Do you often feel dumb? And it’s getting in the way of many things you want to achieve. No worries. Grab one of these books to increase your intelligence and be the smartest person in your crew.
Reading quality books helps enrich your mind and increase your emotional intelligence. One scientific research held in 2018 backed up this idea by stating that the people who developed a habit of reading good books performed better in Emotional Intelligence tests than those who didn’t.
Not only this, reading books enhances other two types of intelligence as well, i.e., fluid and crystallized intelligence. This article has brought a collection of seven books to read to get smarter. These will help you to understand unexplainable things, improve your cognitive thinking and help you find out of the box solutions.
Best Books to Read to Get Smarter:
Here are our seven shortlisted books that will not only entertain you with new facts but also target your thought process and sharpen your mental abilities.
(1) Freakonomics – by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Contrary to its title, Freakonomics is not a book on economics. This is a book that explores the hidden side of everything.
The author has taken out typical situations from daily life and explained them with the help of numbers. When you think out-of-the-box, you get some really exciting results; this is the main idea that this book gives. It teaches us to do so as well.
Freakonomics contains some really interesting case studies, and statistics and numbers back everything up. Some of the case studies are like; which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? And many more like these.
This is a great read even for those whose general response to numbers is “snores.” It’s one of the best books to make you smarter in a fun way.
(2) Moonwalking with Einstein – by Joshua Foer
You might already know that remembering things is the most important trait of smart people. If you’re ever thinking about what should I read to become smarter and memorize stuff, this book should be your pick. This book is all about improving memory.
This book explains how our brain stores information, how it contemplates anything, how we can navigate through all of our thoughts and remember them.
The book started with the event when the author visited the US Memory Championship. There he sees competitors who can memorize lists of numbers, images, and stuff like that. Intrigued by them, he decides to take part himself and, in the whole process, learns a lot of techniques and methods to boost his memory.
With his story-telling style, Foer tells each experience in a fun way by taking you on a fascinating journey.
(3) The 4-Hour Chef – by Tim Ferriss
A cookbook to read to become smarter?? Yep!
You might be thinking that, but it’s a book to learn any skill, not just cooking. The author picked cooking for this book because while prepping meals, we use all of our 5 senses, and you need it three times a day.
In the first section, Tim explains the method of learning any skill by dividing the desired skill into more sub-skills. Then you pick a sub-skill you need to do right away to have early results and leave you with a sense of competency.
However, in the rest four sections, the author explores new ways to learn cooking and explains the concepts by practical exercises.
(4) Thinking, Fast and Slow – by Dan Kahneman
The next read in our list of best books to become smarter is a glorious read by Dan Kahneman. ‘How to think in a specific situation’ is what this book teaches you.
We pursue success only when we have the right mindset. And your mindset develops from your thoughts. Many of us have a belief that we can’t choose our thoughts and make them go in a certain way.
However, this book shows you how to think systematically and make your decisions based on the situations. Often, it would be best if you were quick but also not rush for your decision. On the contrary, some situations demand a slow process of thinking and then going with the best possible decision.
Thinking Fast and Slow teaches you to make fast and slow decisions and control your thought process.
(5) Mindset – by Carol Dweck
As the name suggests, the book talks about mindsets. Basically, Carol is making a comparison between two kinds of mindsets; fixed mindset and growth mindset. Further, how these mindsets determine our future.
Have you ever thought, gosh, if I only be like those geeks, geniuses, and high-achievers? Or a thought like how on earth can I have such a high IQ? This particularly is a fixed mindset.
On the other hand, a growth mindset thinks the opposite of this. These people think and analyze how they can be like these great folks. People with a growth mindset know a person’s true potential is limitless.
If you want to give a twist to your thinking style, this can be the perfect book to read to get smarter.
(6) Who Moved My Cheese? – by Spencer Johnson
“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change,” said Albert Einstein. Life is full of “changes,” and we as human beings resist those variations in our daily lives.
Who Moved My Cheese has the same concept. It talks about seeing change, anticipating change, and adapting to change. That sounds quite boring, but Spencer Johnson wrote on this heavy topic in a cool way.
He told the great lessons of accepting and adapting to change in the story of four characters, two mice and two short men. In which they set out to find cheese in a maze.
(7) You Are Not Your Brain – by Jeffrey Schwarz
It’s not ground-breaking news that we can control our minds’ ability to think and perceive. Similarly, in this book, the author guides in a brilliant way to understand and transform what he calls “deceptive brain messages.”
While a deceptive brain message, based on this book, is a thought that becomes a hurdle in reaching your goals. These messages lead you to unsatisfactory results, fear, low self-esteem, behavioral patterns, etc.
Moreover, by some research-proven techniques mentioned in this book, you become able to control these unhelpful messages. Controlling your brain is kind of cool, and that’s why we call this one of the best books to read to become smarter.
Final Words
Being a smart person doesn’t mean being a computer who does any calculations in milliseconds. It’s the ability to understand situations and act in the best way. Our list of books to read to get smarter offers you great reads that can make you a wise person with a broad vision and higher EQ.