Firas Zahabi — Reading List

Photo by Laëtitia Buscaylet on Unsplash

Update 4th July 2019 — added a lot of new philosophy books.

• Update 2nd May 2019 — added another philosophy. Firas calls this one of his favourite books. Update 22nd April 2019 — added 2 books for those wanting to start philosophy. Update 27nd Feb 2019 — added a business & money section.

Majority of podcasts are a waste of time. I believe part of the reason they have become so popular is, (like Ted talks) they give off the illusion of being productive. But in reality, they’re long-winded and incoherent. If we are talking about being productive, listening to podcast is only a small step above watching TV.

That being said, I do listen to all of Firas Zahabi’s podcast.

You can find them here:

https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/tristar-gym/id1143878755?mt=2

& here https://www.youtube.com/user/tristargymcanada/videos

I find them enjoyable as we have many of the same interest: MMA, BJJ, self-improvement, memory training and philosophy. And they all tend to have a gem or two hidden inside them. However, I do not fool myself into thinking I’m being productive when I’m listening to them. His podcast tends to be 2–3 hrs long and his AMAs often repeat questions he has previously answered. It’s not an effective use of time to sit through all that time to get 1 or 2 gems.

He usually mentions a few books in them. And I have been enjoying reading his recommendations. In my experience, the things Firas recommends are top notch. I even bought the TimTam massager because of him. See my review.

Anyways, I made this reading list to help keep track of the books he has recommended and to help those who value their time a bit more then I do.

“If I recommend you a book, it’s because it’s a really great book. I’ll never recommend you a book, which I didn’t think was in the top top 100 books I have ever read¹.”

— Firas Zahabi

I’ll be updating the list so be sure to come back here.

Disclosure: some links are affiliated links. Meaning, at no additional cost to you, I may receive commission if you buy the product. This helps me write more content and further develop my free website Memorise Medicine.

Firas: Self-improvement Books

“If you’re always doing the most important thing on your list. And you are doing one thing at a time, you should have zero stress. Why? You’re being as efficient as humanly possible.”

— Firas Zahabi

1. Managing Oneself by Peter Drucker

Firas is a big fan of this book he recommends it multiple times. It’s a small book, you should be able to finish reading it very quickly. It talks about how you need to focus on your strengths. I don’t agree with everything in it. I’ll probably do a review of it later.

Get it here: Book Depository

Big praise for Peter Drucker here. Firas also mentions Carol Dweck.

2. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

Get it here: Book Depository

3. Time Warrior by Steven Chandler

Get it here: Book Depository

4. The ONE Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan

Get it here: Book Depository

5. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck

Get it here: Book Depository

6. Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi²

This is a book on flow state. In the video² Firas is talking about the book in the context of training, but this is not a book on physical training. Since flow state is important for life, I’ve listed it here.

In regards to training, he mentions another book which I have listed in the training section of this book list.

Get it here: Book Depository

In regards to managing stress, he mentions the above 1-4 books here.

See sports psychology list for more books like these.

Firas: Physical Training Books

1. Becoming a Supple Leopard: The Ultimate Guide to Resolving Pain, Preventing Injury, and Optimizing Athletic Performance by Glen Cordoza and Kelly Starrett

This is the book you see Firas recommend the most. I think it was the first book that he recommended that I bought. I own it in its physical form. It’s massive and full of pictures. I don’t understand how someone could read this as an ebook.

Get it here: Book Depository

2. The New Power Program New Protocols for Maximum Strength By Dr Michael Colgan

Get it here: Book Depository

3. The New Nutrition: Medicine for the Millennium By Dr Michael Colgan

Get it here: Amazon

Firas mention both The New Power Program and The New Nutrition here. He rates it as one of the books that have influenced him the most on training.

3. Pavel Tsatsouline

I can’t remember if Firas ever mentions a specific book by Pavel.

Firas says he is a fan of his training principles but not so much the individual technique. E.g. He uses Pavel’s principles to help him get stronger but he uses different equipment (sandbag instead of a kettlebells for example).

I read a lot of Pavel’s stuff when I first started getting into physical training. The Naked Warrior is a good book for people just getting into bodyweight exercise.

And Kettlebell s— Simple & Sinister gets a lot of love on Reddit.

