The Misinformation Sucks Book Club: A Reading List for People Who Refuse to Be Played

By Michael Kelman Portney

Introduction: Why This Exists

You're being lied to.

Not always maliciously. Not always intentionally. But constantly.

Every advertisement you see, every political speech you hear, every "data-driven" presentation at work, every headline designed to make you click—someone is using rhetorical techniques, psychological principles, and strategic framing to move you toward a conclusion they want you to reach.

Most people never learn the rules of this game. They go through life as passengers in conversations they think they're directing. They believe they're thinking critically when they're actually following cognitive scripts written by people who've studied Cialdini. They think they're making autonomous decisions when they're responding predictably to frame control they can't even see.

This reading list exists because the best defense against manipulation is understanding how manipulation works.

Not so you can become a manipulator yourself—though you'll have that capability. Not so you can "win arguments" on the internet—though you'll probably do that too. But so you can recognize when someone is using these techniques on you, understand what they're trying to accomplish, and make genuinely informed decisions instead of the ones you've been steered toward.

What This Reading List Actually Is

This isn't a random collection of "smart books." This is a systematically designed curriculum for understanding how power, persuasion, and human psychology actually work.

You'll learn:

* How rhetoric shapes perception before you're even aware you're being persuaded

* Why cognitive biases make you predictably irrational in specific, exploitable ways

* How frame control determines conversation outcomes before anyone says a word

* Why game theory explains human behavior better than most people's intuitions about "how people should act"

* How dark psychology operates so you can recognize it in real-time

* Why professional wrestling is unironically one of the best case studies in applied mass persuasion

* How language itself structures thought in ways that serve some interests over others

Who This Is For

This reading list is for you if:

* You're tired of losing arguments you know you're right about

* You suspect you're being manipulated but can't articulate how

* You want to understand why "facts and logic" keep failing to change minds

* You're in any field involving persuasion: sales, management, law, politics, marketing, teaching, parenting, or just existing in society

* You've noticed that the most successful people aren't always the smartest—they're the ones who understand how humans actually work

* You're building something (a business, a movement, a campaign, a life) and need people to say yes

This reading list is NOT for you if:

* You think "being authentic" means never thinking strategically about communication

* You believe studying persuasion is inherently manipulative

* You're looking for self-help platitudes instead of functional knowledge

* You want to stay comfortable in your current understanding of how communication works

How to Use This List

The Tier System

I've organized this into three tiers because reading order matters.

Tier 1 (Core Foundation) gives you the fundamental mechanisms—how persuasion works at the psychological level, how humans make decisions, how language shapes thought. Read these first or you'll miss important context in later books.

Tier 2 (Strategic Depth) builds on that foundation with game theory, advanced rhetoric, and frame control. These books assume you understand the basics and go several levels deeper.

Tier 3 (Specialized Applications) covers specific domains—dating, business, law, politics, sales. Choose based on what you actually need. You don't need to read everything here, just what's relevant to your situation.

The Integration Projects

Here's the critical part most people skip: reading without application is entertainment, not education.

After finishing each cluster of books, you need to create something:

* Write speeches using the rhetorical devices you've learned

* Analyze historical negotiations and identify the techniques being used

* Break down successful persuasion campaigns—political, commercial, social

* Practice frame control in real conversations and document what happens

* Record your own persuasion attempts: what worked, what didn't, why

This reading list represents a multi-year program. You're not going to finish it in three months. You're not supposed to. The goal isn't to finish the list. The goal is to fundamentally change how you see and practice communication.

A Warning

Once you understand these principles, you can't unknow them.

You'll start seeing manipulation everywhere—in advertising, in politics, in your workplace, in your relationships, in "objective" news coverage, in academic writing, in this very introduction.

You'll notice when people are using cognitive biases against you. You'll see frame control in real-time. You'll recognize rhetorical devices as they're being deployed. You'll understand why certain arguments work despite being logically flawed, and why certain truths fail despite being obviously correct.

This awareness is powerful. It's also occasionally isolating. You'll watch people get played by obvious techniques and you won't always be able to explain what you're seeing without sounding paranoid or condescending.

But you'll also become much, much harder to manipulate. You'll make better decisions. You'll be more effective at everything involving human communication—which is damn near everything that matters.

The truth is: these techniques exist whether you learn them or not. The only question is whether you're going to be the person using them or the person they're being used on.

