Books on business, investing

To be a successful investor, you should read not only books about investing, but also books on business. After all, you’re investing in businesses, and it helps to understand how great ones thrive — and sometimes fail. Check out these titles:

“Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Robert Cialdini (Harper Business, $19). This classic will serve you in many facets of your life as it digs deep into marketing. It can help you to be a better salesperson and to defend yourself against companies’ marketing efforts.

“Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales From the World of Wall Street” by John Brooks (Open Road Media, $19). Highly recommended by both Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, it offers 12 instructive business stories from the 1950s and 1960s, about companies such as Ford and Xerox.

“Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk” by Peter Bernstein (Wiley, $22). This eye-opening book covers a lot of history — from the ancient Greeks onward — tackling topics such as probability, math, risk, gambling and the vast insurance industry.

“The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done” by Peter Drucker (Harperbusiness Essentials, $18). Learning about essential practices of great managers can help in investing — and in your career, too.

“The Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern World” by Daniel Yergin (Penguin, $22). This engaging book explains how the energy industry works, and it can help you understand current geopolitical issues, as well.

“The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail” by Clayton Christensen (Harvard Business Review Press, $25). Our modern business world faces disruptive innovations frequently — think of digital photography, 3D printing, streaming video and other developments that doomed some companies. This book reviews how companies can successfully deal with innovation.