Want good reads? Try the FT Business Book Challenge podcast

Looking for a good business read? Join the first Financial Times Business Book Challenge, in which we invite readers to read six classic business books over the next three months, starting with Andrew Carnegie, David Nasaw’s 2006 biography of the great Scottish-born industrialist and philanthropist.

The challenge coincides with the run-up to this year’s FT and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award, to be presented on November 22.

In the first of a series of podcasts, I go behind the scenes of the shortlisting process for the award earlier this month in New York and reveal some of the secrets of the judging over the years.

Ann Francke, chief executive of the Chartered Management Institute, joins Helen Barrett, the FT’s deputy work and careers editor, and me to discuss what makes a great business book, based on the CMI’s own management book prize. We also chat about what people in business can learn from non-business books.

John Thornhill, the FT’s innovation editor, makes the case for the modern relevance of Nasaw’s Andrew Carnegie — the first of a series of classic business books that columnists will select and discuss during the coming weeks.

We are inviting readers’ and listeners’ comments about the Carnegie biography, or anything to do with books on business, finance, economics and management, for discussion at our next podcast, which will be live on October 10. Is there a book you would like to challenge one of our columnists to read? Looking at the 12 editions of the Business Book of the Year Award, are there titles that we missed?

You can tweet using the hashtag #FTBizBooks, email businessbookclub@ft.com, or comment under this story, which will be updated every two weeks with more information about the latest challenge.

Books discussed in this week’s FT Business Book Club podcast:

Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw (Book Challenge choice)

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

The Road Home by Rose Tremain

Eleanor of Aquitaine by Alison Weir

The 2016 FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year shortlist:

What Works by Iris Bohnet

Alibaba by Duncan Clark

Makers and Takers by Rana Foroohar

The Rise and Fall of American Growth by Robert Gordon

The 100-Year Life by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott

The Man Who Knew by Sebastian Mallaby