With lockdowns in place in many parts of the world due to COVID-19, there are understandably a lot of people with a lot of time on their hands. For the avid readers, there is going to be a lot of time to read books and while you can fill the time with reading new books and adding to your current list, you might also consider reading some books again.

As a personal goal, I had decided to reduce my reading goal for new books for the year to 24 (50 in the last 2 years) so that I could read some of my favourites reads again. This list will feature books you’ve read before but if you haven’t you really should get into them. What makes these books great to read again is how they open up your mind differently upon a repeat read.

7 habits of Highly Effective People

I’ll take any opportunity to include this classic in a list. If you are only ever going to re-read one book in your life, the late Dr Coveys bestseller should be the one. To underscore this the 7th habit is “Sharpen the Saw” which puts forward the principle of incremental learning through repetition of concepts. I can attest to this with this book because the concepts looked new to me upon a second reading and new again after a third. This is so because each reading comes from a new base of understanding.

The Richest Man in Babylon

The story style of this book makes its principles easy to learn and practice. The beauty of it is it is designed to take you from the level of financial literacy you ate currently at to the next one. So it really doesn’t matter how far along you are it will always be useful to you.

How to win friends and influence people

You definitely need to read this one more than once. Unlike the previous two, it does not really have escalating quality. It does, however, contain so much content it would be difficult to master all at once. For the four times I have read it I have barely mastered half of it. This one may be best taken in chapters if it’s a repeat read, so going chapter by chapter. This is a practical guide so practice is where this comes in not just the reading.

Blink

I could easily have put all the Malcolm Gladwell books I’ve read on this list but I wanted to spread it out a bit. In Blink Gladwell gives one of the best lessons on how we receive and utilise the information for decision making as human beings. He covers issues such as judging character, purchase decisions, racism and leadership. The book is a very useful guide on the assimilation of information and has great takeaways. Again this is content-heavy and it is not something you can easily digest in one read.

Good to great

This study by Jim Collins on greatness in organisations needs to be read alongside Built to last which he co-authored with Jerry Porras. Good to great introduces so many concepts of a great business that can be adapted to personal life too. Still relevant many years later and it will continue to be so, perhaps even growing in its relevance. What I marvel at when I read the book again is how I have new examples to back up the concepts that are in the book.

Think and grow rich

In spite of its slightly misleading title, this book is one of the most popular and effective books on financial literacy and wealth accumulation. In case you haven’t read it before it is not just about thinking rich, it also addresses the actions required to move towards wealth. It serves as a healthy refresher of the fundamental principles when reading again.

The innovator’s dilemma

We have the late Clayton Christensen to thank for the term disruptive technologies. This book introduced the idea to the world and the rest, as they say, is history. The book is ideal for regular repeat reading because it will take you through a look at current technologies and trends to the disruptive activities and disruptive capacity of existing technologies in your market.

The 48 Laws of Power

While many have dismissed this book as a list of cheap tricks to manipulate people, Robert Greene’s most popular is anything but. It outlines laws based on principles that are confirmed in behavioural psychology but more importantly in practice. As an exercise in behaviour change, it is not easy to master all 48 laws in one go and the process of learning them in practice is long. This book also has an incremental quality with each read.

The power of habit

The power of habit is one of the most powerful books on the subject of habits. Particularly how habits have been used in marketing and business to shape the behaviour of entire markets. As you learn and grow in other areas it is important to refresh your understanding of the power of habit and how you can apply the teachings in new settings.

The 10X Rule

Grant Cardone is a colourful character who isn’t completely congruent with the characters we associate success with. Another author with quite a few books that I could’ve recommended but settled on this one. The 10X rule will certainly energise anyone who reads it and make you seriously reconsider your productivity. So it naturally is a book that requires regular reading to energise the reader again and again.

That’s my 10 books you should read again. It was very hard to narrow it down to 10 and I’m sure you have a few books you feel should be on such a list too. Feel free to share.