See Pavel’s books here: Book Depository

4. The Rise of Superman: Decoding the science of ultimate human performance by Steven Kotler

Firas recommend this book for its description on flow state³. He has however mentioned he prefers Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi work (see self-improvement books).

Get it here: Book Depository

Firas: Sport Psychology

1. Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz

Firas recommends this book for visualisation.

Get it here: Book Depository

2. The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey

Get it here: Book Depository

3. Fearless: Creating the Courage to Change the Things You Can by Steve Chandler

4. With Winning in Mind: The Mental Management System by Lanny Bassham

Get it here: Book Depository

Firas: Memory Training Books

1. Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer

I’m listening to this book right now as an audiobook. It’s about Josh’s journey on training his memory with memory experts. Very interesting, goes through a lot of history of memory training as well.

Get it here: Book Depository

In this podcast, Firas says to read books by Ron White and Dominic O’Brien (he says Dominic O’Donell but there is no memory champion named that). He doesn’t give any specific books though.

2. Dominic O’Brien

The “GSP of memory training”, Firas doesn’t recommend any specific books by him. From what I’ve read online most people say anything by Dominic is good.

ArtofMemory.com reading list specifically mentions:

• Quantum Memory Power
• You Can Have an Amazing Memory
• How to Develop a Brilliant Memory Week by Week

I also see “How To Pass Exams: Accelerate Your Learning, Memorise Key Facts, Revise Effectively” mention a lot.

See Dominic's other books here: Book Depository

3. Ron White

Firas doesn’t mention any specific books for Ron. From what I’ve seen online,
“Memory Improvement: How to Improve Your Memory in Just 30 Days” is his most recommended book.

See Ron’s other books here: Amazon

Firas: Philosophy Books

For those who don’t know too much about philosophy and want to start learning, Firas recommends:

1. Meditations on First Philosophy by René Descartes

Get it here: Book Depository

Books By Plato

1. Euthyphro by Plato

Firas says he likes to recommend this Euthyphro as a good introduction to Plato.

Get it here: Book Depository

2. Gorgias by Plato

Firas call Gorgias one of the greatest books ever written.

Get it here: Book Depository

3. Phaedo by Plato

Phaedo is one of Plato’s last works. Firas recommends you read his earliest work first.

Get it here: Book Depository

One of Firas Favourite Book

Ḥayy Ibn Yaqẓān by Ibn Tufail

Get it here: Book Depository

Ḥayy Ibn Yaqẓān — one of Firas’s top five books that changed his life.

The Confessions of Al-Ghazali: Rescuer from Error by Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali

Get it here: Book Depository

Other Philosophers Firas has mentioned:

Here’s a video where he mentions a lot of the below philosophers names.

1. Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali

2. John Searle

3. David Hume

4. Immanuel Kant

5. Karl Popper

6. Frank Griffel

Firas recommends reading Frank’s work if you want to learn more about the Muslim religion. Frank is a religious scholar and non-muslim.

Check them out on Book Depository

Firas: Business & Money Books

If you want to be rich…It’s so simple. Read one business book a week. If you’re not going to do it, you don’t deserve to be rich. — Firas Zahabi

Here Firas talks about reading 1 business book a week if you want to be rich.

He later mentions that there’s a lot of bad business books. And gives some recommendations on what to read.

1. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth by T. Harv Eker.

Firas calls this the greatest business book he’s personally read.

Get it here: Book Depository

2. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter.

Get it here: Book Depository

3. Dave Ramesy — he doesn’t mention any specific book.

Firas says Dave’s books are good for people that are in debt and need to get out of it.

See Dave’s book here

Miscellaneous

1. The Toughest Man Who Ever Lived by Nori Bunasawa, John Murray

Before the Gracies were doing ju-jitsu there was Mitsuyo “Conde Koma” Maeda.

This is a good book for people who want to know more about the man behind the origin of Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

Happy reading and remember to come back, as I’ll be updating this list.

Disclosure: some links are affiliated links. Meaning, at no additional cost to you, I may receive commission if you buy the product. This helps me write more content and further develop my free website Memorise Medicine.

Reference

(1) https://youtu.be/K0SjH11L_o0?t=1313

(2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuuxr86Pkss&t=627s Firas on the state of flow.

(3) https://youtu.be/KvhIeXhf5Ek?t=1524