Warren Buffett, who says he spends 80% of his time reading and writing, attributes a huge amount of his success to a single book: The Intelligent Investor , by his mentor Benjamin Graham. For Malcolm Gladwell, it was Richard Nisbett's The Person and the Situation that inspired his string of New York Times bestselling books. These are what economist Tyler Cowen calls " quake books "-pieces of writing that are so powerful they shake up your entire worldview.