There are lots of books to support your exploration. Reach out to us at Ready2Zag.com with suggestions for books, resources, podcasts, videos, programs, and blogs to add to the list!

Core Books

• • What Color Is Your Parachute?: Your Guide to a Lifetime of Meaningful Work and Career Success (2023).  Richard Bolles passed away several years ago, but has been updating this series each year for 40 years. His son, Gary, along with other writers, has moved this series forward with new material, and the core exercises in this book are excellent to go through in much more detail. He also created a workbook that you can do with this program: What Color is Your Parachute? Job-Hunter’s Workbook (2021)
  • Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life (2016) was developed from the very popular Stanford Mechanical Engineering Course taught by the authors, Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. It also has an available workbook: The Designing Your Life Workbook: A Framework for Building a Life You Can Thrive In (2018).
  • How to Be Everything: A Guide for Those Who (Still) Don’t Know What They Want to Be When They Grow Up, 2017, Emilie Wapnick
  • Rejection Proof: How I Beat Fear and Became Invincible Through 100 Days of Rejection, 2015, Jia Jiang

  • Everyone

    • Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do, 1997, Studs Terkel
    • The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life, 2002, Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander 
    • The 2-Hour Job Search: Using Technology to Get the Right Job Faster, 2020, Steve Dalton

  Students and Workers in their 20s (especially)

  • Finding Your Element: How to Discover Your Talents and Passions and Transform Your Life 2014, Sir Ken Robinson
  • There IS Life After College: What Parents and Students Should Know about Navigating School to Prepare for the Jobs of Tomorrow, 2016, Jeffrey Selingo
  • Where You Go is Not Who You’ll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania, 2015, Frank Bruni
  • Getting from College to Career: Your Essential Guide to Succeeding in the Real World, 2012, Lindsey Pollak
  • The Pathfinder: How to Choose or Change Your Career for a Lifetime of Satisfaction and Success, 2012, Nicholas Lore
  • Dig This Gig, 2011, Laura Dodd 
  • You Majored in What?: Mapping Your Path from Chaos to Career, 2009, Katharine Brooks
  • Now What?: The Young Person’s Guide to Choosing the Perfect Career, 2008, Nicholas Lore with Anthony Spadafore
  • What Should I Do with My Life? The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question, 2005, Po Bronson

  Career Change, Shift, and Shocks

  • Switchers: How Smart Professional Change Careers and Seize Success, 2018, Dawn Graham
  • Louder Than Words: Harness the Power of Your Authentic Voice, 2015, Todd Henry
  • Body of Work: Finding the Thread That Ties Your Story Together, 2013, Pamela Slim
  • Finding Your Element: How to Discover Your Talents and Passions and Transform Your Life, 2013, Sir Ken Robinson & Lou Aronica
  • Live the Life You Love in Ten Easy Step-by-Step Lessons, 2013, Barbara Sher
  • Career Renegade: How to Make a Great Living Doing What You Love, 2009, Jonathan Fields
  • The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, 2008, Sir Ken Robinson
  • Getting Unstuck: How Dead Ends Become New Paths, 2007, Timothy Butler
  • Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career, 2004, Herminia Ibarra

     

  Multiple Paths: Multipotentialites, Hyphenates, Portfolio, Boundaryless, Kaleidoscope, etc.

  • One Person/Multiple Careers; A New Model for Work/Life Success, 2012, Marci Alboher
  • I Could Do Anything if I Only Knew What It Was, 2010, Barbara Sher
  • Portfolio Life: The New Path to Work, Purpose, and Passion, 2009, David Corbett and Richard Higgins
  • Refuse to Choose!: Use ALL of your Interests, Passions, and Hobbies to Create the Life and Career of your Dreams, 2006, Barbara Sher
  • The Opt-Out Revolt: Why People Are Leaving Companies to Create Kaleidoscope Careers, 2006, Lisa Mainiero and Sherry Sullivan
  • The Boundaryless Career: A New Employment Principle for a New Organizational Era, 2001, Michael Arthur & Denise Rousseau
  • To Build the Life You Want, Create the Work You Love, 1995, Marsha Sinetar

     

  Retirement and Third Chapter Careers

  • It’s Only Too Late If You Don’t Start Now: How to Create Your Second Life at Any Age, 2013, Barbara Sher
  • What Color is Your Parachute for Retirement? Planning a Prosperous, Healthy, and Happy Future, 2011, John Nelson and Richard Bolles
  • A Long Bright Future: Happiness, Health, and Financial Security in an Age of Increased Longevity, 2011, Laura Carstensen
  • Composing a Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom, 2010, Mary Catherine Bateson
  • The Third Chapter: Passion, Risk, and Adventure in the 25 Years After 50, 2009, Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot
  • Encore: Finding Work that Matters in the Second Half of Life, 2008, Marc Freedman
  • Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development, 2008, George E. Vaillant 

  Creative Careers

  • Beyond Talent: Creating a Successful Career in Music, 3rd Edition, 2019, Angela Myles Beeching
  • Your Creative Career: Turning Your Passion into a Fulfilling and Financially Rewarding Lifestyle, 2018, Anna Sabino
  • The Career Guide for Creative and Unconventional People, Fourth Edition, 2015, Carol Eikleberry and Carrie Pinsky