BVBook Verdict

If you liked

Books like Words and rules

Loved Words and rules by Steven Pinker? Here are 10 books with a similar appeal — drawn mostly from psychology, ranked by how confidently we'd recommend them next.

10 books · ranked

  1. 1

    Flow

    Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi · 1990 · Psychology

    The psychologist who coined the concept of 'flow' — the state of complete immersion in a challenging activity — presents his research on optimal experience and argues that happiness comes not from leisure but from deep engagement with work and activity that stretches our abilities.

  2. 2

    Thinking, Fast and Slow

    Daniel Kahneman · 2011 · Psychology

    How the mind's two systems lead us into predictable errors; the definitive popular book on cognitive bias.

  3. 3

    The Body Keeps the Score

    Bessel van der Kolk · 2014 · Psychology

    How trauma lives in the body and how people heal; a landmark that reached far beyond therapists.

  4. 4

    Man's Search for Meaning

    Viktor Frankl · 1946 · Psychology

    A psychiatrist's survival of the camps and the meaning he drew from it; brief, profound and enduring.

  5. 5

    Nonviolent Communication

    Marshall B. Rosenberg · 1999 · Psychology

    An enlighting look at how peaceful communication can create compassionate connections with family, friends, and other acquaintances, this book uses stories, examples, and sample dialogues to provide s

  6. 6

    A cognitive psychology of mass communication

    Richard Jackson Harris · 1994 · Psychology

    "With this third edition of A Cognitive Psychology of Mass Communication, Richard Jackson Harris continues his examination of mass media's influences on our perceptions of ourselves and the world arou

  7. 7

    Cognitive psychology

    Michael W. Eysenck · 1990 · Psychology

    Revisiting the Classic Studies is a series of texts that introduces readers to the studies in psychology that changed the way we think about core topics in the discipline today. It provokes students t

  8. 8

    Consciousness

    Susan J. Blackmore · 2003 · Psychology

    Consciousness', 'the last great mystery for science', remains a hot topic. How can a physical brain create our experience of the world? What creates our identity? Do we really have free will? Could co

  9. 9

    Mindset

    Carol Dweck · 2006 · Psychology

    Why believing abilities can grow changes everything; the book behind the 'growth mindset'.

  10. 10

    Knowledge in Context

    Sandra Jovchelovitch · 2006 · Psychology

    "This book explores the relationship between knowledge and context through a novel analysis of processes of representation. Sandra Jovchelovitch argues that it is through representation that we can ap

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