Here are 100 books that Curious fans have personally recommended if you like Curious. Book DNA is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Contagious: Why Things Catch On

K. M. Wade Author Of The Content Marketer’s Blog Post Playbook

From my list on marketing to help you truly engage your audience.

Why am I passionate about this?

Throughout my career, I’ve come across so many everyday people with awesome ideas of life-changing potential for a select group of people. And most of them struggle to reach the people they can most help. This is such an incredible shame! I’m passionate about connecting those entrepreneurs and business owners who have great ideas with the people who will most benefit from their solutions, so both parties win. A big part of that is ensuring their marketing engages their target audience, hence this book list.

K. M.'s book list on marketing to help you truly engage your audience

K. M. Wade Why K. M. loves this book

No one can truly predict what will go viral, and honestly, I don’t aim for virality—my focus is on reaching a specific audience, not the masses. That said, I did want to understand the factors that make content more shareable. I wanted to craft content that resonates deeply while encouraging organic sharing, and Contagious provided a wealth of insights to achieve exactly that.

Jonah provides many examples and explains the science of why people share things in a way that I found fascinating and practical. I walked away with clear strategies for adding more share-worthy elements to my content without sacrificing authenticity or integrity. 

By Jonan Berger ,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Contagious as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Why are some products and ideas talked about more than others? Why do some articles make the most emailed list? Why do some YouTube videos go viral? Word-of-mouth. Whether through face-to-face conversations, emails from friends, or online product reviews, the information and opinions we get from others have a strong impact on our own behaviour. Indeed, word-of-mouth generates more than two times the sales of paid advertising and is the primary factor behind 20-50% of all purchasing decisions.It is between 8.5 and 30 times more effective than traditional media.But want to know the best thing about word-of-mouth? It's available to…


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Book cover of December on 5C4

December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

Book cover of Creating Signature Stories: Strategic Messaging that Energizes, Persuades and Inspires

Keith A. Quesenberry Author Of Brand Storytelling: Integrated Marketing Communications for the Digital Media Landscape

From my list on business books to master the art and science of brand storytelling.

Why am I passionate about this?

After 17 years in the advertising industry, I became a professor to teach what I learned in practice. Only then did I start reflecting, researching, and discovering why we were successful in some efforts and not in others. From that perspective, I’ve been crafting new ways to approach marketing that are not based on what worked in the past but on what works now in light of the dramatic changes in the field. Within marketing, I focus on social media strategy, digital marketing, and storytelling.

Keith's book list on business books to master the art and science of brand storytelling

Keith A. Quesenberry Why Keith loves this book

David Aaker is an American Marketing Association Hall of Fame member and innovator in marketing management and branding through research, teaching, and books.

This book is his insight on brand storytelling with inspiration from his daughter Jennifer Aaker and other’s research on the power of stories. Aaker explains that stories are powerful in communicating strategic messaging. He also explains that in a digital age where content is king, stories are the key to content.

I especially liked his explanation of the types of signature stories and examples of brand signature stories – including the L.L. Bean story in the very beginning.

By David Aaker ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Creating Signature Stories as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Stories are orders of magnitude which are more effective than facts at achieving attention, persuading, being remembered, and inspiring involvement. Signature stories-intriguing, authentic, and involving narratives-apply the power of stories to communicate a strategic message. Marketing professionals, coping with the digital revolution and the need to have their strategic message heard internally and externally, are realizing that a digital strategy revolves around content and that content is stories.

Creating Signature Stories shows organizations how to introduce storytelling into their strategic messaging, and guides organizations to find, or even create, signature stories and leverage them over time. With case studies built…


Book cover of The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypes

Keith A. Quesenberry Author Of Brand Storytelling: Integrated Marketing Communications for the Digital Media Landscape

From my list on business books to master the art and science of brand storytelling.

Why am I passionate about this?

After 17 years in the advertising industry, I became a professor to teach what I learned in practice. Only then did I start reflecting, researching, and discovering why we were successful in some efforts and not in others. From that perspective, I’ve been crafting new ways to approach marketing that are not based on what worked in the past but on what works now in light of the dramatic changes in the field. Within marketing, I focus on social media strategy, digital marketing, and storytelling.

Keith's book list on business books to master the art and science of brand storytelling

Keith A. Quesenberry Why Keith loves this book

This book is all about brand building and it was integral to my advertising copywriting days.

