Non-Music Books That Every Theatre Music Director Should Know

As a professional musician, it’s easy to get stuck only looking at sheet music and books about music all the time. Here are 17 books that aren’t about music that have radically changed me as a person - and made me a better artist in the process.

  1. The Inner Game of Tennis (Timothy Gallwey)

  2. Mastery (Robert Greene)

  3. Mastery (George Leonard)

  4. The War of Art (Steven Pressfield)

  5. The Art of Learning (Joshua Waitzkin)

  6. Deep Work and So Good They Can’t Ignore You (both by Cal Newport)

  7. The Formula: The Universal Laws of Success (Albert-Lázsló Barabási)

  8. The Magic of Thinking Big (David Schwartz)

  9. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (Greg McKeown)

  10. The Obstacle Is The Way, Ego Is The Enemy, and Stillness Is The Key (all by Ryan Holiday)

  11. Man’s Search For Meaning (Viktor Frankl)

  12. As A Man Thinketh (James Allen)

  13. Life 101: Everything We Wish We Had Learned About Life In School — But Didn’t (Peter McWilliams)

  14. Give and Take (Adam Grant)

Dean Balan