5 Books You Need to Read Before 2026 if You Want to Level Up
Sharpen your thinking for the new year
Equipping yourself with the right knowledge can be the difference between winning and losing on many fronts.
Whether you want to take control of your personal life, move up in your professional life, or sharpen your worldview, the right knowledge is what you need.
In other words, to make 2026 your year, you need to self-educate properly.
Where can you find this knowledge?
While there are plenty of great books, YouTube videos, courses, tutors, and other sources to get knowledge, I’d recommend starting with these 5 books.
1. Mastery by Robert Greene
If you’re looking to level up in 2026, Mastery by Robert Greene is the best place to start. It’s all about reaching true mastery.
What is mastery? And how can you achieve it?
Robert Greene explains everything about it thoroughly in this book.
Just know that first, you’ve got to figure out your life path, and you also need to be willing to dedicate yourself to your craft.
That can take years and requires being humble enough to remain a student through the process.
If you think you have it in you to become a master at what you love most, read this book and learn how to do just that.
You can purchase Mastery by Robert Greene here.
2. Poor Charlie’s Almanack
This book is a wonderful guide to help you get what you want out of life and business.
Simply put, you need to actually deserve it.
And the way to deserve it is to dedicate your life to learning and to be a good person.
So, the fact that you’re here, reading this blog post, is a good sign. It means you’re ready to start dedicating your life to learning (if you haven’t already).
The book also touches a lot on psychology and how it plays a role in your life. Charlie talks about what you need to know to achieve success.
It’s a great book all around and will definitely help you level up in 2026.
You can purchase Poor Charlie’s Almanack here.
3. The 5 Types of Wealth by Sahil Bloom
I don’t often include new-age self-help books on my lists, but this one is an exception.
Sahil Bloom is excellent at delivering great messages in a very direct and easy-to-digest way. He’s been doing it for a few years online, and now, he has with this book.
This book is great at explaining the different areas of your life that matter. It’s not all about money.
There are 5 types of wealth:
Time wealth
Social wealth
Physical wealth
Mental wealth
Financial wealth
Learn to excel in each of these areas in 2026, and you’ll be living a great life! Lucky for you (and me), Sahil teaches you how in this book.
You can purchase 5 Types of Wealth by Sahil Bloom here.
4. The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg
This is a book that has been quoted, enjoyed, and referenced by some of the most exceptional minds of our age. That is why I decided to read it.
It’s quite popular for having predicted cryptocurrency.
The Sovereign Individual is bound to affect your world-view.
It not only talks about the evolution from the industrial age to the information age, but also goes over the end of democracy, nation-states, and the state of the world as we know it.
If you want to be ready for what’s next (and what’s next is coming quickly with the AI revolution), you need to read this book.
You can purchase The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg here.
5. The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch
While listening to an endless amount of Naval Rakviant content, I stumbled upon this book after he highly recommended it.
It is a true gold mind.
This is a book that you will need to read more than once. It is so compact with valuable information that you will not be able to process it all immediately.
Sam Altman, the founder of OpenAI, has also mentioned this as his favourite book.
You’ll learn about how far we’ve come as humans, epistemology, technology, politics, the principle of optimism, and more.
These are all important if you are to level up in 2026.
The Beginning of Infinity is a solid 10/10 read. You can purchase it here.
To wrap it all up
In order to grow, you need to keep learning. You must always remain a humble student.
You must pair continuous learning with good morals, values, and hard work!
The new year is approaching. How you enter it is up to you!
Thanks for reading