Mark and Pearson use Jung’s 12 archetypes to classify brands, consumer markets, and consumers. We used their system to help our clients identify brand meaning and archetype and then used that as the basis for establishing relationships with customers.

Knowing the brand archetype helped me know what type of character’s story to tell. Brand and story archetypes become a shortcut to letting an audience and prospective customer know your brand story is about their story.

By Margaret Mark , Carol Pearson ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Hero and the Outlaw as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This book describes a system of meaning management, the first-ever systematic approach to successful brand meaning. 'This book illuminates the most ancient grooves in our mental architecture, which Carol Jung described as "archetypes", and shows how they can be employed to bring meaning and profit to a brand. There is a nascent power here, which, if understood correctly, can bring a rare vitality to a brand or a corporation' - From the Foreward by Alex Kroll former Creative Director, CEO and Chairman of Young & Rubicam. Some brands are so extraordinary that they become larger-than-life, symbolic of entire cultures, and…


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Book cover of Retrieving the Future

Retrieving the Future by Randy C. Dockens,

Stealing technology from parallel Earths was supposed to make Declan rich. Instead, it might destroy everything.

Declan is a self-proclaimed interdimensional interloper, travelling to parallel Earths to retrieve futuristic cutting-edge technology for his employer. It's profitable work, and he doesn't ask questions. But when he befriends an amazing humanoid robot,…

Book cover of A Technique for Producing Ideas: A Simple Five Step Formula for Producing Ideas

Keith A. Quesenberry Author Of Brand Storytelling: Integrated Marketing Communications for the Digital Media Landscape

From my list on business books to master the art and science of brand storytelling.

Why am I passionate about this?

After 17 years in the advertising industry, I became a professor to teach what I learned in practice. Only then did I start reflecting, researching, and discovering why we were successful in some efforts and not in others. From that perspective, I’ve been crafting new ways to approach marketing that are not based on what worked in the past but on what works now in light of the dramatic changes in the field. Within marketing, I focus on social media strategy, digital marketing, and storytelling.

Keith's book list on business books to master the art and science of brand storytelling

Keith A. Quesenberry Why Keith loves this book

To tell a brand story, you need ideas. Where do ideas come from? No one really knew, including me, until James Young Webb wrote this book, and I discovered it years into my career.

Before reading Young's book, my ideas for marketing clients were often hit or miss. Sometimes, they were brilliant, and sometimes, just okay. What was the difference? I didn’t know until I read this five-step process. When I followed this process my ideas were better. Knowing and following the process will make your ideas and brand stories better.

By James Webb Young ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Technique for Producing Ideas as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This concise and powerful book lifts the lid on the creative process and eloquently details the steps needed to create exciting new ideas.

Advertising copywriters, engineers, poets, painters and scientists have all benefited from its text to make creative breakthroughs.

Advertising trailblazer William Bernbach wrote, "James Webb Young conveys in his little book something more valuable than the most learned and detailed texts on the subject of advertising. Mr. Young is in the tradition of some of our greatest thinkers when he describes the workings of the creative process".

Table of contents

How it started The formula of experience The…


Book cover of E = mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation

Michael DiRuggiero Author Of Einstein: The Man and His Mind

From my list on Albert Einstein for the non-scientist.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am the co-founder and current owner of The Manhattan Rare Book Company. I’ve been in the rare book business for 25 years, specializing in the history of science with particular emphasis on material relating to Albert Einstein. Like many people, I’ve long been drawn to Einstein, attracted by his wisdom, curiosity, personality, approachability, and general decency. 

Michael's book list on Albert Einstein for the non-scientist

Michael DiRuggiero Why Michael loves this book

Using Einstein's most famous equation as his organizational theme, Bodanis offers a fresh and exciting approach to Einstein's life and work. Energy, mass, and the speed of light become characters of their own as Bodanis traces our evolving understanding of the nature of the universe. The book is all about context—delightfully so—giving Bodanis an excuse to introduce a kaleidoscope of colorful personalities who either influenced Einstein, or were influenced by him, all connected by their relationship to this most powerful of all equations.     

By David Bodanis ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked E = mc2 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Already climbing the bestseller lists-and garnering rave reviews this "little masterpiece" sheds brilliant light on the equation that changed the world.

