100 Best Adventure Fiction Books of All Time

Bill Gates[On Bill Gates's reading list in 2012.] (Source)

Robert MuchamoreA brutal, exciting, action-based sci-fi novel. Hugely popular and excellent fun. (Source)

Joe Lycettguys i just read this book called harry potter well worth checking out it’s about a really interesting magic lad (Source)

Richard BransonToday is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. (Source)

Cressida CowellThe Hobbit is such a richly imagined fantasy that, especially as a child, you can live in it. It is so completely immersive. (Source)

Lev GrossmanFirst up, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, by JRR Tolkien. But you knew I was going to say that. This one book, which was published in 1937, defined so many variables for the fantasy tradition that are still in place today. Tolkien’s extraordinary achievement was to recover the epic landscapes of Anglo-Saxon myth, bring them back to life, and then to take us through them on foot, so we could... (Source)

Daniel EkIt was fascinating to talk to [the author] about how this book came to be such a hit—he never backed down, and he allowed people to read it for free in order to then boost sales—much like how Spotify’s freemium model was perceived in the early days. (Source)

Eric RipertSpeaks of everyone having an ultimate goal in life, but most of us are too afraid to pursue it. The encouragement to fulfill your dreams is very inspirational! (Source)

Brené BrownThere's a great quote in [this book]: When you're on the right path the universe conspires to help you! (Source)

Big Structural Change@siriusclaw Azkaban ftw! Goblet is the worst of the series. Great book though. (Source)

Maude Garrett@GeekBomb Best use of time travel in a book or series to date (Source)

Shami ChakrabartiIt’s all about the War on Terror as far as I’m concerned. (Source)

Reese WitherspoonGreat article about the success of Where the Crawdads Sing. Did you read the book? ⁦@ReesesBookClub⁩ 🤗 https://t.co/w1ZgQLRzsx (Source)

Kris Crocker@spokanelibrary I love this book!! (Source)

Reid Hoffman[The book] that I’ve most often read. (Source)

Elon MuskAs a boy in Pretoria, Musk was un dersized and picked upon, a smart-aleck known as Muskrat. In his loneliness, he read a lot of fantasy and science fiction. “The heroes of the books I read, ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and the ‘Foundation’ series, always felt a duty to save the world,” he told me. (Source)

Alan LeeHis alternative world and mythological system is totally coherent–it’s a fantastic gift that he has given us. (Source)

Steve JobsJobs told me that "Moby-Dick" was among his favorite books and he reread it a lot when he was a teen. (Source)

Barack ObamaAccording to the president’s Facebook page and a 2008 interview with the New York Times, this title is among his most influential forever favorites. (Source)

Rebecca GoldsteinI actually have quite an idiosyncratic reading of this great metaphysical masterpiece. (Source)

Craig BarrettThis book didn’t really change my mind, but rather reinforced the concept of the power of the individual. At a time when we depend more and more on big institutions to solve our business and social problems the real solutions are crafted by individual actions and initiative. This is true in the business world, where ideas from individual researchers or entrepreneurs can create mega companies... (Source)

Dan Christensen@EconTalker @cable_co1 The Martian... hey it can’t all be economics and it’s a great book (Source)

Patrick Chovanec@acgleva The book was great. (Source)

Ryan HolidayI thought I’d read this book before but clearly they gave me some sort of children’s version. Because the one I’d read as a kid wasn’t a 1,200 page epic of some of the most brilliant, beautiful and complicated storytelling ever put to paper. What a book! When I typed out my notes (and quotes) after finishing this book, it ran some 3,000 words. I was riveted from cover to cover. I enjoyed all the... (Source)

Sol OrwellI have to go with Count of Monte Cristo. An unparalleled revenge story. (Source)

Chris KutarnaThe Count of Monte Cristo it is about revenge and the cost of revenge. Being careful what you wish for. The other theme is about riches and wealth and what is truly valuable. (Source)

Richard BransonToday is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. (Source)

Barack ObamaDuring a trip to a public library in Washington’s Anacostia neighborhood in 2015, Obama shared some of his childhood favorites with a group of young students. He also read (and acted out) Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak to kids at the White House in 2014. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald Where the Wild... (Source)

Michael MorpurgoThis is the first book that I ever read on my own and I take great pleasure and pride in that. It was the first book where I really identified strongly with the boy Jim in it. He was about the same age as I was when I began reading it. (Source)

Neal O'GormanCertainly, a previous non-business book which I really enjoyed (along with many other people) was the Da Vinci Code. I was living in the States at the time, and it was a rare occasion to be on a plane and not see someone reading it. (Source)

Walter IsaacsonRead [this book]. (Source)

Richard BransonToday is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. (Source)

Michael VossI enjoy nearly everything Mark Twain ever wrote, but my favorite is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This novel showcases Twain at the top of his game in terms of acerbic wit, sharp societal observations and the use of regional dialects - for which he initially garnered great criticism, before the passage of time enabled critics to understand and acknowledge its authenticity. (Source)

Chris AndersonAs a child, they exploded my imagination. (Source)

Lev GrossmanYou win some Turkish delight. Everyone knows Lewis’s Narnia books are a foundational work of the modern fantastic. But I don’t think Lewis gets enough credit for his craft as a writer. Those books are deceptively simple. Look at the way he constructed the opening of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. He puts the shadows of the war in the background, the excitement of a new house in the country... (Source)

Chris AndersonAs a child, they exploded my imagination. (Source)

Steve JurvetsonA gift to all of my Apple II programming buddies from high school and Dungeons & Dragons comrades. (Source)

Fabrice GrindaI have lots of books to recommend, but they are not related to my career path. The only one that is remotely related is Peter Thiel’s Zero to One. That said here are books I would recommend. (Source)

Dominic Steil[One of the books that had the biggest impact on .] (Source)

Scott Belsky[Scott Belsky recommended this book on the podcast "The Tim Ferriss Show".] (Source)

Chigozie ObiomaWilliam Golding imbues some of these children with wisdom that would read, in the hands of a lesser author, as implausibly knowing (Source)

Disco Donnie@JoshRHernandez1 I love the book “Lord of the Flies” so just started watching The Society (Source)

A.r. Moxon (Julius Goat)@TByrne75 I think the book of the Princess bride is pretty great actually (Source)

Elon MuskBest books in recent years imo are Iain Banks & George Martin. (Source)

Richard BransonToday is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. (Source)

Alan KayA formative book in so many ways. (Source)

Jan ZalasiewiczRe-reading it recently, I was struck not just by its dynamic plot, but also by how much science he smuggled in. (Source)

Cristina RiesenChronologically, my first favourite book probably was Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days. (Source)

Mark ZuckerbergOh, it’s not a favorite book or anything like that, I just added it because I liked it. I don’t think there’s any real significance to the fact that it’s listed there and other books aren’t. (Source)

Timothy FerrissAt one point, this was the only book listed on Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page. If it’s good enough to be the sole selection of the founder of Facebook, maybe there’s something to it. The plot: In anticipation of another attack from a hostile alien race, the search for a brilliant military strategist has led to Ender Wiggin. In space combat school, Ender stands out, demonstrating exceptional... (Source)

Travis KalanickAbout a kid who is trained by the military to play video games [...] But he realizes at the end that the video games he was playing were an actual war. (Source)

Jack DorseyI keep coming back to it. I love the straightforwardness, the tightness, and the poetry. I think it shows a common struggle that is repeated over and over in so many narratives both fictional and nonfictional. (Source)

Jordan B PetersonThe Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway https://t.co/7dJE4Pfn56, a book from my great books list https://t.co/AxBNX3QpMb (Source)

May WitwitI taught this book to my students in Iraq during the economic sanctions. And I feel like it gave me some kind of strength to continue. (Source)

Jennifer Gunter@SuetheLibrarian I suppose if you only have one great book in you Watership Down is knocking it out of the park! (Source)

Philip ReeveWatership Down is one of the most famous animal adventures ever written. It is a far stranger book than many people expect. (Source)

Philip ReeveWatership Down is one of the most famous animal adventures ever written. It is a far stranger book than many people expect. (Source)

Elon MuskBest books in recent years imo are Iain Banks & George Martin. (Source)

Richard BransonToday is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. (Source)

Richard BransonToday is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. (Source)

Elon MuskI guess when I was around 12 or 15... I had an existential crisis, and I was reading various books on trying to figure out the meaning of life and what does it all mean? It all seemed quite meaningless and then we happened to have some books by Nietzsche and Schopenhauer in the house, which you should not read at age 14 (laughter). It is bad, it’s really negative. So then I read Hitchhikers Guide... (Source)

Timothy FerrissIf Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Star Wars had a love-child, it would read something like this. This colorful novel by Douglas Adams begins with Arthur Dent narrowly escaping the Earth’s destruction as it is bulldozed to make room for a hyperspace bypass. Beyond the bizarre characters and plot twists, Adams proves that despite how bleak ones situation might be, there’s always something to... (Source)

Cornelia FunkeI owe this book to the children I worked with as a social worker. (Source)

Simon WinchesterA fantastic piece of science fiction – it’s basically about explorers who want to know what’s inside the earth. (Source)