Core Rhetoric & Communication

Foundation Texts

The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth

Rhetorical devices and their practical applications. This is your handbook for understanding how language actually works at the sentence level—why some phrases stick in your brain and others don't. Forsyth breaks down the specific patterns that make communication memorable, persuasive, and emotionally resonant.

Thank You for Arguing by Jay Heinrichs

Modern rhetoric made accessible. Heinrichs takes 2,000-year-old persuasion techniques and shows you how to use them in everyday situations—from winning arguments with your teenager to negotiating with your boss. This is rhetoric without the academic pretension.

Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student by Edward P.J. Corbett

Academic foundation. If you want the technical understanding of how rhetoric actually functions as a system, this is your textbook. More dense than Heinrichs, more comprehensive than Forsyth. This is where you go when you want to understand the machinery.

Aristotle's Rhetoric

The original source text on persuasion. Everything modern starts here. Aristotle identified the fundamental principles 2,300 years ago: ethos (credibility), pathos (emotion), logos (logic). Every persuasion book written since is essentially a footnote to Aristotle.

Practical Rhetoric

Words That Work by Frank Luntz

Language framing in politics. Luntz is the guy who rebranded "estate tax" as "death tax" and made "climate change" sound less scary than "global warming." Love him or hate him, he understands how specific word choices shape perception before people even process the argument.

Don't Think of an Elephant by George Lakoff

Cognitive frames and political messaging. Lakoff explains why progressives keep losing messaging battles despite having popular policies—they accept conservative frames instead of building their own. Essential reading for understanding how the debate is won before anyone says a word.

The Political Mind by George Lakoff

How the brain processes political language. Goes deeper than Elephant into the cognitive science of why certain frames activate certain values. Explains why facts don't change minds—frames do.

Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff & Mark Johnson

Conceptual metaphor theory. The book that explains why we talk about arguments as "battles" (you "attack" positions, "defend" arguments, "win" or "lose"). These aren't just figures of speech—they're the cognitive structures that shape how we think.

The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker

How language works in the brain. Pinker explains the cognitive machinery underlying all communication. Understanding this gives you insight into why certain communication patterns work universally across cultures and why others don't.

Strategic Thinking & Game Theory

Conflict & Strategy

The Strategy of Conflict by Thomas Schelling

Game theory and strategic behavior. Schelling won the Nobel Prize for this work. He explains why rational actors make seemingly irrational choices, how threats work, why commitment matters, and how strategic behavior differs from everyday decision-making. Dense but essential.

The Art of Strategy by Avinash Dixit & Barry Nalebuff

Game theory applied to life. This is Schelling made accessible. Dixit and Nalebuff show you how to think several moves ahead in business, relationships, negotiations—any situation where your outcome depends on others' choices.

Thinking Strategically by Avinash Dixit & Barry Nalebuff

Strategic decision-making. Companion to Art of Strategy with more emphasis on practical application. How to recognize when you're in a game, what kind of game it is, and how to play it effectively.

The 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene

Historical strategic patterns. Greene extracts strategic principles from military history and shows how they apply to modern life. Some strategies are offensive, some defensive, all are about understanding the terrain you're operating in.

On War by Carl von Clausewitz

Military strategy fundamentals. "War is the continuation of politics by other means." Clausewitz understands that conflict is fundamentally about imposing your will on others—whether through violence, persuasion, or strategic positioning.

The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi

Strategic philosophy. Written by Japan's greatest swordsman, this is about reading situations, adapting strategy to terrain, and maintaining initiative. Applies far beyond martial arts.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

Classic strategic thinking. "All warfare is based on deception." Sun Tzu understood 2,500 years ago that the best victories come from shaping circumstances so thoroughly that actual conflict becomes unnecessary.

Power Dynamics

The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

Power mechanics and historical examples. Controversial, often criticized, absolutely essential. Greene shows you how power actually works, not how we pretend it works. Read this defensively if you want—understanding these laws protects you from people using them.

The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene

Understanding human behavior patterns. Greene applies historical analysis to psychology, showing you the patterns humans follow predictably. Once you see these patterns, you can anticipate behavior and respond strategically.

Mastery by Robert Greene

Path to skill development and influence. Greene traces how masters in various fields developed expertise and influence. Less about manipulation, more about the strategic path to competence and recognition.

The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli

Political power and its maintenance. Machiavelli's actual argument: leaders must be effective, not just moral. Whether you agree or not, understanding this perspective is essential—many people in power have read this book and internalized its lessons.

