The Ultimate King Energy Reading List: 12 Books to Reclaim Your Throne

You’ve been through hell. Divorce, loss, burnout—life has thrown punches, and you’ve taken them. But you’re here, still standing. You’re not looking for sympathy; you’re looking for strength. You’re seeking a path forward—a roadmap back to your true self, your potential, and your power.

Books aren’t just collections of pages—they are mentors, guides, and mirrors. They offer wisdom from those who’ve walked similar paths, survived similar storms, and rebuilt from the ashes. A carefully chosen reading list can ignite your courage, sharpen your clarity, and reinforce your strength. Each book listed here is deliberately selected to awaken what is already within you: your King Energy.

King Energy is not about dominance or empty bravado. It’s about grounded strength, wisdom, and integrity. It means owning your life, your actions, your failures, and your future. It’s the quiet power and unwavering clarity of knowing who you are and what you stand for. Now, let’s explore your guide, book by book, to reclaiming your throne.

For more of my articles on Gender Equality, check here Kings.

Money & Independence

1. Rich Dad Poor Dad — Robert Kiyosaki

Robert Kiyosaki’s book disrupts conventional thinking about money and financial security. Told through a compelling personal narrative of two influential figures—his own educated but financially insecure father, and his friend’s entrepreneurial father—it challenges you to rethink your financial beliefs. Kiyosaki clarifies the critical distinction between working for money and having money work for you.

This mindset shift is essential. If you’re currently trapped in financial anxiety or feel helpless about your economic future, “Rich Dad Poor Dad” provides both the inspiration and practical tools to move towards independence. It teaches you to view financial freedom not as an elusive dream but as an achievable, concrete goal. Embracing this approach positions you as the architect of your destiny.

2. The Millionaire Next Door — Thomas J. Stanley

Thomas Stanley’s groundbreaking research reveals the truth behind genuine wealth—it isn’t about lavish displays or superficial success. Instead, Stanley introduces you to the quiet millionaires who live unassuming lives, built on consistent habits, frugality, and deliberate financial decisions. This book dispels myths about wealth being flashy or exclusive, making the path to financial independence clear and attainable.

Stanley’s principles empower you to gain control over your financial life by instilling discipline and self-awareness. You’ll learn practical strategies that transform your relationship with money from one of stress and uncertainty to one of empowerment and stability. By embracing the understated yet powerful methods of everyday millionaires, you’ll build both financial security and personal pride.

3. Your Money or Your Life — Vicki Robin

Vicki Robin delivers an extraordinary wake-up call that compels you to evaluate your relationship with money and time deeply. Robin confronts the toxic notion that financial wealth equates happiness, urging you to align your financial choices with your authentic values. Through a structured, step-by-step process, this book helps you achieve financial clarity and conscious spending.

Adopting Robin’s approach liberates you from the cycle of earning and spending blindly. It moves you away from feeling trapped by your financial obligations towards a place of intentionality and freedom. This mindful approach is crucial for claiming your King Energy, emphasizing control, deliberate action, and authenticity in every financial decision.

Masculinity & Self-Respect

4. The Way of the Superior Man — David Deida

David Deida speaks directly to the modern man’s dilemma—navigating love, purpose, and personal integrity amidst changing societal expectations. Deida challenges conventional notions of masculinity, urging you to face vulnerability with strength rather than fear. He provides profound insights on balancing personal relationships and professional ambitions without compromising your core identity.

Deida’s guidance allows you to reclaim your personal power authentically. Instead of feeling lost in your own life, you’ll learn to live confidently, driven by purpose and passion. This book serves as a critical resource for reconnecting with your true self, grounding you in emotional intelligence, clarity, and genuine masculinity.

5. No More Mr. Nice Guy — Robert Glover

Robert Glover identifies a pervasive and destructive pattern in many men’s lives: the “Nice Guy” syndrome. Characterized by passive-aggressive behaviour, approval-seeking, and resentment, this syndrome leaves you feeling unfulfilled and disrespected. Glover’s book is your blueprint to breaking free from this cycle.

By confronting uncomfortable truths and encouraging brutal honesty with yourself, Glover helps you step out of victimhood into accountability. You will reclaim your authentic self, learning to set clear boundaries and communicate assertively. Ultimately, this transformation frees you to pursue relationships and ambitions that genuinely align with your values and needs.

6. Iron John — Robert Bly

Robert Bly’s classic work explores the depths of male psyche through myth and symbolism, particularly the Grimm fairy tale “Iron John.” Bly guides you to understand and heal your emotional wounds by confronting the shadow aspects of your personality—the hidden, often uncomfortable truths that sabotage your success and happiness.

Through this profound exploration, you will reconnect with your inherent strength and emotional depth, finding renewed confidence in your identity. Bly’s work encourages you to embrace your vulnerabilities as sources of profound inner strength, transforming your wounds into wisdom and cultivating genuine self-respect.

