My love for business books started when I was in my previous company Perot Systems( Now Dell). The library there was huge and I had absolutely no work to do :-). I took up one book by random and it turned out to be “Only the paranoid survive” by Andy Grove. I assumed that such books would be boring, but to my surprise I was reading this book well past midnight on several occasions.
This got me thinking… are all business books interesting? I started searching for books to read once I finished the first book. When I searched on the net, I came across an interesting concept, a concept of a Personal MBA.
The creator of personal MBA Josh Kaufman has a theory. Instead of spending lots of money on a MBA course, it should be more profitable to read a select set of business book and get similar knowledge. He acknowledges that reading these books is not enough. That we need to try to apply any leaning in our daily work life. And a personal MBA will not get you a consulting job in a bank. He just says it provides enough information to have an intelligent conversation with a person who has done a formal MBA.
He had created an initial set of 42 books which I revered as THE books to read. However, when I got through about 4 of them, Josh changed the list and only 2 of the books I read were still in the list. This broke my heart, but also led me to believe that the list of books he is giving might be influenced by the amount of money he is making. (This guy sells the books in his recommended list through amazon)
So, now, I just occasionally visit the site to see which new books are present. This however does not decide which books I buy. I just visit the nearest crossword or landmark and buy the books I like. Sure, some of the books I have read were terrible(ex: The HP way) but I still learned something about HP.
So, I have a list of books I have read in the “Books I have read” page. I have marked some of the books as “recommended”. I would consider these books as the books to read for your Personal MBA.
For people interested in the original personal MBA – the site is http://personalmba.com/ It’s really worth going through what he says at least once.
Management Concepts & Book Summaries 
Hi, Ashish – glad you’re finding the PMBA useful. I’m the guy who created it.
Re: changes to the list – the original 42 books you mentioned were the texts I recommended in 2005, shortly after I started the project. I’ve been updating the list annually since then, based on the results of my research. The goal of the project is to recommend the best books that help you learn essential business concepts quickly and clearly. Some books are better than others, and as I’ve read more books (thousands by now) over the years, my list of the best books naturally changed over time. (Think of it as having a larger sample size.)
The current list is comprehensive, and I don’t expect it to change much moving forward, except in cases of new editions or books that go out of print.
Re: Amazon commissions – they essentially bring in enough revenue to cover the site’s operating costs, as well as paying for cool things like the PMBA Community. I never make recommendations based on which books sell – if that were the case, you’d see books like “Good to Great” on the list, which sells well but teaches little. My #1 priority is identifying the best books to learn from, not maximizing affiliate commissions.
BTW – my first book, “The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business” will be published December 30th, and I hope you find it useful. All the best!
Woow! Josh kaufman commented on my post!! I am really honoured to see that you took time to read and comment on it.
I was a casual reader of business books, but after I came across your site, there was a new vision and discipline in my reading. In fact I owe my success at work to personalMBA since I started writing a blog in the company intranet( of which this site is a copy of) and it got me a lot of good publicity.
Thanks for taking time to clarify why you changed the list. I completely agree with your logic, but did get disillusioned at that time. As for your book, I was aware of it as I am a regular visitor to your site. Ask your publisher to make sure it is sold in India too – I am looking forward to reading it!