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

Six principles of persuasion: reciprocity, commitment/consistency, social proof, authority, liking, scarcity. This is the foundational text. Every salesperson, marketer, and con artist knows these principles. You should too.

Pre-Suasion by Robert Cialdini

Setting up persuasive moments. Cialdini's follow-up to Influence explains how to shape the context before you make your pitch. What people are thinking about immediately before your message determines how they receive it.

Psychology & Behavioral Science

Cognitive Psychology

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

Dual-process theory and cognitive biases. Kahneman won the Nobel Prize for discovering that humans have two thinking systems: fast/intuitive (System 1) and slow/deliberate (System 2). Understanding when you're using which system—and when others are—is fundamental to strategic communication.

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

Behavioral economics and decision-making. Ariely shows that human irrationality isn't random—it follows predictable patterns. Once you know the patterns, you can anticipate them (in yourself and others) and design around them.

The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis

Kahneman and Tversky's partnership. The story behind Thinking, Fast and Slow—how two psychologists discovered that humans are predictably irrational and revolutionized economics, psychology, and decision science.

Nudge by Richard Thaler & Cass Sunstein

Choice architecture. How the way choices are presented determines what people choose, even when options are identical. Essential for anyone designing systems, policies, or presentations.

Misbehaving by Richard Thaler

Behavioral economics development. Thaler's memoir of how behavioral economics went from fringe theory to Nobel Prize-winning field. Shows you how scientific paradigms shift and why "rational actor" models fail.

Social Psychology

The Social Animal by Elliot Aronson

Classic social psychology text. Comprehensive overview of how humans behave in social contexts—conformity, persuasion, prejudice, attraction. The foundational textbook that influenced generations of researchers.

The Person and the Situation by Lee Ross & Richard Nisbett

Situational power. The fundamental attribution error: we attribute others' behavior to their character while attributing our own to circumstances. Understanding this changes how you interpret everything.

Obedience to Authority by Stanley Milgram

Classic psychology experiment. Milgram showed that ordinary people will harm others when instructed by authority figures. Disturbing, essential reading for understanding how authority shapes behavior.

The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo

How good people turn evil. Zimbardo ran the Stanford Prison Experiment and then spent decades understanding what happened. Shows how situations can override character in ways most people find impossible to believe.

The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt

Moral psychology and political divides. Haidt explains why people across the political spectrum are equally convinced they're right—they're using different moral foundations. Essential for understanding why facts don't change political minds.

Dark Psychology & Manipulation

Dark Psychology and Manipulation by William Cooper

Manipulation tactics. A catalog of how manipulation actually works—not as theory, but as practice. Read this defensively. Understanding these tactics makes you immune to them.

The Psychopath Code by Pieter Hintjens

Understanding psychopathic behavior. Hintjens identifies patterns that psychopaths follow and shows you how to recognize them before you're in too deep. Not about diagnosis—about protection.

Without Conscience by Robert Hare

Psychopathy research. Hare developed the diagnostic checklist for psychopathy and spent his career studying how psychopaths think and operate. Clinical, research-based, essential.

In Sheep's Clothing by George Simon

Manipulative people. Simon identifies "covert-aggressive" personality patterns—people who manipulate while appearing innocent. Once you see these patterns, you can't unsee them.

The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout

Identifying and dealing with sociopaths. Stout estimates 4% of people are sociopaths—meaning you've definitely encountered them. This book teaches you how to recognize and protect yourself from predatory behavior.

Negotiation & Conflict Resolution

Negotiation Strategy

Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss

FBI negotiation tactics. Voss negotiated kidnappings and terrorist situations, then applied those principles to business. Turns out hostage negotiation and business negotiation use the same psychology. Tactical empathy, mirroring, calibrated questions—immediately applicable.

Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher & William Ury

Principled negotiation. The Harvard Negotiation Project's foundational text on separating people from problems, focusing on interests rather than positions, and creating win-win outcomes. Idealistic but influential.

Bargaining for Advantage by G. Richard Shell

Strategic negotiation. More hardball than Fisher/Ury. Shell explains when to cooperate, when to compete, and how to recognize which game you're in. Combines psychology, game theory, and practical tactics.

The Negotiation Book by Steve Gates

Practical negotiation skills. Comprehensive handbook covering preparation, tactics, psychology, and implementation. Less theory, more field manual.

