We asked 275 mentees and 133 mentors to tell us:

• What practical books have had the most influence on your career?
• What book have you given as a gift or lent out the most?
• What are you reading now that you would suggest to faculty or research trainees?

As the answers are pouring in we thought we’d share a sneak peak. Suggestions often recurred across responses to these questions. Here’s the first pass at the responses ranked by total mentions. Titles in bold indicate the book ranked in the top of the lists for both mentees and mentors:

Mentees (doctoral students, post-doctoral fellows, instructors and research assistant professors, career development awardees, tenure track assistant professors)

1) Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

2) How to Write a Lot by Paul Silvia

3)* Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William Ury

3) Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity by David Allen

3) Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

4) The Elements of Style by Strunk and White

4) Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool

4) The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion by Christopher Germer

4) Making the Right Moves from Howard Hughes Medical Institute (available for free download)

4) The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

4) Ask for It by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschiever

4) Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach

Mentors (training grant and career development grant leadership and mentors for individual career development awardees)

1) The Elements of Style by Strunk and White

2) Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William Ury

2) Learning to Lead in the Academic Medical Center: A Practical Guide by Jeffrey Houpt, Roderick Gilkey, and Susan Ehringhaus

2) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn

2) Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity by David Allen

3) The Double Helix by James Watson

We’ll add details as we complete the project. In the meantime we hope you’ll find some interesting reads to reserve at the library or acquire.

*  Recurring numbers indicate a multi-way tie.

About the Author

Screen Name

Katherine Hartmann, MD, PhD

About Me

No nonsense purveyor of evidence-based mentoring and dedicated disruptor of dogma. Think big, plan well, and live creatively.