By Laura Magee

The advertising books you should have on your shelf.

Masterclasses are pact full of insight, wisdom and fascinating tales of how creatives turned their passion into jobs, worked their way through the ranks, made it to the top and went on to create their own agency or business venture.

In many of the talks, books are one of the things that’s turned out to be really influential, offering nuggets of advice that’s helped them along the way.

Slowly (well quite fast actually) the back of my notepads have been filling up with these books (aside from the ones on the reading list) we’ve been encouraged to read.

I’ve only managed a to get through a handful of these, but for any eager readers out there or next years intake with some spare time on your hands, I have compiled my list for you. Enjoy!

A Smile in the Mind – Beryl McAlhone
The Graphic Language of Neville Brody
How Brands Grow – Byron Sharp
Story – Robert McKee
Lean In – Sheryl Sandberg
The Power of Habit – Charles Duhigg
The 48 Laws of Power – Robert Greene
The 4 Hour Work Week – Tim Ferriss
The Secret Sauce – Kevin Graham Ford & James P Osterhaus
The Case for Creativity – James Hurman
Work Rules! – Laszlo Bock
Helmut Krone: The Book – Clive Challis
Brainhack: Tips and Tricks to Unleash Your Brain’s Full Potential – Neil Pavitt
How to be Creative  – Neil Pavitt
Future Shock – Alvin Toffler
Games People Play – Eric Berne
How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie
Hey Whipple, Squeeze This – Luke Sullivan
The Rational Animal – Douglas T. Kenrick & Vladas Griskevicius
Read me: 10 Lessons for Writing Great Copy – Roger Horberry
D&AD, The Copy Book
Why Everyone (Else) is a Hypocrite – Robert Kurzban
The Company of Strangers: A Natural History of Economic Life – Paul Seabright
Truth, Lies, and Advertising: The Art of Account Planning – Jon Steel
Under the Radar: Talking to Today’s Cynical Consumer – Jonathan Bond & Richard Kirshenbaum
Sticky Wisdom – Dave Allan, Matt Kingdon, Kris Murrin & Daz Rudkin
Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques – Michael Michalko
Who Moved My Cheese: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life – Spencer Johnson
The Shock of the New: Art and the Century of Change – Robert Hughes

Combined these books have 8,702 pages.

That’s a lot of paper.
But a far greater amount of wisdom.
If I was a tree, I’d offer myself to one of these.