Non finance book recommendations for beginners?

Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三国演义）: Chinese classic. If you can read Chinese then go for the original version, if not, there are plenty of English translations which have benefited and added cultural and philosophical value to countless generations of English speakers.

It's one of the 4 classic Chinese novels (四大名著）(the other 3 classics are amazing too, but finance bros will love this the most since it's politics, history and drama) It's historical fiction, which tells the legendary tale of The 'Three Kingdoms' era of China which spans around a hundred years, during around 200 AD. It recounts the fall of the previous dynasty (the Western Han dynasty of China), and how individual warlords rose to power during this messy era, took the law into their own hands, and started fighting each other to claim territories for themselves and rule China. Imagine David Solomon becoming old, weak and addicted to DJ-ing and thus losing a grip on GS and so the many partners start rebelling against his authority and try to claim GS for themselves. Imagine the Head of IBD, AM, Markets and the other divisions declaring their divisions as individuals firms and start waging war against each other whilst pretending to be loyal to DJSol. WHILE having to fend off external enemies like JPM and MS who try to capitalize on the opportunity to run GS into the ground while it's strife with internal turmoil. That's the book in a nutshell.

Plenty of drama, hyperbole, colourful characters (more than a hundred characters), history, strategy, Chinese philosophy, beautiful Chinese poetry and literature, and life lessons.

Super quick rundown of some colourful characters if anyone cares to read this shit:

Liu Bei: The benevolent ruler of the 'Shu' faction who remains loyal to the Han emperor (think DJSol in this case) and wishes to restore the Han dynasty (the failing GS in this case)

ZhuGe Liang: The genius strategist, chancellor and regent of the 'Shu' faction, Liu Bei's right-hand man. He has been synonymous with 'genius' in Chinese culture for thousands of years. Today, in China, calling someone 'ZhuGe Liang' is a serious compliment, meaning you are very smart

Cao Cao: The scheming ruler of the 'Wei' faction who plots to overthrow the Han emperor and claim China for himself. (Imagine the head of GS IBD declaring IBD as an independent firm and scheme to overthrow DJSol and become CEO of GS)

GuanYu: Liu Bei's sworn brother, one of the most fearsome generals in all of Chinese history. Today he is revered as '武圣' (which means 'God of War'). Imagine the top MD in GS who remains loyal to DJSol's authority and pledges his abilities to him even though DJSol is a useless DJ addict who is doomed to fail

Many modern Chinese leaders like Xi JinPing, Mao ZeDong, Deng XiaoPing etc study, draw inspiration and quote from classics like 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms' (other classics include, of course, the famous 'Art of War') and the literature is heavily ingrained in Chinese culture. I'd say it's a great place to start to understand the culture of the 2nd biggest economy from their perspective, instead of the standard vanilla Western perspective like the Economist