The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

No one likes being powerless, yet we don’t take well to power-hungry people due to our modern ideologies of fairness, equity etc. It’s important to realize that power is amoral—it’s neither good nor evil. You can choose how to use power once you have it, but it’d be foolish to dismiss power as bad or unimportant. In fact, there’s much that we can learn from the masterful scheming of the aristocratic courts of the past—those who can subtly charm, deceive and manipulate without others’ awareness can rise to power without others’ resentment or resistance.

Greene encourages us to think of power-play as a game. You can use this book to learn about power in general or study and reflect deeply upon the ideas to truly understand people and the world you live in.