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Ian McEwan's Top Book Recommendations

Want to know what books Ian McEwan recommends? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Ian McEwan's favorite book recommendations of all time. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.

Einstein: His Life and Universe book cover1

Einstein: His Life and Universe

Walter Isaacson

4.4
Einstein was a rebel and nonconformist from boyhood days, and these character traits drove both his life and his science. In this narrative, Walter Isaacson explains how his mind worked and the mysteries of the universe that he discovered.
Bill Gates portraitElon Musk portraitSam Altman portrait Recommended by Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and 5 others.
Ian McEwan portrait
Ian McEwan

This biography shows us the creative exuberance of a man with an extraordinary visual imagination. [source]

Elon Musk portrait
Elon Musk

Founder/SpaceX

I didn't read actually very many general business books, but I like biographies and autobiographies, I think those are pretty helpful. Actually, a lot of them aren't really business. … I also feel it’s worth reading books on scientists and engineers. [source]

The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages book cover2

The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages

Norman Cohn

4.5
John Gray portraitIan McEwan portrait Recommended by John Gray and Ian McEwan.
Ian McEwan portrait
Ian McEwan

It’s a historical account of the fanatical millenarian sects that swept across Europe from the 11th to 15th centuries. [source]

John Gray portrait
John Gray

I first read Norman Cohn back in the sixties. It stayed with me and had a profound effect on me, and emerged in my own work. [source]

3

Collected Poems

Philip Larkin, Anthony Thwaite

4.4
One of the best-known, best-loved poets of the English-speaking world, Larkin had a relatively small number of poems published during his lifetime. This Collected Poems, which J. D. McClatchy called a fascinating and indispensable text in The New York Times Book Review, brings together not only all of Larkin's published verse--The North Ship (1945), the pamphlet of XX Poems (1953), The Less Deceiv
Arnold Jansen portraitIan McEwan portrait Recommended by Arnold Jansen and Ian McEwan.
Ian McEwan portrait
Ian McEwan

There are many writers of my age who are steeped in Larkin and, like me, incorporate the cadences of his lines, often without being aware of it. [source]

Arnold Jansen portrait
Arnold Jansen

This is another one I had with me on my tour of duty. [source]

What Science Offers the Humanities: Integrating Body and Culture book cover4

What Science Offers the Humanities: Integrating Body and Culture

Edward Slingerland

4.0

What Science Offers the Humanities examines some of the deep problems facing current approaches to the study of culture. It focuses especially on the excesses of postmodernism, but also acknowledges serious problems with postmodernism's harshest critics. In short, Edward Slingerland argues that in order for the humanities to progress, its scholars need to take seriously contributions from the natu

Ian McEwan portrait Recommended by Ian McEwan.
5

Rabbit at Rest (Rabbit Angstrom #4)

John Updike

4.2
Winner of the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. In John Updike's fourth and final novel about ex-basketball player Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, the hero has acquired heart trouble, a Florida condo, and a second grandchild. His son and daughter-in-law are acting erratically, his wife Janice wants to work, and Rabbit is searching his soul, looking for reasons to live.
Ian McEwan portrait Recommended by Ian McEwan.