3-D Negotiation by David Lax & James Sebenius

Multi-dimensional approach. Most negotiation books focus on tactics at the table. Lax and Sebenius show you how to shape the game before negotiation begins—who's at the table, what's being negotiated, what alternatives exist.

Verbal Combat

Verbal Judo by George Thompson

Tactical communication. Thompson was a cop who developed these techniques for de-escalating confrontations. Applies far beyond law enforcement—anywhere you need to redirect hostility into cooperation.

Crucial Conversations by Patterson, Grenny, McMillan, Switzler

High-stakes dialogue. How to navigate conversations when emotions run high, stakes are significant, and opinions differ. The book's framework helps you stay strategic when instinct pulls you toward defensiveness.

Difficult Conversations by Stone, Patton, & Heen

Navigating tough talks. From the Harvard Negotiation Project. Breaks down the underlying structure of difficult conversations and gives you scripts for addressing them productively.

Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott

Authentic dialogue. Scott argues that most important conversations are avoided or sanitized. This book is about having the real conversation instead of the comfortable one.

Performance & Presentation

Wrestling & Performance Psychology

The Death of WCW by R.D. Reynolds & Bryan Alvarez

Business lessons from wrestling. How WCW squandered a billion-dollar business through hubris, poor strategic thinking, and catastrophic management. Reads like a business school case study—because it is one.

No Is a Four-Letter Word by Chris Jericho

Reinvention and performance. Jericho has reinvented his wrestling character multiple times across four decades. His approach to reinvention, staying relevant, and reading audiences applies to any performance-based field.

Under the Black Hat by Jim Ross

Wrestling business insights. JR was WWE's head of talent relations and premier announcer. His perspective on performer psychology, contract negotiation, and character development is applicable to any talent-based business.

Kayfabe by Sean Oliver

Performance reality. "Kayfabe" is wrestling's term for maintaining the illusion that scripted performances are real. Understanding kayfabe—how reality and performance blur—is essential for understanding modern media, politics, and social media.

Have a Nice Day by Mick Foley

Storytelling and character development. Foley's memoir is a masterclass in narrative construction and character arc. How he built sympathy, maintained credibility, and stayed relevant despite not fitting the conventional mold.

The Squared Circle by David Shoemaker

Wrestling as performance art. Shoemaker analyzes wrestling as cultural performance—how it reflects social anxieties, constructs heroes and villains, and creates compelling narratives. Applies to understanding mass entertainment and political theater.

Public Speaking & Presentation

Talk Like TED by Carmine Gallo

Presentation techniques. Gallo analyzed hundreds of successful TED talks and extracted the patterns. Emotional connection, novelty, memorable moments—all reverse-engineered and made replicable.

Confessions of a Public Speaker by Scott Berkun

Speaking reality. Berkun cuts through the inspirational BS and tells you what actually works, what doesn't, and why most speaking advice is garbage. Honest, practical, grounded.

Resonate by Nancy Duarte

Creating persuasive presentations. Duarte analyzed great speeches and found they follow story structure—ordinary world, call to adventure, resistance, transformation. Apply story principles to presentations and they become compelling.

Made to Stick by Chip Heath & Dan Heath

Making ideas memorable. The Heath brothers identified six principles that make ideas stick: Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Stories (SUCCES). Applied properly, these principles make your communication unforgettable.

Business & Marketing Psychology

Branding & Storytelling

Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller

Brand narrative framework. Miller applies Joseph Campbell's hero's journey to brand messaging. The customer is the hero, your brand is the guide. This framework clarifies messaging for businesses that struggle to articulate their value.

All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin

Story-based marketing. Godin's provocative title hides a serious point: people don't buy products, they buy the stories they tell themselves about those products. Marketing is about constructing compelling narratives, not listing features.

Contagious by Jonah Berger

Why things catch on. Berger studied viral content and identified six principles (STEPPS): Social Currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical Value, Stories. Not all ideas spread equally—some are designed to spread.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

Archetypal storytelling. Campbell identified the monomyth—the hero's journey that appears in stories across cultures and millennia. Understanding this structure lets you recognize it everywhere and deploy it strategically.

The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler

Story structure. Vogler applied Campbell's work to screenwriting and created the template Hollywood uses. If you want to understand how blockbuster narratives work, this is the blueprint.

Consumer Psychology

Hooked by Nir Eyal

Building habit-forming products. Eyal reverse-engineered how apps like Instagram and Facebook create habits. Trigger, Action, Variable Reward, Investment—the hook cycle. Understand this or be controlled by it.

