The books which form this list are the ones which I believe give the foundational advice for the Player’s Journey and in particular the Daygamer’s Player’s Journey. I’m open to recommendations and so please leave any in the comments section.
*****
Classics
The Mystery Method – Erik Von Markovik
Practical Female Psychology for the Practical Man – David Clare
Fearless, Relentless Escalation – 60 Years of Challenge
Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus – John Gray
How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie
Influence – Robert Cialdini
The Charisma Myth – Olivia Fox Cabane
The Rational Male Books 1, 2 and 3 – Rollo Tomassi
*****
Daygame Textbooks
Daygame Mastery and Daygame Infinite – Nick Krauser
*****
Biology/Physiology
The Evolution of Desire – David Buss
Sperm Wars – Robin Baker
The Selfish Gene – Richard Dawkins
Habits of a Happy Brain – Loretta Breuning
The Molicule of More –
*****
Inner Game/Mindset
Iron John: Men and Masculinity – Robert Bly
King, Warrior, Musician, Lover – Robert Moore
Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand
The Fountainhead – Ayn Rand
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance – Robert Persig
The Way of the Superior Man – David Deida
The Myth of Sisyphus – Albert Camus
How to Fight a Hydra – Josh Kaufman
Happy – Derren Brown
The Luck Factor – Richard Wiseman
The Art of Learning – Joshua Waitzkin
Primal Seduction 2nd Edition – Steve Jabba (with Nick Krauser)
Attached: Are you Anxious, Avoidant or Secure? – Levine and Heller
The Rawness: Reader’s Letters Part #4
*****
Thomas Crown PUA 
Hello Thomas! 😉 You should have never split the difference by chris voss in your classics also 🫠
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I’m glad you included “Fearless, Relentless Escalation”–it’s done more to get me laid than any other reading (and I’ve read way too much). Knowing when and how *not* to break the tension is simply the single most important thing an aspiring seducer needs to learn. Equally good in my opinion is 60 Years of Challenge’s “Simply Start Sex”, but the two books are sold together as part of a package of four (or they were when I bought them), so if you get one you should get the other.
Also good to see Mystery getting his due. It seems like we have a new generation of wannabe PUAs who aren’t learning the basics about the phases of a seduction, and really need to be reintroduced to the great founder. Likewise for Deida and relationship polarity.
Possible additions: I think Brackdragon’s “Ultimate Open Relationship Manual” is brilliant. Among other contents, anyone who wants to have relationships with women but isn’t already living with one needs to learn the Soft Next in detail. Withdrawing attention is simply the most powerful technique in the whole dating/relationship toolbox.
If you’re willing to consider videos, Nick Krauser’s “Daygame Overkill” is great. You can get a lot out of watching good approaches that you just can’t ever glean from a book.
For sex, Daniel Rose’s “Sex God Method” is a stone cold classic and the best in its class.
Sorry to say it, but “Sperm Wars” ought to come off the list. I was electrified by it when I read it, but now I know the “science” in that book is largely wrong. Men certainly can use an education in the real nature of women, but I haven’t come across a book that I can recommend unreservedly yet.
[Evolution of desire may be the book to read next then since you previously liked sperm wars, though take the studies used within with a pinch of salt. Do you have a link which refutes sperm wars?
Ironic you mentioned BD after the current furore. Even before that happened, though, I still got an odd feeling from him, especially how he creates these long acronyms. – TC]
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Some non-game books that are good for game:
– all of Robert Greene’s work. His books should be the required reading list of every man.
– Games People Play
– The Charisma Myth
– If you can find it check out Fader from LS’s Frame talk. In it, he references: Frogs into Princes, Sleight of Mouth, Mind Lines, and You Just Don’t Understand
– Win Bigly. Also see his suggested reading list about persuasion
– The Female Brain
– Freud on Women
– It’s Not All About You
– The Code of Trust
– Certain to Win
– The Big Con: The Story of Confidence Men
– All of Ryan Holiday’s Suggested Strategy and Biography reading
– Power Cues
– Thirty Seven by Quintus Curtius
– Women by Bukowski
– Dangerous Liasions
– The Power of Eye Contact
– History of My Life (Casanova vols 1 – 4)
– Marjorie Morninstar
– Tropic of Cancer
– The Postman Always Rings Twice
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Thanks. I was thinking about what to move onto next.
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Why no Street Hustle in the list? The content came BEFORE K’s Mastery despite the accusations. It comes from his Daygame book and his daygame.com products Conversation King, Date Against The Machine and The Girlfriend Sequence. I have all downloaded if you want to verify. All were released prior to Mastery. The cheek of someone to take his contributions and then accuse him of what they just did astounds me. I’d be spitting blood if I was Tom.
Rant over. Another book you should read is Pitch Anything by Oren Klaff all about frame control. And Revelation the follow up book to Mystery Method. I am ready to read your autobiography also Thomas. Your game sounds impressive.
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I was wondering when this would come up… The list is for books which I have read and plan to read. At the point of purchase paperback Mastery was cheaper than Street Hustle, and I don’t think I need both.
I’ll look into those other two.
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I recommend everyone read the first two chapters of Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Lost World”. The Wordsworth Edition costs about £2 in paperback from a normal bookstore (black cover). Chapter one is a chode and chapter two is a belligerent natural. It’s eye-opening for most people to realise that what we now consider secret knowledge was in fact “how things are done” a hundred years ago.
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Thanks, will add that to the “To Read” section. The ebook is only 75p and those two chapters are even included in the free sample (for those electronically inclined): https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Arthur_Conan_Doyle_The_Lost_World?id=IRTtAQAAQBAJ .
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