Bodanis begins by devoting chapters to each of the equation's letters and symbols, introducing the science and scientists forming the backdrop to Einstein's discovery from Ole Roemer's revelation that the speed of light could be measured to Michael Faraday's pioneering work on energy fields. Having demystified the equation, Bodanis explains its science and brings it to life historically, making clear the astonishing array of discoveries and consequences it made possible. It would prove to be a beacon throughout the…


Book cover of The World as I See it

Charles P. Webel Author Of The World as Idea: A Conceptual History

From my list on how the world may or may not be what you think it is.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a lifelong student with what I sometimes call “a multidisciplinary disorder,” I have been intrigued both about “the outer world,” or the “external environment of life on planet Earth, and “the mind that knows the world.” Hence, as a teenager in New York City, I read voraciously books in philosophy, history, and the social and natural sciences to learn what “great minds” have thought about “the world.” Much later, as an “academic” researcher and writer, I scoured the shelves of university libraries to examine what I considered the strengths and weaknesses of the academic disciplines that addressed our “knowledge of the world,” and their applications for “changing the world for the better.” My book The World as Idea is the first volume of a projected trilogy modestly entitled The Fate of This World and The Future of Humanity. I’m now working on the second volume, The Reality of This World.

Charles' book list on how the world may or may not be what you think it is

Charles P. Webel Why Charles loves this book

Albert Einstein was, for a very good reason or three, Time magazine’s “Person of the Twentieth Century.”

Unfortunately, very few people are knowledgeable about his contributions to modern science, which are enormous and complex, and even fewer seem to know about his thinking on politics, war, and peace in particular, and the world in general.

In this book, readers have the opportunity to learn more about Einstein’s thoughts about the world of the 20th century, which are usually presented in a clear, accessible fashion.

By Albert Einstein ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The World as I See it as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The most advanced and celebrated mind of the 20th Century, without a doubt, is attributed to Albert Einstein. This interesting book allows us to explore his beliefs, philosophical ideas, and opinions on many subjects. Subjects include politics, religion, education, the meaning of life, Jewish issues, the world economy, peace and pacifism. Einstein believed in the possibility of a peaceful world and in the high mission of science to serve human well-being. As we near the end of a century in which science has come to seem more and more remote from human values, Einstein's perspective is indispensable.


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Book cover of What Walks This Way: Discovering the Wildlife Around Us Through Their Tracks and Signs

What Walks This Way by Sharman Apt Russell,

Nature writer Sharman Apt Russell tells stories of her experiences tracking wildlife—mostly mammals, from mountain lions to pocket mice—near her home in New Mexico, with lessons that hold true across North America. She guides readers through the basics of identifying tracks and signs, revealing a landscape filled with the marks…

Book cover of Einstein and the Quantum: The Quest of the Valiant Swabian

Michael DiRuggiero Author Of Einstein: The Man and His Mind

From my list on Albert Einstein for the non-scientist.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am the co-founder and current owner of The Manhattan Rare Book Company. I’ve been in the rare book business for 25 years, specializing in the history of science with particular emphasis on material relating to Albert Einstein. Like many people, I’ve long been drawn to Einstein, attracted by his wisdom, curiosity, personality, approachability, and general decency. 

Michael's book list on Albert Einstein for the non-scientist

Michael DiRuggiero Why Michael loves this book

Of all the books I've read about Einstein, this one was, perhaps, the most eye-opening for me. For years, the prevailing opinion was that while Einstein was (of course) brilliant, and his special and general theories of relativity were seismically important, he was on the wrong side of history with his views on quantum theory. Stone sets the record straight: Einstein was indeed skeptical of many aspects of quantum theory (particularly with his refusal to accept quantum entanglement and inherent randomness), but his challenges to the theory were so intelligent and so piercing, that the entire scientific community had to respond to him. Stone argues convincingly that Einstein's concerns were often the driving force propelling the theory forward.

By A. Douglas Stone ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Einstein and the Quantum as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Einstein and the Quantum reveals for the first time the full significance of Albert Einstein's contributions to quantum theory. Einstein famously rejected quantum mechanics, observing that God does not play dice. But, in fact, he thought more about the nature of atoms, molecules, and the emission and absorption of light--the core of what we now know as quantum theory--than he did about relativity. A compelling blend of physics, biography, and the history of science, Einstein and the Quantum shares the untold story of how Einstein--not Max Planck or Niels Bohr--was the driving force behind early quantum theory. It paints a…


Book cover of On Wings of Words: The Extraordinary Life of Emily Dickinson

Ronni Diamondstein Author Of Jackie and the Books She Loved

From my list on inspire young people to be readers and writers.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been a reader and a writer for as long as I can remember, so books about reading, writing, and storytelling have always interested me. As a school library media specialist for over 30 years, I have read thousands of picture books and placed wonderful books in the hands of thousands of young people. Several of these books were mentor texts when I wrote my picture book biography. I want young people to be inspired to read and write, and I hope these books will do that for the adults who select them and the children who read them.

