Reading List for 2026
Hey — these are my top book recommendations for friends heading into 2026. Each one touched me at a different point in life, but together they connect like a chain — from the inner world, to the biology that drives us, to the way we compete, connect, and create. If you’re the kind of person who likes to understand why you do what you do — and maybe level up in the process — start here.
Man and His Symbols — Carl G. Jung (1964)
Genre: Psychology / Jungian analysis
This one’s like opening a map of your own mind and realizing you’ve been driving with half the roads hidden. Jung shows how dreams, art, and myths aren’t random — they’re your subconscious sending up flares, trying to guide you toward balance and wholeness. Once you start noticing the symbols that repeat in your life, you realize they’ve been there all along, waiting for you to pay attention. It’s the perfect place to start — learning the language of your own mind before you try to decode the world around you.
The Selfish Gene — Richard Dawkins (1976)
Genre: Evolutionary biology / evolutionary psychology
After Jung takes you deep into the human psyche, Dawkins zooms out to the cosmic level of life itself. This book reframes evolution through the lens of the gene — showing that everything from love to sacrifice has a survival logic behind it. What we call “altruism” often turns out to be biology playing the long game. But somehow, the more you understand that, the more awe you feel for the moments when humans rise above it — when we cooperate, create, or love despite the math. It’s science that reads like philosophy, and it makes you see human nature as both brilliant and brutal at the same time.
The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature — Matt Ridley (1993)
Genre: Evolutionary psychology
If The Selfish Gene builds the framework, The Red Queen drops you into the arena — where genes meet desire, and evolution writes its story in real time. Ridley explores why sex exists at all, why attraction and power shape nearly everything we do, and why our minds evolved to be both creative and competitive. It’s smart, funny, and occasionally uncomfortable — like realizing you’ve been following a script written by nature herself. And yet, knowing that script gives you power to improvise your own part. By this point, you’ve moved from understanding the symbols inside you (Jung) to the instincts beneath them (Dawkins) — and now, Ridley shows how those instincts play out between us, every day.
Atlas Shrugged — Ayn Rand (1957)
Genre: Philosophical fiction / dystopian
After plumbing the depths of mind, instinct, and human behavior, this one turns upward — asking what it means to build, to create, and to take responsibility for your own vision. Rand’s story follows the men and women who refuse to slow down while the world around them crumbles — builders, thinkers, and creators who ask what happens when the ones holding everything together finally let go. It’s long, polarizing, and unapologetic, but it’s also electric. It reminds you that understanding the world is only half the journey — at some point, you have to decide what you’re going to do with that understanding. It’s story first, philosophy riding shotgun, and it closes the loop perfectly: after exploring what drives us and shapes us, Rand asks what we’ll make of it all.
How to read these: symbols → instincts → behavior → vision. Read them in order and see how the ideas stack.