Growth & Courage

7. Can’t Hurt Me — David Goggins

David Goggins is the ultimate testament to human resilience and mental toughness. Overcoming extreme childhood adversity and physical challenges, Goggins illustrates the profound power of relentless self-discipline and determination. His raw honesty about confronting personal limits challenges you to question your own excuses.

Applying Goggins’ relentless mindset equips you to navigate life’s inevitable setbacks with unshakable resolve. His message is clear: true strength and courage emerge from confronting, not avoiding, discomfort. Embracing this principle empowers you to cultivate the King Energy of resilience, perseverance, and uncompromising self-accountability.

8. Extreme Ownership — Jocko Willink

Jocko Willink, a former Navy SEAL commander, delivers a battle-hardened philosophy of leadership and discipline in Extreme Ownership. Rooted in the brutal clarity of combat, Willink teaches that responsibility is not something you share — it’s something you own entirely. No more blame, no more excuses. If something in your life is broken, you fix it — because it’s on you. That’s not pressure; that’s power.

This mindset doesn’t just apply to business or military life — it applies to your relationships, your finances, your fitness, your mindset. Owning everything in your life, especially your failures, is one of the most liberating things a man can do. It demands maturity and humility, and it fosters trust, both in yourself and from others. King Energy thrives on ownership — because a true king doesn’t deflect blame. He leads with integrity, owns the mess, and turns it into order.

9. The Obstacle Is the Way — Ryan Holiday

Ryan Holiday brings Stoic philosophy into the real world with clarity and force in The Obstacle Is the Way. Drawing from the lives of historical figures who turned adversity into greatness, Holiday reframes challenges as essential to transformation. The core lesson: obstacles are not problems — they are paths. Life doesn’t get easier; you get stronger by facing what stands in your way, not by avoiding it.

When you learn to meet resistance with stillness, setbacks with strength, and failure with reflection, you begin to master the inner alchemy of resilience. Holiday shows you that every difficulty is an invitation to become who you were meant to be. This book is fuel for your King Energy — forging patience, perspective, and presence under pressure. No whining. No flinching. Just forward.

Mindset & Vision

10. Man’s Search for Meaning — Viktor Frankl

Written from the depths of Auschwitz, Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning is not just a book — it’s a reckoning. Frankl, a psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, shows that meaning is not given to us; it is chosen by us, even in the most horrific of conditions. His insight: between what happens to you and how you respond, there is a space. In that space lies your power.

For any man who feels broken, lost, or haunted by what life has taken from him, Frankl offers a sobering but empowering truth: suffering is not the end. It can be the beginning of something sacred if you choose to find meaning in it. This is where your King Energy becomes spiritual — the inner compass that guides your external action. With meaning, you don’t just survive life; you transform it.

11. Atomic Habits — James Clear

James Clear distils years of behavioural science into something deeply usable in Atomic Habits. He doesn’t sell hype or impossible goals — he offers the blueprint for long-term transformation through small, consistent actions. Habits aren’t just routines; they are identity rituals. Every tiny improvement is a vote for the man you are becoming.

If you’ve struggled to stay consistent, this book shows you why — and how to fix it. Clear helps you take your power back one micro-step at a time. You don’t need to overhaul your life in a weekend. You just need to become 1% better, every single day. King Energy is not built on grand declarations. It’s built in the invisible hours; in the decisions no one sees. This is how you win quietly, powerfully, for life.

12. The War of Art — Steven Pressfield

Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art is a battle cry for any man who knows he’s meant for more but keeps finding reasons not to show up. He names the enemy: Resistance. That subtle, sinister voice that tells you to wait, to doubt, to delay. Whether it’s your creative potential, your leadership, your spiritual growth — Resistance wants you stuck. Pressfield wants you moving.

This book calls you out without mercy but also shows you how to fight back. To become a professional in your own life. To cross the line from dabbling into doing. From hiding to showing up. From fear to freedom. Pressfield doesn’t promise comfort — he promises glory earned through the grind. That’s what King Energy is: not ease, but earned excellence. You know what you’re here to do. This book tells you to stop fucking waiting and do it.

Reclaiming Your Throne

Avoiding King Energy carries a cost — one that compounds with every year of passivity, resentment, or distraction. You’ll look back on lost time, relationships, potential. You’ll see the gap between the man you could’ve been and the man you settled for. That’s a brutal truth — but it’s also your call to rise.

These books won’t fix you. They’re not bandages. They are blades — to sharpen you. Mirrors — to face yourself. Blueprints — to rebuild what matters. Start with one. Just one. Read it. Don’t skim it. Sit with it. Let it provoke you. Let it demand something better from you.

The throne isn’t given. It’s earned.
So stand up. Read up.
And take your rightful place.🫡🤴

Thank You for Reading!

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If you’re interested in diving deeper into topics like this, don’t forget to check out the Donc Voila Quoi Podcast, where I discuss these ideas in more detail. You can also follow me on Pinterest @doncvoilaquoi and Instagram @jessielouisevernon, though my accounts have been shut down before (like my old @doncvoilaquoi on Instagram), so keep an eye out for updates.