here's a god list of RP books

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheRedPill/s/DrR4EMgAs6

A lot of these listed are also in my top books; I’d also throw in the war of art (not to be confused w art of war; although that is also a good one).

For me it really hones in on the whole working on your purpose (think of your field as your art; your purpose is to work your craft etc etc).

Start with Homer. All western literature starts with Homer. There is so much of life and manhood in Homer. I have read him once each decade of my life and got something different and better each time. Understanding the bronze age makes it more accessible but its all there still, timeless and nearly perfect. Iliad for the outer world of manhood, Odyssey for the inner. Odyssey is more accessible today, for Iliad you really need to know the world of the bronze age warrior to get the best, so do Odyssey first if a novice.

Consider Plato if you like philosophy. He is the great grandfather, he drank with Socrates who wondered if all this writing nonsense was good for people.

Cicero and Caesar have a great deal to teach a man. They are very different men. One a politician with a great heart but an urban creature, one a warrior with huge balls who committed genocide, shagged queens, enslaved a race and overthrew a great republic. They wrestled for the control of the destiny of one of the greatest nations ever. Both died for it, both left their mark indelible on that nation's destiny and on western civilisation. If you don't read Latin and find translations dull and inaccessible (which particularly Cicero's can be) consider Robert Harris' trilogy that starts with "Imperium". I have come across no author who has done a better job of bringing these two men to life (and Pompey and ancient Rome itself too) for a modern audience.

Consider de rerum natura by Lucretius. It gives the Epicurean counter argument to Cicer's stoicism. A wise man knows philosophy but knows its limits. Both men tell truths.

Read some viking sagas and books on Germanic religion. It is the ground from which the anglosphere and northern European thought grow. Its as unnoticed as the soil to most but it nourishes all we do and think. Understand Odin and emulate him. Learn to sacrifice yourself to yourself, give up what is precious for wisdom, know when to do the forbidden. Grasp the concept of Wyrd, it is harder to grasp that Christian or Islamic fate, more quantum than mechanical and a better but harder model. Learn that you must rise early if you will take life or land.

Shakespeare's Hamlet is his greatest work. Not the most fun but so full of the hard choices and has had big influence on English idiom. Consider Macbeth too.

Machiavelli's Prince is a beautiful little volume of truths.

Voltaire's Candide teaches us not to think too deeply but get on with life but it does it so beautifully. Its a child like tale written by an intellectual philosopher that demolishes Philosophy chapter by chapter. "...pour encourager les autres" "cela ce'st bein dit, mais il faut cultiver le jardin" So simple, so spot on, so funny if you have had a belly full of philosophy and life coaches.

A wise man should have read both the Bible and the Qu-ran. These will teach him where the two biggest factions culturally today are coming from and he will see how far both depart from their roots. Both books contain good wisdom.

Mine:

Bigger Leaner Stronger (Michael Matthews) Book of pook No More Mr Nice Guy Rational Male (all) 48 Laws of Power Day Bang Bang What every body is saying

Honestly i don't remember any others

Psycho Cybernetics

*will add to the list when I finish up my degree

Read some Hemingway. I find his writing very logical and masculine and it makes me think a lot. How to win friends and influence people is one of my favorites. The four agreements is good. Game of thrones is great fantasy. Read all the sidebar books but also read everything. Even books you may disagree with and dislike