In this strange list, you will see roughly an equal number of books chosen from a middle century as from the 21 century. I selected between 2-4 books from each of the past twenty centuries, without exception, giving each century equal weight as a forcing function. We must take into account the fact that "books" as we know them today were not same phenomenon in most of these centuries—which makes the selection of books both more difficult, but also more likely to be signal and not noise. I hope you find this sampling of reading, chosen to provide a philosophical basis for creators and entrepreneurs, as nourishing as I have. Let's build.