The 18 Best NLP Books (to Read in 2024)

The promises NLP makes can seem unreal.

Do you believe you can change a lifetime belief that keeps you stuck in only one NLP session? Do you think it’s possible to achieve more in life by changing your thoughts instead of using a lot of time and energy improving abilities? Do you feel, like most people do, that you can’t solve an issue without knowing the causes of it?

The greatest thing about NLP is that you don’t need to believe in it (the techniques and exercises) for getting the results you want.

NLP techniques, NLP strategies, and NLP training work for most people regardless of how confident they are, regardless if they have doubts about how effective NLP can be for them.

Fortunately for us, NLP has been developed, and we can use it to improve our lives fast and easy. Unfortunately, some individuals gave it a bad connotation by using it in unethical ways.

If you’re interested in learning NLP for personal development, in making your life better, and achieving your full potential, check out the following list of the best books on Neuro-Linguistic Programming.

Note: This list of NLP books does not include material on how to manipulate or take advantage of others.

The big book of NLP is not designed to be read, but keep close and use every time you need to (for example):

• Solve an issue
• Overcome mental barriers
• Feel more motivated
• Help a loved one
• Achieve your goals

This book is not for those who have no NLP knowledge. However, after a minimum education about how NLP works, this book is your friend. This book is the biggest collection of how to apply NLP techniques, patterns, and strategies.

This book is created to help you understand yourself better:

• Why are most things all about you
• How to train yourself to use your mind to achieve what you want
• Tips on how to overcome obstacles that keep you from becoming the best version of you
• Improve your self-awareness
• Building long-lasting and meaningful relationships (vital information on social skills)

If you need a helping hand, a gentle push, and guidance to change and improve yourself, this book is for you.

If you’re searching for information on practical NLP skills and how to apply them at your workplace, this book is for you.

You’ll discover in this book how you can change your state of mind at will and influence those around you.

This is an inspiring book that helps you become an effective leader and improve your communication skills.

If you’re searching for a change in how you’re dealing with life, becoming happier, and understand better your behavior, this book is for you.

You’ll discover in this book:

• Ways to take control of your habits
• How to become more successful
• The core principles of NLP and how to apply them
• The power of reframing techniques
• How to influence others effectively and change your behavior

This book is helping you become the person you’re dreaming to be:

• Achieve more with little effort
• Be the master of your emotional state
• Improve your internal dialogue
• Familiarize yourself with the basic NLP techniques and training exercises
• Build rapport and trust with others

In a nutshell, this book is a step-by-step guide to learning how to use NLP on yourself and others.

I must confess, Richard Bandler is not my favorite NLP author. My reasons are subjective; therefore, I’ll keep them to myself. That being said, this book is one of the greatest books on NLP.

This book can help you:

• Understand your beliefs and change those that keep you stuck
• Use imagination to change your perception by changing the pictures and movies in your mind
• Overcome fear and lack of confidence
• Think positively
• Setting your goals

If you want a positive change in your life, this book is for you.

If you want to improve your memory, this book is for you. Even though is not a book based only on NLP techniques, it’s using a lot of them.

You’ll discover in this book:

• Habits that can prevent you from remembering important things and how to change them
• What means to be the master of your attention
• The Link technique for memorizing things easily
• How to combine your short and long memory
• Ways to use mental maps

If you’re suffering from phobias, the claims of this book can seem unreal to you. However, NLP started by developing techniques on curing phobias.

Granger and Bandler wanted to know how come some people cured themselves of phobias in an instant: What was their thought process? The pictures or movies in their mind? What was the catalyst that made possible what seems (for most phobia sufferers) a miracle?

Starting from those first discoveries of curing phobias, Kalliope Barlis perfected techniques and ways to free yourself from the clutches of phobia.

After suffering for years of phobias, perhaps you don’t believe it’s possible to get free. Use this book and make a miracle in your life.

If you desire to change your life for the better, this book is for you.

Discover in this book:

• The four brains humans have
• What can NLP do for you
• The evolution of NLP
• How to use transformational NLP
• Ways in which NLP can help you reprogram yourself

Most times the things that stop your progress and development are your beliefs and past events. Discover in this book how to change limiting beliefs, overcome past trauma, redefine who you are, and transform your core so that you can achieve in life what you desire.

This book will challenge you a bit to get out of your comfort zone, but the results can be amazing.

Are you looking to improve your NLP knowledge and apply it in your day-to-day life, advance your career, influence others? Then this book is for you.

Discover in this book:

• The difference between perception and interpretation
• The boundaries of belief
• The language patterns of success
• Techniques and ways to influence others

This book is a real-life change. Understand better the principles of cause and effect; become a proud member of the exclusive club of people who use language to make a difference in their life and others.

We like to be in control of our actions and behaviors, our thoughts and feelings. For that reason, most people outside of NLP, are afraid of hypnosis without realizing they hypnotize themselves a few times every day, and every day (they) are hypnotized by others.

Discover in this book how to use hypnosis as a positive tool to help yourself and others overcome difficulties and achieve goals.

Even though this book is not the complete guide on how to master hypnosis, it gives you a great start.

This book by Tony Robbins is an adaptation of NLP techniques; designed for those who want to change their lives and reach their potential without going deep into the field of NLP.

If you want to apply NLP in your life without learning or mastering the terminology of it, this book might be all you need. After all, you don’t need to learn how to perform brain surgery to be able to cure your headaches.

Your body has a skeleton on which everything else sits on; a building has a metrics of supporting walls; an organization has a chain of command.

As you can see, things that exist have and need an adequately built structure to rely on, to be protected by, to support further development. Your beliefs make up the supporting system that allows you to become successful, be happy and content.

Discover in this book how to become a master of your beliefs so that you can stand tall on a stable and secure structure.

You might be surprised to discover how much influence metaphors have on your life.

In one episode of Star Trek, Data (the android) asks a human colleague to explain to him what means to be angry. The human quickly realizes that it’s easier to fix a Starship then explaining emotions.

Your brain understands your difficulty to explain in simple words how you feel. For that reason, we developed the metaphors.

Instead of saying that we feel unable to find ways to overcome a situation, most times we say “I feel I hit a brick wall” and most people understand what that means and how that feels.

Discover in this book how to become a master of metaphors.

This book is designed especially for medical professionals. However, it’s an inspiration for anyone who wants to use NLP to help others get back to health.

Discover in this book how to:

• Use a solution-oriented approach to help others recover
• Uncover the hidden factor in all diseases
• Avoid becoming insensitive
• Use words that help and what words can do harm
• Bedside manners (the NLP approach)
• Formulate your questions to get to the bottom of the problem of those you’re helping
• And much more

If you want to improve your skills of helping others this book is for you.

People often associate trance states with magic or mysticism.

In Trance-Formations, NLP co-founders Richard Bandler and John Grinder breaks down the structure and process of hypnosis and explain the techniques and approaches used therein.

This book turns the “magic” into distinct, understandable procedures, some of which are valuable in everyday conversation and practical applications.

It’s an essential reference book for NLP practitioners and one of the best NLP books ever written.

For anyone seeking knowledge about classic NLP, this is a great place to start.

Frogs Into Princes were written when NLP was just in the beginning stages of establishment. The content mainly consists of lecture transcriptions taken from a seminar conducted by the authors.

It seeks to enlighten the readers about the fundamental principles of NLP while giving examples of them working in action.

Though it includes some of the more complicated processes and techniques of NLP, it is easily understandable. It should be read by anyone with interest in using NLP in their everyday life.