Buyology by Martin Lindstrom

Neuromarketing insights. Lindstrom used brain imaging to study what actually drives purchasing decisions. Turns out what people say motivates them and what actually motivates them are very different.

Brainfluence by Roger Dooley

Marketing and psychology. 100 ways to persuade and convince consumers using brain science. Each chapter is a specific, actionable tactic grounded in research.

The Choice Factory by Richard Shotton

Behavioral science in advertising. Shotton worked in advertising for 20 years and applied behavioral economics to campaigns. Short, practical chapters on specific biases and how to use them ethically (or recognize when they're being used on you).

Dating & Social Dynamics

Evolutionary Psychology

The Red Queen by Matt Ridley

Sexual selection and evolution. Ridley explains why sexual reproduction exists and how sexual selection drives evolution. Understanding evolutionary psychology doesn't excuse bad behavior, but it does explain patterns in human attraction and competition.

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins

Gene-centered view of evolution. Dawkins argues genes, not organisms, are the unit of selection. Controversial, influential, essential for understanding evolutionary approaches to behavior.

Sperm Wars by Robin Baker

Sexual conflict theory. Baker's controversial thesis: human sexuality reflects evolutionary competition between sperm, not just between people. Provocative, sometimes criticized, always interesting.

The Mating Mind by Geoffrey Miller

Sexual selection and human nature. Miller argues that many uniquely human traits—art, humor, creativity, intelligence—evolved as fitness displays to attract mates. Explains why we do apparently impractical things.

The Evolution of Desire by David Buss

Mate selection strategies. Buss conducted cross-cultural research on what men and women find attractive and why. Descriptive, not prescriptive—understanding patterns in attraction doesn't mean you must follow them.

Social Dynamics

Models by Mark Manson

Authentic attraction. Manson's thesis: attraction comes from genuine confidence, not manipulation or technique. His approach emphasizes self-development and honesty over pickup artist tactics.

The Game by Neil Strauss

Seduction community (with critical eye). Strauss documented the pickup artist community, then realized the whole enterprise was fundamentally broken. Read this to understand the techniques, then understand why focusing on techniques misses the point.

The Rational Male by Rollo Tomassi

Intersexual dynamics. Controversial, often criticized, worth understanding. Tomassi articulates "red pill" theory about male-female dynamics. Whether you agree or not, these ideas influence how many men approach relationships.

No More Mr. Nice Guy by Robert Glover

Approval-seeking behavior. Glover identifies "Nice Guy Syndrome"—men who suppress their own needs to gain approval, then resent not getting what they want. Applies beyond dating to any dynamic involving covert contracts.

Way of the Superior Man by David Deida

Masculine-feminine dynamics. Deida's approach to polarity in relationships—emphasizing masculine and feminine energies (not tied to gender). Poetic, philosophical, polarizing. Some find it profound, others find it reductive.

Legal & Political Strategy

Legal Thinking

How to Argue & Win Every Time by Gerry Spence

Trial lawyer tactics. Spence never lost a criminal trial in his career. His approach: authenticity, storytelling, and emotional connection beat technical argument. Lawyers hate this book because it works.

The Tools of Argument by Joel Trachtman

Legal reasoning. Trachtman explains how lawyers actually think—analogies, distinctions, policy arguments, textual interpretation. Understanding legal reasoning helps you construct airtight arguments in any domain.

Thinking Like a Lawyer by Frederick Schauer

Legal cognition. What makes legal thinking different from everyday reasoning? Schauer explains the distinctive features: precedent, categorization, formalism, and why these features exist.

Getting to Maybe by Richard Fischl & Jeremy Paul

Law school exam strategy. This book teaches law students how to analyze ambiguous problems—seeing multiple sides, constructing arguments, and thinking strategically about uncertainty. Applies far beyond law school.

Political Strategy

The Big Sort by Bill Bishop

Political polarization. Bishop documents how Americans increasingly self-segregate into like-minded communities, creating echo chambers that reinforce existing beliefs and make cross-partisan communication nearly impossible.

Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky

Community organizing tactics. Alinsky's tactical handbook for grassroots organizing. Controversial because it works. His principle: "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it."

The Political Brain by Drew Westen

Emotional political appeals. Westen uses neuroscience to show why emotional messaging beats rational messaging in politics. Campaigns that ignore this lose to campaigns that understand it.

