“Most of us read the wrong things. As Haruki Murakami put it, reading what everyone else reads means you’re probably going to think what everyone else thinks.”
Shane Parrish, creator of Farnam Street, reads a LOT of books. So his list of obscure books that are worth your time is a valuable resource.
His recommendations include Collected Maxims and Other Reflections by Francois de La Rochefoucauld, The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene, Xenophon’s Cyrus the Great: The Arts of Leadership and War by Xenophon, Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son by George Horace Lortimer, and Models of My Life by Herbert Simon.