The 2026 Collective Future Library: Book Recs from NYC’s Best Builders

At Collective Future, we believe the best ideas travel on a current of personal connection. And nothing reveals a person’s thinking more honestly than the books they press into other people’s hands.

So instead of sending our nominated guests home with a tote bag or branded water bottle, we asked each of them to recommend one book to the rest of the room. The only rule: it had to be something they were genuinely excited to share. The latest novel they couldn’t put down, the strategy text that reshaped how they think about their company, the dog-eared classic they keep returning to, the parenting guide that got them through year one… anything, as long as they loved it.

The result is the library below: a snapshot of what’s on the minds of some of the most interesting founders, operators, and investors in NYC and beyond. Wall Street histories sit beside a DJ’s recollections of NYC’s ’90s club scene. Tudor epics share a shelf with hard sci-fi. There are debut novels, decades-old business bibles, and even a few children’s books.

Every title here was hand-picked by an attendee. No matter what’s already on your nightstand, we think you’ll find something here worth adding to the pile.

Here’s the full list:

• 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History–and How It Shattered a Nation by Andrew Ross Sorkin — recommended 3×
• After the Idea: What It Really Takes to Create and Scale a Startup by Julia Austin
• Already Free: Buddhism Meets Psychotherapy on the Path of Liberation by Bruce Tift
• American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road by Nick Bilton
• The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body’s Fear Response by Ellen Vora
• Another Way: Building Companies That Last…and Last…and Last by Dave Whorton
• The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
• Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company by Patrick McGee
• The Attachment Parenting Book: A Commonsense Guide to Understanding and Nurturing Your Baby by William Sears and Martha Sears
• Becoming You: A Proven Method for Crafting Your Authentic Life and Career by Suzy Welch
• The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
• Big Night: Dinners, Parties & Dinner Parties — A Cookbook by Katherine Lewin
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• By Invitation Only: How We Built Gilt and Changed the Way Millions Shop by Alexis Maybank
• The Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Circe by Madeline Miller
• The Cold Start Problem: How to Start and Scale Network Effects by Andrew Chen
• Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors by Michael E. Porter
• The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
• Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
• The Creative Curve: How to Develop the Right Idea, at the Right Time by Allen Gannett
• The End of Average: How We Succeed in a World That Values Sameness by Todd Rose
• From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life by Arthur C. Brooks
• The Godfather of Silicon Valley: Ron Conway and the Fall of the Dot-coms by Gary Rivlin
• I’m Bored by Michael Ian Black and Debbie Ridpath Ohi
• In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan
• In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man by Tom Junod
• Inadequate Equilibria: Where and How Civilizations Get Stuck by Eliezer Yudkowsky
• The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
• Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival, and Hope in an American City by Andrea Elliott
• The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties That Helped Create Modern China by Jonathan Kaufman
• Learning in Public: Lessons for a Racially Divided America from My Daughter’s School by Courtney E. Martin
• Let Them See You: The Guide for Leveraging Your Diversity at Work by Porter Braswell
• Let’s Celebrate Korean New Year! by Michelle Park
• The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
• Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl — recommended 2×
• Margin of Safety: Risk-Averse Value Investing Strategies for the Thoughtful Investor by Seth A. Klarman — famously out of print, with used copies going for $2000+
• Medici Money: Banking, Metaphysics, and Art in Fifteenth-Century Florence by Tim Parks
• The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
• Night People: How to Be a DJ in ’90s New York City by Mark Ronson
• Obsessed: Building a Brand People Love from Day One by Emily Heyward
• The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
• On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle
• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
• The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times by Pema Chödrön
• Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life by Alex Mayyasi
• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
• Rebel Girls Money Matters: A Guide to Saving, Spending, and Everything in Between by Alexa von Tobel
• The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey by Candice Millard
• The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership by Bill Walsh
• The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown
• Sesame: Global Recipes + Stories of an Ancient Seed by Rachel Simons
• The Setback Cycle: How Defining Moments Can Move Us Forward by Amy Shoenthal
• The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
• Strangers by Belle Burden
• Super Nintendo: The Game-Changing Company That Unlocked the Power of Play by Keza MacDonald
• Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
• Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts by Annie Duke
• The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander
• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin — recommended 2×
• The Unpublished Jon Peters Autobiography Proposal — From the nominator: “It’s the book that never was. In 2009, one of Hollywood history’s most colorful figures, Jon Peters, had his autobio’s book proposal leaked as it was out for publishing interest. It was and remains a spectacular must-read.”
• Vote With Your Phone: Why Mobile Voting Is Our Final Shot at Saving Democracy by Bradley Tusk
• The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
• What to Make of a Life: Cliffs, Fog, Fire and the Self-Knowledge Imperative by Jim Collins
• Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
• The Wolf Hall Trilogy by Hilary Mantel

P.S. If you took home one of these books from the Collective Future library, don’t forget to check the bookplate inside to see who recommended it!