonprofits and Social Entrepreneurs, Social Enterprise Alliance
- Success and Luck: Good Fortune and The Myth of Meritocracy, Robert H. Frank.
- Summary of Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio,
- Sustainability Generation: The Politics of Change & Why Personal Accountability is Essential Now!, Mark C. Coleman
- Tactics of Hope: How Social Entrepreneurs Are Changing Our World, Wilford Welch
- Tao Of Leadership: Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, John Heider
- Ten Types of Innovation: The Discipline of Building Breakthroughs, Larry Keeley
- Term Sheets & Valuations – An Inside Look at The Intricacies of Venture Capital Term Sheets & Valuations, Alex Wilmerding
- That’s What She Said: What Men Need to Know (and Women Need to Tell Them) About Working Together, Joanne Lipman
- Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain, Steven D. Levitt
- Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students, Ellen Lupton
- Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman
- Third Wave: An Entrepreneur’s Vision of The Future, Stephen Case
- This is Service Design Doing: Applying Service Design Thinking in the Real World: A Practitioners’ Handbook, Marc Stickdorn (editor)
- This is Service Design Methods: A Companion to This is Service Design Doing, Marc Stickdorn (editor)
- Thoughts on Interaction Design, Jon Kolko
- Thriving on Chaos, Tom Peters
- Time to Trust: Mobilizing Humanity for a Sustainable Future, Mark C. Coleman
- To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, Daniel Pink
- Tom Peters Essentials: Design, Tom Peters
- Tom Peters Essentials: Leadership, Tom Peters
- Tom Peters Essentials: Talent, Tom Peters
- Tom Peters Essentials: Trends, Tom Peters
- Travels of A T-Shirt in The Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, And Politics of World Trade, Pietra Rivoli
- True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership Hardcover, Bill George
- Truthful Art: Data, Charts, and Maps for Communication, Alberto Cairo
- Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet, Andrew Blum
- Turn Ideas into Products: A Playbook for Defining and Delivering Technology Products, Steve Johnson
- Uncontainable, Kip Tindell
- Understanding Social Enterprise: Theory and Practice, Rory Ridley-Duff
- Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds, Michael Lewis
- Universal Principles of Design, William Lidwell
- Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, And the Killer Companies of The New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World, Brad Stone
- Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want, Alex Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Greg Bernarda, Alan Smith; Designed by Trish Papadakos.
- Venture Deals, Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson