My first read of your request made me think you were looking for books mainly for personal intellectual growth. There are a lot of answers in that vein, as well

My first read of your request made me think you were looking for books mainly for personal intellectual growth. There are a lot of answers in that vein, as well as a few that seem suitable replacements for an undergrad econ degree. A second read made me wonder if you're actually asking for practical advice about what you should read in order to get a job in finance, given you won't take many econ or finance courses. I'll answer in the second vein, as it seems to be somewhat underrepresented. Investment Banking/Private Equity/Investment Analysis McKinsey & Co, Koller, Goedhart, Wessels: Valuation Damadoran on Valuation Trading or Quant Hull: Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives Joshi: Introduction to Mathematical Finance Harris: Trading and Exchanges: Market Microstructure for Practitioners There should probably also be a category for what I think of as quantitative fundamental investing. For an idea of what I mean, look at what the investment firm AQR does. I'm not sure of good books in this area though.