Roxana BitoleanuIf I have to choose only one non-business book I would pick Jules Verne's "A journey to the center of the earth", as a symbolic journey to the unknown, deep down, just like our personal search for meaning, for our inner driver. (Source)

Tullis OnstottThe book has just enough science that it seems real. (Source)

Ted TurnerWhen I got to college, I was a classics major, and that was mainly the study of Greek - and to a lesser extent Roman - history and culture, and that fascinated me: the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Aeneid by Virgil. (Source)

Max PorterI still have an image of Odysseus in my head from when I was a child – he’s very Anglo-Saxon and stubbly, a bit like Michael Fassbender (Source)

Janine di GiovanniThe thing I loved about Ulysses was that he’s so in love with adventure and with love. (Source)

Elon MuskBest books in recent years imo are Iain Banks & George Martin. (Source)

Estelle FrancisThe story weaves politics, technology and fantasy in with the classic fairytale that we all know and love. (Source)

Andreas ZhouMy elementary school teacher gave me a copy of this book as a present and I think I read it at least 20 times. I was fascinated by the 'survival' theme and Paulsen tells the story in such a visceral way he really transports you to the location and you feel every bit of cold, fear and hunger that the main character does. (Source)

James TwiningThis is not a brilliantly written book, but the movies are fantastic and quite different really from the book. (Source)

Lindsay BerraI had a great time working out with the #SpecialForces crew from @GhostRecon and @sofletehq in NYC last week! @jonnybernthal even did a drive-by. Fun fact: My dad had me read my first Tom Clancy book, Hunt for Red October, when I was 10. #GhostRecon https://t.co/VgjPCYBRna (Source)

Andrew ElliottIn terms of non-business books, my choice has got to be Sahara by Clive Cussler. I like it mostly for the fact that it is nothing more than a fun, wild adventure. And, frankly, sometimes a book that provides nothing more than pure fantastical escapism is exactly what the doctor ordered. (Source)

Michael DirdaOne of the aims of my little book On Conan Doyle is to urge people to explore Conan Doyle’s many wonderful non-Sherlockian works. Certainly the one that most people should start with is The Lost World. It introduces Professor George Edward Challenger, a self-important but wonderfully funny and committed scientist who discovers a plateau in a South American jungle where dinosaurs still roam the... (Source)

Dr. Gabor MatéI read [this book] as a child and then, reread many times as an adult. And he’s my favorite character. (Source)

Keith JefferyAlthough Bond gets wounded or into trouble, he always manages to come out on top in the end. (Source)

James TwiningYou’d have to struggle to look at literary fiction over the past 50 years and come up with a character who has really inhabited the popular consciousness. (Source)

Pete WinnerWell, this is all about the Cold War. It is a similar story to what Gaz Hunter was into – going across the East German border, lurking around, possibly getting captured and tortured by the Russians. (Source)

Barack ObamaAs a devoted reader, the president has been linked to a lengthy list of novels and poetry collections over the years — he admits he enjoys a thriller. (Source)

Jacqueline NovogratzI read it as a 22-year-old, and it made me think deeply about how society doesn’t “see” so many of its members. (Source)

Dan BarreiroRiveting time capsule material. Literary giant Ellison on the blues, on race, on his powerful book, Invisible Man. https://t.co/iS6xQ7ojE8 (Source)

Richard BransonToday is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. (Source)

Ovidiu DruganQuestion:What books had the biggest impact on you? (perhaps changed the way you see things, dramatically changed your career path) Answer: Dune – Frank Herbert Write It Down, Make It Happen – Henriette Anne Klauser Two years vacations – Jules Verne (and all the well known books) – navigation & cast away story The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey Huckleberry Finn – Mark... (Source)

Rachel Miner@tenoko1 @audible_com Feel ill equipped to answer as I have not read most of these, I am currently on book 4 of the Witcher series, I did enjoy book 1, I like the world and found some of the commentary of magic especially to be inspired, but it is flawed, you have to be forgiving to enjoy the journey (Source)

Geoffrey MillerWorld War Z (the book, not the movie) by @maxbrooksauthor is an incredibly well-researched, thoughtful, horrifying page-turner that explores the many ways that people, media, & gov'ts are likely to mismanage global pandemics. Highly prescient must-read. https://t.co/04YMqnu06e https://t.co/7dyx0F9qqB (Source)

P W Singer and August ColeIt’s about more than a zombie takeover, it’s about what it means to live together in a prosperous and stable world. (Source)

Greg GarrettWorld War Z is a novel that bridges the gap between pulp and high literature. It takes a subject matter which we would think of as mainstream geek culture, but it finds universal human themes, develops characters that you care about, and also manages to be culturally critical. It is clearly critical of many of the post-9/11 choices made by the United States and Britain. (Source)