The Memo by Rich Galen

Political campaign strategy. Galen's insider perspective on how political campaigns actually work—opposition research, message discipline, media strategy, and the difference between appearance and reality.

Philosophy & Systems Thinking

Strategic Philosophy

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Stoic philosophy. Marcus Aurelius was Roman emperor and practicing Stoic. His private journal shows how Stoic principles apply to leadership, decision-making, and maintaining composure under pressure.

Letters from a Stoic by Seneca

Practical stoicism. Seneca's letters are more accessible than Aurelius, covering everything from handling adversity to managing wealth to facing death. Stoicism as a functional operating system for life.

The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday

Applied stoicism. Holiday modernizes Stoic principles for contemporary readers. Every obstacle contains opportunity; the question is whether you see it. Perception, Action, Will.

Ego Is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday

Avoiding ego traps. Holiday argues ego is the enemy of success at every stage—aspiring, succeeding, and recovering from failure. Ego makes you defensive, complacent, and blind to reality.

Antifragile by Nassim Taleb

Systems that gain from disorder. Taleb's concept: some systems are fragile (damaged by volatility), some robust (unaffected), some antifragile (improved by volatility). Understanding which is which changes everything.

The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb

Impact of rare events. Taleb argues rare, high-impact events drive history more than predictable patterns. Most forecasting fails because it ignores black swans. Better to build systems that benefit from uncertainty.

Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb

Risk and asymmetry. Taleb's core principle: never trust people who don't have something to lose. Skin in the game aligns incentives and reveals truth. Without it, you get moral hazard and bullshit.

Historical Analysis

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

Human history and systems. Harari traces human history from hunter-gatherers to space age, focusing on the cognitive, agricultural, and scientific revolutions. Big-picture thinking about how we got here.

Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari

Future of humanity. Harari's follow-up asks where we're going: what happens when humans overcome famine, plague, and war? What do we optimize for next? And what are the risks?

The Lessons of History by Will & Ariel Durant

Historical patterns. The Durants spent 40 years writing a comprehensive history of civilization, then distilled lessons into 100 pages. Patterns in how civilizations rise, fall, and transform.

Why Nations Fail by Acemoglu & Robinson

Institutional power. Acemoglu and Robinson argue that institutions—not geography, culture, or resources—determine whether nations succeed or fail. Inclusive institutions create prosperity; extractive institutions create poverty.

How the South Won the Civil War by Heather Cox Richardson

Power persistence. Richardson traces how oligarchic ideology survived the Civil War and transformed American politics. Explains how defeated worldviews can win long-term by changing the terms of debate.

Writing & Language

Craft & Style

On Writing Well by William Zinsser

Clear writing principles. Zinsser's thesis: clarity, simplicity, brevity, humanity. Strip unnecessary words, keep your voice, respect the reader. The definitive guide to non-fiction writing.

The Elements of Style by Strunk & White

Writing fundamentals. Concise rules for clear writing. Controversial among linguists, beloved by writers. The rule "omit needless words" applies to 90% of bad writing.

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

Writing process. Lamott demystifies writing with honesty and humor. Shitty first drafts, small assignments, perfectionism—she addresses the psychological barriers that stop people from writing.

On Writing by Stephen King

Craft and memoir. King's memoir about becoming a writer, combined with practical advice. His principle: "Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open." Create first, edit second.

Several Short Sentences About Writing by Verlyn Klinkenborg

Sentence-level mastery. Klinkenborg breaks writing down to the sentence and shows you how to construct sentences that actually work. Changes how you see language structure.

Persuasive Writing

The Copywriter's Handbook by Robert Bly

Direct response writing. Bly teaches copywriting as applied persuasion—writing that makes people take action. Headlines, body copy, calls to action, all grounded in tested principles.

Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz

Classic copywriting. Schwartz's legendary book (out of print, expensive, worth it) on matching message to market awareness. You don't create desire; you channel existing desire toward your offer.

Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy

Advertising psychology. Ogilvy built a legendary agency by testing everything. His principles: research what works, do that, ignore creativity that doesn't sell. Results beat awards.

Advanced Topics

Frame Control & Reality

The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss

Lifestyle design and frame control. Look past the specific tactics (which date quickly) to the meta-principle: question default assumptions about how life should work. Ferriss excels at rejecting conventional frames.

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

Individualism and independence. Rand's novel about an architect who refuses to compromise his vision. Love it or hate it, understanding Randian individualism helps you understand many successful entrepreneurs' worldview.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Systems and individual power. Rand's magnum opus: what happens when society's most productive people withdraw? Enormously influential on certain business and political leaders, worth understanding even if you disagree.

