Eight relatively-unknown books that will change your life

When you read the same books as everyone else, you don't learn anything new. Let's explore some of the unexpected and under-rated favourites.

1. The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, A Roman Slave by Publius Syrus

The best philosophy comes from people who were not 'philosophers'. Syrus was a slave and his moral maxims are far better than perhaps the most famous book in this category, those of Ducdela Rochefoucauld.

2. Civil War Stories by Ambrose Bierce

Mark Twain, for all his bitterness and sarcasm, was just more fun for people to read than Ambrose Bierce. But Bierce is the one who truly captured Civil War -a terrible and awful conflict in which death, destruction and stupidity were far more prevalent than strategy or heroism.

3. Hunger by Knut Hamsun

A dark and moving first-person narrative, about the conflicting drives for self-preservation and self-immolation in side all of us. Hunger is about a writer who is starving himself. He cannot write because he is starving and can not eat because writ ing is how he makes a living. It's a vicious cycle and the book is a first-person descent into it.

4. Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son by George Horace Lorimer

This book is the preserved correspondence between Old Gorgon Graham, a self-made millionaire in Chicago, and his son who is coming of age and entering the family business.

The letters date back to 1890s, but feel like they could be written in any era. Honest.Genuine. Packed with good advice.

5. Company K by William March

Far and away the best book written about WWI. But that's the problem -W W I was awful, perhaps the most awful thing of the 20th century. And this book is forgotten precisely because it portrays the war and its pointless ness too realistically.

6. Why Don't We Learn From History? by BH Liddell Hart

This is a very short book, but will help you understand the topics more than thousands of pages on the same topic by countless other writ ers. Hart is unquestion ably the best writer on history and his theories on the indirect approach is life-changing in any scenario.

7. The Power Tactics of Jesus Christ and other essays by Jay Haley

The title essay in this book is peerless and amazing. The rest of the essays, which talk about Haley's unusual approach to psycho therapy, are also quite good. If you've gone to therapy, thinking about it or know someone who does, this book is a must read.

8. The Tiger: A True Story of Vengence and Survival by John Vaillant

The (true) story is simple: man in Siberia wounds tiger while hunting to feed his family. Tiger goes on killing spree to hunt the man down, and is stopped only when the government dispatches a SWAT .team to track and kill it. The book is a great piece of non-fiction journalism.