The 4-Hour Workweek
by Timothy Ferriss
★ Top 10 book of 2009 · #7 on Best Books of 2009
Tim Ferriss argues that you can live well now instead of waiting for retirement, by mastering time and mobility. His guide covers outsourcing tasks, cutting your workload, travelling while employed, and taking short work bursts with frequent mini-retirements.
Best for: People wanting to escape the rat race and work less while traveling
The 4-Hour Workweek is #7 on BookWard's Best Books of 2009, out of 42 2009 books that cleared our data bar.
What The 4-Hour Workweek is about
Timothy Ferriss argues that the usual script for a working life, grinding away for decades and saving the good part for retirement, is a bad bargain. In its place he offers what he calls lifestyle design: arrange your work so that you gain free time and the freedom to move around, instead of waiting for them.
He calls the people who manage this the New Rich, and he treats time and mobility as the currencies that matter most. Along the way he suggests handing off chores to virtual assistants overseas, paid around five dollars an hour, and he says his methods let people see the world without quitting their jobs. Ferriss presents himself as someone who spent more than five years studying how these people operate. The tone is brash, practical and motivational. It will suit office workers, would-be founders and anyone restless about how they spend their days.
The 4-Hour Workweek on the Best Books of 2009
The 4-Hour Workweek came out in 2009. Of the 42 books first published in 2009 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #7 on our Best Books of 2009 list.
Why it made the list: 1,430 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.7 out of 5 (94 ratings); 51 are reading it right now. The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 2009 list
- Dork Diaries Rachel Renée Russell, #5
- I Will Teach You to Be Rich Ramit Sethi, #6
- The Demigod Files Rick Riordan, #8
- Wintergirls Laurie Halse Anderson, #9
See all Best Books of 2009 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 2008 Best Books of 2010.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 1,280 want to read it, 51 are reading it now and 99 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 3.7 out of 5 from 94 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 93 | 55% |
| Reader love | 24 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 83 | 20% |
Questions about The 4-Hour Workweek
When was The 4-Hour Workweek published?
The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss was first published in 2009.
Was The 4-Hour Workweek one of the best books of 2009?
The 4-Hour Workweek is #7 on BookWard's Best Books of 2009, out of 42 2009 books that cleared our data bar. 1,430 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.7 out of 5 (94 ratings); 51 are reading it right now.
Why is The 4-Hour Workweek on the Best Books of 2009 list?
1,430 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.7 out of 5 (94 ratings); 51 are reading it right now.
More of the best books of 2009
- The Last Olympian Rick Riordan, #1
- Catching Fire Suzanne Collins, #2
- The Maze Runner James Dashner, #3
- The Help Kathryn Stockett, #4
- Dork Diaries Rachel Renée Russell, #5
- I Will Teach You to Be Rich Ramit Sethi, #6
See the full Best Books of 2009, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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