Propaganda by Edward Bernays

Mass persuasion mechanics. Bernays literally wrote the book on propaganda (he preferred "public relations"). Shows you how to shape public opinion at scale. Disturbing and essential.

Manufacturing Consent by Chomsky & Herman

Media manipulation. Chomsky and Herman argue that mass media serves elite interests by setting agendas, filtering information, and shaping acceptable discourse. Whether you agree completely or not, understanding the propaganda model is essential.

Trust Me, I'm Lying by Ryan Holiday

Media manipulation tactics. Holiday confesses how he manipulated media as a marketer—planting stories, creating controversy, gaming algorithms. Now that you know how it works, you can't unsee it.

Weaponized Communication

The Art of Deception by Kevin Mitnick

Social engineering. Mitnick was a legendary hacker who used social engineering more than technical skills. This book catalogs exactly how social engineering works—studying human vulnerabilities instead of system vulnerabilities.

The Art of Intrusion by Kevin Mitnick

Human vulnerability. Mitnick's follow-up, focusing on real-world intrusions. Every breach starts with human error. Understanding attack vectors makes you harder to manipulate.

Influence Without Authority by Cohen & Bradford

Organizational influence. How to get things done when you don't have formal power. Currency exchange model: understand what people value, provide it, receive cooperation in return.

The Secrets of Consulting by Gerald Weinberg

Consultant psychology. Weinberg's laws of consulting are cynical, funny, and devastatingly accurate. Understanding consultant dynamics helps whether you're a consultant or hiring one.

Specialized Applications

Courtroom & Trial

Winning at Trial by Shane Read

Trial strategy. Read breaks down trial advocacy into components: voir dire, opening, cross-examination, closing. Each section teaches specific techniques for persuading juries.

The Winning Brief by Bryan Garner

Legal writing. Garner teaches lawyers how to write persuasively—structure, argument, style. Applies to anyone writing to convince: clear thesis, evidence-based reasoning, readable prose.

Point Made by Ross Govern

Persuasive legal writing. Govorn analyzed 50 excellent legal briefs and extracted techniques. Shows you exactly how to construct compelling written arguments.

Sales & Persuasion

SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham

Question-based selling. Rackham researched thousands of sales calls and found that successful salespeople ask specific question sequences: Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-payoff. SPIN selling is consultative, not pushy.

The Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon

Teaching for differentiation. Dixon found the most successful B2B salespeople aren't relationship-builders—they're challengers who teach customers something new about their business. Change the conversation, change the outcome.

To Sell Is Human by Daniel Pink

Modern selling psychology. Pink argues everyone is in sales now—teachers, doctors, parents, employees. Selling is fundamentally about moving others. His framework: Attunement, Buoyancy, Clarity.

Pitch Anything by Oren Klaff

Frame control in pitching. Klaff's approach to pitching applies neuroscience and frame control. You're not presenting information—you're managing status and attention. Control the frame or lose the pitch.

Leadership & Organizational

Turn the Ship Around! by L. David Marquet

Leadership framework. Marquet took the worst-performing submarine in the Navy and made it the best by distributing authority and creating leaders at every level. Intent-based leadership beats command-and-control.

Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink

Responsibility and leadership. Willink's principle from Navy SEAL leadership: leaders take ownership of everything in their world. No excuses, no blame—total responsibility creates total authority.

The Dichotomy of Leadership by Jocko Willink

Leadership balance. Willink's follow-up addresses the paradoxes: be aggressive but not reckless, confident but not cocky, disciplined but not rigid. Leadership is finding balance between competing principles.

Good to Great by Jim Collins

Organizational excellence. Collins studied companies that made the leap from good to great and found patterns: Level 5 leadership, first who then what, confront brutal facts, hedgehog concept. Empirical research on what actually works.

Additional Essential Reading

Based on the gaps in the original list, here are critical additions:

Frame Analysis by Erving Goffman

Sociological foundation for understanding how frames operate in social interaction. Goes deeper than Lakoff into how frames structure experience itself.

The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by Erving Goffman

How people manage impressions and construct social reality. Goffman's dramaturgical approach shows social interaction as performance—front stage, back stage, impression management.

Essentials of Negotiation by Roy Lewicki

Covers strategic ambiguity and deliberate vagueness as negotiation tools. More academic than Voss but comprehensive on negotiation theory and practice.

Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows

Complements Taleb's work but focuses on leverage points and intervention strategies within complex systems. Essential for understanding how to change systems rather than fight them.

The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver

Statistical literacy and forecasting. Silver explains how to separate signal from noise in data—essential for both presenting data persuasively and spotting statistical manipulation.

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte

Information design. Tufte teaches how to present data clearly and persuasively. Understanding visualization helps you both create compelling graphics and recognize misleading ones.

Reading Strategy Recommendations

Tier 1 - Core Foundation (Read First)

* Influence (Cialdini) - The foundational text on persuasion psychology

* Thinking, Fast and Slow (Kahneman) - How the brain actually makes decisions

* Never Split the Difference (Voss) - Tactical negotiation immediately applicable

* The Elements of Eloquence (Forsyth) - How language works at the sentence level

* The 48 Laws of Power (Greene) - How power actually operates (read defensively)

Why these five first: They give you the psychological mechanisms (Cialdini, Kahneman), practical application (Voss), linguistic tools (Forsyth), and structural understanding of power dynamics (Greene). Everything else builds on these foundations.

Tier 2 - Strategic Depth (Read Second)

* The Strategy of Conflict (Schelling) - Game theory and strategic behavior

* Pre-Suasion (Cialdini) - Setting up persuasive moments

* Verbal Judo (Thompson) - Tactical communication and de-escalation

* The Righteous Mind (Haidt) - Why people disagree and how moral foundations work

* Antifragile (Taleb) - Building systems that benefit from chaos

Why these five second: Now that you understand the basics, these books add strategic depth. You're learning to think several moves ahead (Schelling), control context (Cialdini), redirect aggression (Thompson), understand value differences (Haidt), and build resilient approaches (Taleb).

Tier 3 - Specialized Applications (Read As Needed)

Choose based on immediate application needs:

* Business/Marketing: StoryBrand, Contagious, Hooked

* Dating/Social: Models, No More Mr. Nice Guy, The Evolution of Desire

* Legal/Political: How to Argue & Win Every Time, Rules for Radicals, The Political Brain

* Sales: SPIN Selling, The Challenger Sale, Pitch Anything

* Leadership: Turn the Ship Around, Extreme Ownership, Good to Great

* Writing: On Writing Well, The Copywriter's Handbook, Made to Stick

Integration Projects

After reading clusters of books, create artifacts applying the principles:

After Core Foundation (Tier 1):

* Write a persuasive piece using Cialdini's six principles explicitly

* Analyze a recent decision you made through Kahneman's System 1/System 2 lens

* Practice tactical empathy (Voss) in three real conversations and document what happened

* Identify five rhetorical devices (Forsyth) in political speeches or advertisements

* Observe power dynamics (Greene) in your workplace or social group without intervening

After Strategic Depth (Tier 2):

* Analyze a historical negotiation (like the Cuban Missile Crisis) through Schelling's game theory

* Design a pre-suasion strategy for an actual presentation or pitch you need to give

* Practice verbal redirection in a contentious discussion, documenting techniques used

* Map the moral foundations of people on different sides of a political issue you care about

* Identify antifragile vs. fragile elements in a system you participate in (business, organization, relationship)

After Specialized Applications (Tier 3):

* Create a sales presentation applying SPIN or Challenger methodology

* Build a brand narrative using Miller's StoryBrand framework

* Analyze a successful marketing campaign through Berger's STEPPS framework

* Design a leadership intervention using Marquet's intent-based leadership

* Write a persuasive brief on a topic you care about using legal writing principles

Advanced Integration:

* Teach someone else a technique you've mastered (teaching reveals gaps in understanding)

* Deliberately practice one technique per week until it becomes automatic

* Keep a persuasion journal documenting attempts, outcomes, and lessons learned

* Analyze your failures more carefully than your successes (failures teach more)

* Build a personal playbook of techniques that work specifically for your personality and contexts

Final Thought

This reading list exists because misinformation doesn't just happen. It's constructed. Deliberately. By people who understand exactly what they're doing.

The only sustainable defense against misinformation is understanding the same principles the misinformers use—not so you can lie better, but so you can recognize lies faster and make truth more persuasive than fiction.

Read strategically. Practice constantly. Build something with what you learn.

And maybe, just maybe, we can make it a little harder for bullshit to win.

Welcome to the Misinformation Sucks Book Club.

Let's get to work.