arvy Summer Reading List 2026: 4 Books That Sharpen the Mind
June 9, 2026
4 min read
📚 arvy's Book Club
arvy's Teaser: Summer is just around the corner — the perfect season for books that sharpen the mind and lift the spirit. This year, we've put together four works that inspired us personally: a guide to the mental models of one of our era's most ambitious entrepreneurs, the timeless classic on the psychology of wealth, a witty crime novel (now a Netflix film), and a sharp study of eight CEOs who mastered the art of capital allocation. Here is the arvy Summer Reading List 2026.
The 4 Books at a Glance
1. The Book of Elon: A Guide to Purpose and Success
by Eric Jorgenson · Recommended by Florian, Co-Founder arvy
Eric Jorgenson — who distilled the wisdom of Naval Ravikant into a modern classic — now turns his lens on Elon Musk. "The Book of Elon" is not a conventional biography but a curated guide to the mental models, first-principles reasoning and relentless sense of purpose that drive one of the most ambitious entrepreneurs of our era. Drawing on Musk's own words across decades, Jorgenson assembles a framework for thinking from fundamentals rather than by analogy, setting goals on a civilisational timescale, and persisting through repeated failure. Whether or not you admire the man, the underlying principles — reasoning from first principles, thinking long-term, and building with conviction — make for a genuine masterclass in ambition.Florian's Takeaway
"What stays with me is the discipline of first-principles thinking — stripping a problem down to what is actually true and reasoning upward from there. It's the very same discipline we apply when we look past the market's noise to the fundamentals of a business."
2. Think and Grow Rich
by Napoleon Hill · Recommended by Thierry, Co-Founder arvy
First published in 1937 and never out of print since, "Think and Grow Rich" is the original wealth-mindset classic. Napoleon Hill spent two decades studying the most successful industrialists of his age — Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison — to distil the principles behind their success. The book's central claim is deceptively simple: wealth begins in the mind, with a definite purpose, a burning desire and unshakeable persistence — long before it ever shows up in a bank account. Nearly a century later, its core lesson still holds: the psychology of building wealth matters just as much as the mechanics.Thierry's Takeaway
"Stripped of its 1930s language, the message is timeless and deeply relevant to investing: clarity of purpose and the persistence to stay the course matter far more than any single clever move. The hardest part of building wealth was never the maths — it's the mindset."
3. The Thursday Murder Club
by Richard Osman · Recommended by Patrick, Co-Founder arvy
In a peaceful English retirement village, four sharp-witted residents meet every Thursday to investigate cold cases — until a real murder lands on their doorstep. "The Thursday Murder Club" by Richard Osman is warm, funny and cleverly plotted: a cosy crime novel that never takes itself too seriously. Beneath the humour lies a surprisingly tender story about friendship, ageing and the value of a sharp mind at any age. And the timing couldn't be better: the book is now a Netflix film directed by Chris Columbus, starring Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren and Ben Kingsley — the perfect summer pairing of book first, film after. Pure reading pleasure for the deck chair.Patrick's Takeaway
"Sometimes the best summer read is simply one that makes you smile. But I also love how the four amateur detectives win through patience, pattern recognition and teamwork — qualities that, funnily enough, serve you just as well in investing as in solving a mystery."
4. The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success
by William N. Thorndike · Recommended by Seraphin, arvy
"The Outsiders" studies eight CEOs who delivered extraordinary long-term returns for their shareholders — not through charisma or headlines, but through ruthlessly rational capital allocation. From Henry Singleton at Teledyne to Tom Murphy at Capital Cities and a young Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway, William Thorndike identifies what they all had in common. The answer: they treated capital allocation as the single most important job of a CEO — buying back stock when it was cheap, ignoring Wall Street's quarterly games, and focusing relentlessly on cash flow per share rather than reported earnings. For anyone who wants to understand what truly separates a great company from a merely good one, this is essential reading.Seraphin's Takeaway
"This book reads like a field guide to one of our core quality criteria. When we assess a company, management's capital-allocation track record is decisive — and Thorndike shows, case by case, exactly why. It's the closest thing to a textbook for how we think about quality."
3 Sentences to Remember
1. Reasoning from first principles — stripping a problem down to what is actually true — beats following the crowd, in business and in investing alike.
2. Wealth begins in the mind: clarity of purpose and the persistence to stay invested matter more than any single clever move.
3. The best CEOs are master capital allocators — and disciplined capital allocation is exactly what we look for when we select quality companies.
Do you like the list? Share it with your friends and colleagues!
Find a shady spot, pour something cold, and let yourself be inspired — whether by the mindset of ambitious builders, the timeless psychology of wealth, a witty murder mystery, or eight CEOs who mastered the art of capital allocation. Enjoy reading! — Your arvy Team
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Start savings plan | Understand Quality InvestingThis article was written by Thierry Borgeat, Co-Founder of arvy, and reviewed by Patrick Rissi, CFA, and Florian Jauch, CFA.
Disclaimer: This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute personal investment advice. Amazon links are affiliate links. arvy is a FINMA-supervised asset manager.
