(1) Taught you something, and
(2) that something was very useful, and
(3) it was taught very efficiently.
I have two examples:
1.Typography for Lawyers. Just look at the Amazon reviews. I read the book in one weekend, and it took one more weekend to learn how to apply all the techniques in the book. You’ll learn enough about typography in a few days to give you an advantage over 99% of the general population. It’s helpful for everyone, but lawyers can learn everything they need to know about typography from reading this one book.
Their website contains most of the information that’s in the book, except for font recommendations, and instructions on how to use Word to implement their techniques.
I Will Teach You to Be Rich. I hesitated to buy this book at first because of its title. I changed my mind after I read a free chapter online. This book taught me all the basics of managing finances. It hit the sweet spot between how much you should learn before you hit diminishing returns on your knowledge. Again, in a few short days I learned more about managing my finances than about 90% of the population.
I used it to turn an electronics and computer hobby into a successful career. It wasn’t that it included all the information to do that, it was the just a simple clear explanation of how video terminals worked that provided the start to using other available resources that required that introductory information.
I mention it so often I should probably just make it my signature, but Learned Optimism changed my life. Nothing works for everyone, but for anyone who experiences depression or anxiety, or just wants to improve their emotional well-being, it’s worth a try. It provides very straightforward, usable tools for improving the way you think and feel.
I don’t buy a lots of books, but my pocket size Visual Quick Tips: Crochet has been really useful, and I’ve even lent it out with great success for the borrowers.
I’ve recommended this book before. It’s a book about how historians look at the evidence they have and use it to form a history. But I’ve found it to be more broadly useful; it gives you insights into how to look at things and figure out their meaning.
Note: The book has been in print for thirty years and has undergone several revisions. Track down a copy of the first edition (1982) if you can. The authors included some good stuff they decided was redundent and dropped from subsequent editions.
We have an earlier edition of that one, in a closet somewhere. Also Readers Digest manuals on needlework and home improvement, and carpentry. Mom gave them for Christmas. They’ve all seen some use.
I use my bird and cloud identification books often, but the most useful book I’ve owned was a big thick hardcover “parents encyclopedia” from the early 60’s. It came with a subscription to Parents magazine. Basic no nonsense advice (with photos) on feeding, potty training, how to know when to call the doctor, etc. It helped diagnose pyloric stenosis, when the GP couldn’t figure out why #2 son couldn’t keep anything down.
For anyone willing to think about and take its lessons to heart, Arnold’s biography is probably the best self-help book and guide to living a full life that’s ever been written.
Ratio by Mark Ruhlman - shows you the basic ratios of water/flour/butter/milk/eggs in different kinds of doughs, batters, stocks, etc… Makes it so much easier when you’re trying to make something with whatever you have on hand, rather than going grocery shopping to fit a specific recipe.
As a student of politics and history, I wish I had found Thucydides account of the Peloponnesian War the second semester of college rather than my third year. Best book on politics I have ever read and second best book on history (after Herodotus). Very useful.
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain not only showed me how to draw, but changed my way of viewing the world. I went from useless, to it being a truly rewarding hobby.