I've had this conversation with alot of local IMs and GMs in the Chicago (including GM Nikola Mitkov, GM Dmitry Gurevich, GM Yury Shulman, GM Mesgen Amanov, IM Florin Felecan, IM Angelo Young, IM Mehmed Pasalic, IM Emory Tate, IM Arjun Vishnuvardhan, IM Jan van Mortel and I've also talked to GM Varuzhan Akobian & GM Alex Lenderman).

Of course since i'm summing up their opinions ... if any of you great players happens to read this, any one of these books might not have been recommended to me by you.

I noticed several books kept coming to the top of all the lists.
1. 1953 Zurich by Bronstein
2. Art of Attack by Vukovic
3. Imagination in Chess by Gaprind
4. GM-RAM by Rashid Zaitinov
5. Alekhines best games
6.Seven Deadly Sins by Rowson
7. Road to chess improvement by Yermolinsky
8. My 60 Memorables games by Robert Fischer
9. My System by Nimozwitsch
10. All the Fred Reinfeld classics.
11. Think Like A Grandmaster by Alexander Kotov
12. One of aagaard's excelling at books (I can't remember off the top of my head which one but several GMs mentioned it).
13. smyslov endgame virtuoso
14. Endgame Challenge by John Nunn
15. Chess Psychology by Krogius

I would say that two books I would add is definitely 100 endgames you must know and Essential Chess Endings by Howell but none of the title players I've talked to have even heard of these.

Yes that Malakhov interview is very surprising and completely worth a full read: http://www.chessintranslation.com/2010/09/vladimir-malakhov-chess-player-nuclear...

for anyone that missed it.

I spoke with Nakamura a few months ago on this and related topics. He believes that amatuers don't play enough chess. If one strives for an increase in playing strength and rating then at minimum one would need to play 80-100 rated tournament games a year. Nakamura didn't get a coach until he was rated over 2500 FIDE.  Playing and analyzing your games is the most important tool for improvement.  He commented that he wasn't into reading chess books. 

However, I did hear from kamsky that nakamura doesn't have a good chess culture.  Basically he was implying that Nakamura doesn't know of many classic games or the proper defense to many endings.  He just solves all chess problems with good intuition and calculation.  I wonder how good he would be if he grew up in a russian chess school.

Please post any mention from IM's/GM's in interviews/websites/forums/blogs/IM-GM friends of yours/Other sources , about their favorite chess books and the method/schedule of study they adopted to become a better player at chess in a short time.

Especially the one that you found to be most inspirational? 

Thanks.