Ronni's book list on inspire young people to be readers and writers

Ronni Diamondstein Why Ronni loves this book

Jennifer Berne is one of my favorite nonfiction authors, and this book is at the top of my list. I enjoyed the sprinkling of verses from Emily Dickinson’s poems throughout the lyrical narrative about her life.

The dreamy illustrations complement the language and imagery of Dickinson’s poems. I love this book because it tenderly tells Dickinson’s story and will inspire young poets to write.

By Jennifer Berne , Becca Stadtlander (illustrator) ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked On Wings of Words as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 6, 7, 8, and 9.

What is this book about?

An inspiring and kid-accessible biography of one of the world's most famous poets.

Emily Dickinson, who famously wrote "Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul," is brought to life in this moving story. In a small New England town lives Emily Dickinson, a girl in love with small things-a flower petal, a bird, a ray of light, a word. In those small things, her brilliant imagination can see the wide world-and in her words, she takes wing. From celebrated children's author Jennifer Berne comes a lyrical and lovely account of the life of Emily Dickinson: her…


Book cover of Mathematics for the Million: How to Master the Magic of Numbers

David Acheson Author Of The Wonder Book of Geometry: A Mathematical Story

From my list on mathematics for the general reader.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am an applied mathematician at Oxford University, and author of the bestseller 1089 and All That, which has now been translated into 13 languages. In 1992 I discovered a strange mathematical theorem – loosely related to the Indian Rope Trick - which eventually featured on BBC television. My books and public lectures are now aimed at bringing mainstream mathematics to the general public in new and exciting ways.

David's book list on mathematics for the general reader

David Acheson Why David loves this book

This book has haunted me for years. For what is it, exactly, that gives it such enduring popularity? After all, it was first published in 1936, yet is still in print today. In his autobiography, Hogben remarks on the importance of eye-catching illustrations but speculates that its success may instead be because the book contains – most unusually for a 'popular' work – exercises and answers, making it more suitable for self-teaching. Whatever the real answer, his book must surely have something to teach anyone – like myself – who aspires to bring mainstream mathematics to life for the general public.

By Lancelot Hogben ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Mathematics for the Million as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Explains mathematics from counting to calculus in the light of man's changing social achievements.


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Book cover of The Bridge: Connecting The Powers of Linear and Circular Thinking

The Bridge by Kim Hudson,

The Bridge provides a compassionate and well researched window into the worlds of linear and circular thinking. A core pattern to the inner workings of these two thinking styles is revealed, and most importantly, insight into how to cross the distance between them. Some fascinating features emerged such as, circular…

Book cover of On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein

Andi Diehn Author Of Forces: Physical Science for Kids

From my list on children’s books about physics.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have always been fascinated by how the world works. What gives gravity so much power? Why is it easier to lift things with levers and pulleys? Why do we have electricity inside of our own bodies?! The world is amazing. My job editing nonfiction books for kids puts me on the front lines of some of the smartest science writing out there. While I had no hand in the making of the following five picture books about physics, they are still some of my favorites because of the way they peel back the mysterious layers of the world to show us the science hidden in our daily lives.

Andi's book list on children’s books about physics

Andi Diehn Why Andi loves this book

You can’t talk physics without talking Einstein! This beautiful book explores Einstein’s curiosity and drive to know more, which began when he was young. His journey from nonverbal child to brilliant scientist is fascinating and inspiring for all kinds of readers.

By Jennifer Berne , Vladimir Radunsky (illustrator) ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked On a Beam of Light as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Travel along with Einstein on a journey full of curiosity, laughter, and scientific discovery. Parents and children alike will appreciate this moving story of the powerful difference imagination can make in any life.


Book cover of Contagious: Why Things Catch On
Book cover of Creating Signature Stories: Strategic Messaging that Energizes, Persuades and Inspires
Book cover of The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypes

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5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Albert Einstein, storytelling, and psychology?

Albert Einstein 42 books
Storytelling 138 books
Psychology 2,137 books