8 books that can help you increase your net worth

If you're looking to boost your financial IQ this summer, reading these books is one way to get started.

CNBC.com asked financial advisors which books they'd recommend to increase your understanding of how you should invest and manage your money. Here are their top picks.

"I Will Teach You To Be Rich"

This book by Ramit Sethi provides a six-week program aimed at young adults ages 20 to 35.

Financial advisor Michael Kitces recommends the book because it not only teaches good habits, it also emphasizes the value of reinvesting in yourself.

"I find most personal finance books skip this oh-so-important aspect of trying to improve your financial situation by focusing on your earning power, rather than just your expenses or your portfolio investments," Kitces said. "That's what puts his book high on my list."

"The Ultimate Financial Plan: Balancing Your Money and Life"

This financial planning book by Jim Stovall and Tim Maurer covers your overall financial situation, including your cash flow, insurance coverage and estate plan.

"This book is good for the DIY-ers who want take tackle and have the time to manage their own financial household," said advisor Rianka Dorsainvil, founder and president of Your Greatest Contribution.

The book can also help you if you are already working with a financial advisor or planner.

"You will be able to bring ideas and thoughts to the table so it can feel like more of a partnership," Dorsainvil said.

"The Millionaire Next Door"

Written by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko, this book examines how truly wealthy Americans often live frugal lifestyles and rarely show off their wealth with flashy spending.

"It lays the foundation, and shows the impact of how living within your means and spending less than you earn can give you the financial freedom at an early age," Dorsainvil said.

Reading the book should give you an understanding of how all decisions – from buying a home to a car – impacts your long-term wealth, according to Dorsainvil.

"Think and Grow Rich"

Napoleon Hill's book was first published in 1937 and draws lessons from rich men of that era, including Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.

The book teaches you the "mindset one needs to become wealthy," according to financial advisor Ivory Johnson, founder of Delancey Wealth Management in Washington, D.C.

"Our mind is incredibly powerful and thoughts turn into reality," Johnson said.

"The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves"

Author Matt Ridley makes the case in his book for increased prosperity this century, in spite of what pessimists say.

That message, according to financial advisor Tom West, a partner at Signature Estate & Investment Advisors in Tysons Corner, Virginia, can help investors who shy away from the market because of their fears of what could go wrong.

"Ridley does a masterful job of contextualizing the progress of modern society in an accessible way, laying the groundwork for rationally expecting the world of tomorrow to be materially better," West said. "The book was published after the financial crash but now seems just as timely."

On Saturday, we should all celebrate Bookshop Day

Small presses, libraries and independents are all under threat. No one wants to hear their child ask: 'What's a bookshop?'

On Saturday it is Bookshop Day. My heart always sinks a little when I hear that a day has been set aside to celebrate something I love: it too often feels like being put on a list of exotic endangered species – and indeed libraries, small presses and bookshops are all disappearing fast.

When my first book was published, there were no ebooks, no Amazon and most high streets boasted a bookshop. Chains and independents thrived equally – partly because book prices were fixed, which made for a level playing field. But with the demise of the net book agreement, the book world began to change. Independent bookshops could no longer afford to compete. The chains pointed to the free market – until Amazon appeared on the scene, when they themselves began to fall to online competition.

Now, only a comparative handful of bookshops remain. And yet, they represent so much more than an opportunity to buy books. Like libraries, small bookshops are a part of a wider society. A good local bookshop is quirky, individual; reflecting the needs of the community. Sometimes it looks more like someone's home than a place of business – there's maybe even a cat – and with staff who care about books, not just shifting units.

But in the face of powerful online and supermarket opposition, small bookshops have had to work hard to survive. They have had to be creative: reading groups; storytime for children; even ice-cream stalls and bookshop bands. They are also often the most enthusiastic organisers of author visits and signings. Small bookshops show diversity and individualism in a world growing ever more corporate.

They stand for community in the face of business expansion. They represent a protest against the offshore companies that are reducing our high streets to a series of empty shop fronts. That's why we must do our best to support them, not just on Bookshop Day, but every day. Because in 10 years' time, no one wants to hear their child ask: "Mummy, what's a bookshop?"

Exciting events without the expanding newspaper industry

It was bad for those who joined the very long queues, especially in former mining villages or steel towns, but the majority went about their daily routines, finding themselves better off as the years went by, and would not have known they were living through exciting events without the expanding newspaper industry and increasing number of television channels.

"In the bookshops, you could find some very good books firmly located in the 1980s which dealt with topics like the rise of Thatcher or the causes of the Brixton riots, but equally there was escapist fiction or interesting non-fiction that took out of everyday life. Not a year passed without something new and memorable landing on the shelves."As well as journalistic career that has included spells as chief political correspondent for the Observer and Daily Telegraph and his current role as senior writer for the Independent.

Andy McSmith is the author of five books: biographies of John Smith and Kenneth Clarke, a collection of short biographies called Faces of Labour, and a novel, Innocent in the House. His latest book, just out in paperback from Constable, is No Such Thing as Society – a history of Britain in the 1980s.

"Each decade leaves its imprint on the memory. Images from the 1980s suggest a time of excitement and bustle – Live Aid, Princess Diana, the Falklands War, mass pickets outside Rupert Murdoch's new Wapping plant, testosterone-driven yuppies doing frenetic trade on the floor of a deregulated stock market, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev, the Berlin Wall coming tumbling down, apartheid in its final throes. The western world saw more social change in those 10 years than in any other decade since the war. "But the much used cliché about the curse of interesting times did not apply to the average person.