One of the nicest things about the holiday season is that you’re able to sneak in some me time. That gives founders a chance to unplug and catch up on their reading.
The right book for you depends on your interests, your tastes, and your mood. But with so many options on shelves, where should you start? Inc. surveyed an assortment of founders and business leaders and dug through dozens of lists to find recommendations of some of the best business books around today. If nothing in your backlog of books is calling to you today, any of these could be a good place to start.
Mercury co-founder and CEO Immad Akhund calls this look at China’s rapidly expanding technological and geopolitical profile “one of the better explanations of the gap between an engineering-driven society and a lawyer-driven one. It’s a thought-provoking look at why the U.S. struggles to build things and how we could fix it. It’s not hand-wavy. It’s grounded in engineering reality. If you care about how things actually get made, it’s worth reading.” He’s not alone. The Times of London called it “easily one of the best books on China published this year.”
Steve Blank, widely regarded as the father of modern entrepreneurship and the creator of the lean startup movement, lists this as one of his top books of 2025. It’s a memoir that looks at one woman’s career at Facebook. Wynn-Williams, a former U.N. diplomat for New Zealand, was the director of public policy at the company from 2011 through 2017. And the stories she conveys, which include alleged misconduct and harassment at the company, are ones Meta did not want told. In March, Meta got an arbitration order ordering Wynn-Williams to stop making “disparaging” remarks against the company and, where possible, cease promoting or publishing the book. Publisher Flatiron Books said the order had no impact on its corporate parent Macmillan and continued to sell it.
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Bill Gates included this look at how the concept of common knowledge shapes human behavior on his list of must-read holiday books for 2025. “Few people explain the mysteries of human behavior better than Steven Pinker, and his latest book is a must-read for anyone who wants to learn more about how people communicate,” he wrote. “When we know what others know, indirect signals become clear. Although the topic itself is pretty complicated, the book is readable and practical, and it made me see everyday social interactions in a new light.”
Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
Former president (and co-founder of Higher Ground, the award-winning media production company) Barack Obama, in his 2025 reading list, called Abundance “a must-read for progressives who want a blueprint for reforming government so it can deliver for working people.” The book has continued to gather praise in the ensuing months. It looks at progress in the U.S. through a different lens, illustrating how rigidly clinging to beliefs can sometimes prevent you from achieving what you want.
Todd Sattersten, founder of Bard Press and co-author of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time, said of Klein and Thompson’s book, “I came away inspired by another definition for progress. There is a mention in the book how talented graduates have favored digital entrepreneurship, because the online world doesn’t have the constraints and complexities that bogged down many other realms of the economy. I hope the book encourages others to tackle the harder problems that need solving.”
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