Steve Jobs portrait

Steve Jobs' Top Book Recommendations

Founder/Apple

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

The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail book cover1

The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail

Clayton M. Christensen

4.3
The bestselling classic on disruptive innovation, renowned author Clayton M. Christensen.

His work is cited by the world’s best-known thought leaders, from Steve Jobs to Malcolm Gladwell. In this classic bestseller—now updated with a fresh new package—innovation expert Clayton Christensen shows how even the most outstanding companies can do everything right—yet still lose market leadership. Read th
Only the Paranoid Survive book cover2

Only the Paranoid Survive

Andrew S. Grove

4.2
Under Andy Grove's leadership, Intel has become the world's largestchipmaker, the fifth-most-admired company in America, and theseventh-most-profitable company among the Fortune 500. You don't achieverankings like these unless you have mastered a rare understanding of the art ofbusiness and an unusual way with its practice.Few CEOs can claim this level of consistent record-breaking success. Grovea
Moby-Dick book cover3

Moby-Dick

Herman Melville

3.9
Journey to the heart of the sea with this larger-than-life classic.

Regarded as a Great American Novel, "Moby Dick" is the ultimate tale of seeking vengeance.

Narrated by the crew member Ishmael, this epic whaling adventure follows the crew of the "Pequod," as its captain, Ahab, descends deeper and deeper into madness on his quest to find and kill the white whale that maimed him. Beyond the surface-
4

The Innovator's Dilemma byChristensen

Christensen

4.5
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind book cover5

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

Shunryu Suzuki, David Chadwick

4.4
"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few." So begins this most beloved of all American Zen books. Seldom has such a small handful of words provided a teaching as rich as has this famous opening line of Shunryu Suzuki's classic. In a single stroke, the simple sentence cuts through the pervasive tendency students have of getting so close to Zen as to co
Inside the Tornado: Marketing Strategies from Silicon Valley's Cutting Edge book cover6

Inside the Tornado: Marketing Strategies from Silicon Valley's Cutting Edge

Geoffrey A. Moore

4.2
"The chasm is where high-tech fortunes are lost... the tornado is where they are made."-- Steve Jobs, Founder & CEO, Next Computer, Inc.



Now, in this fascinating sequel, Moore shows how to capitalize on the profit-rich niches and hyper-growth markets beyond the chasm. Continuing to chart the impact of the Technology Adoption Life Cycle, he explores its effects not just on marketing but on overall b
7

Mucusless Diet Healing System

Arnold Ehret

4.7
Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind book cover8

Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind

Richard Maurice Bucke

4.1
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the
9

The Way Of The White Clouds

Anagarika Govinda

4.5
'It tells of terrible journeys, of men masked against the sun (riding through ethereal regions with their feet frozen), of welcoming fog-girt monasteries lit by butter lamps at the journey's end' New Statesman

The Way of the White Clouds is the remarkable narrative of a pilgrimage which could not be made today. Lama Anagarika Govinda was among the last to journey through Tibet before its invasion
1984 book cover10

1984

George Orwell

4.3
A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick

With extraordinary relevance and renewed popularity, George Orwell’s 1984 takes on new life in this hardcover edition.

“Orwell saw, to his credit, that the act of falsifying reality is only secondarily a way of changing perceptions. It is, above all, a way of asserting power.”—The New Yorker

In 1984, London is a grim city in the totalitarian state of Oceania
Meetings With Remarkable Men book cover11

Meetings With Remarkable Men

G. Gurdjieff

4.3
'You must learn not what people round you consider good or bad, but to act in life as your conscience bids you'

For twenty years, the spiritual teacher Gurdjieff journeyed through Central Asia and the Middle East. Part travelogue, part adventure, part spiritual guide, Meetings with Remarkable Men vividly describes his encounters with the people who aided his search for knowledge: his father, a bard
Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism book cover12

Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism

Chogyam Trungpa, Sakyong Mipham

4.5
In this modern spiritual classic, the Tibetan meditation master Chögyam Trungpa highlights a common pitfall to which every aspirant on the spiritual path falls prey: what he calls spiritual materialism. The universal human tendency, he shows, is to see spirituality as a process of self-improvement—the impulse to develop and refine the ego when the ego is, by nature, essentially empty. “The problem
The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas book cover13

The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas, Paul Muldoon

4.4
The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas contains poems that Thomas personally decided best represented his work. A year before its publication Thomas died from swelling of the brain triggered by excessive drinking.

Since its initial publication in 1953, this book has become the definitive edition of the poet’s work. Thomas wrote “Prologue” addressed to “my readers, the strangers” — an introduction in
Be Here Now book cover14

Be Here Now

Ram Dass

4.5
Describes one man's transformation upon his acceptance of the principles of Yoga & gives a modern restatement of the importance of the spiritual side of human nature. Illustrated.
The book is divided into four sections:
Journey: The Transformation: Dr Richard Alpert, PhD into Baba Ram Dass
From Bindu to Ojas: The Core Book
Cookbook for a Sacred Life: A Manual for Conscious Being
Painted Cakes (Do Not S
Autobiography of a Yogi book cover15

Autobiography of a Yogi

Yogananda Paramahansa

4.4
Autobiography of a Yogi is one of the best-selling spiritual biographies of all time. The book is not merely read it is treasured and cherished by millions of spiritual seekers throughout the world.
Atlas Shrugged book cover16

Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand

4.0
This is the story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world and did. Was he a destroyer or the greatest of liberators?

Why did he have to fight his battle, not against his enemies, but against those who needed him most, and his hardest battle against the woman he loved? What is the world’s motor — and the motive power of every man? You will know the answer to these questions when
King Lear book cover17

King Lear

William Shakespeare

4.3
In King Lear, one of Shakespeare's greatest and most enduring plays, an aging father's demand that his daughters publicly declare their love for him triggers a reaction that involves nations and brings suffering and death to his entire family. The play takes ordinary jealousies, demands for love, sibling rivalries, desires for money and power, and petty cruelties to the extreme. In this play, we s
Ramakrishna & His Disciples 1ST Edition book cover18

Ramakrishna & His Disciples 1ST Edition

Christopher Isherwood

4.5
The Tao of Programming book cover19

The Tao of Programming

Geoffrey James

4.3
Anthem book cover20

Anthem

Ayn Rand

4.0
This expanded edition of Ayn Rand's classic tale of a future dark age of the great "We"--in which individuals have no name, no independence, and no values--is a beautifully written, powerful novel that projects current social trends into the future, and anticipates such later Rand masterpieces as The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.
Diet for a Small Planet book cover21

Diet for a Small Planet

Frances Moore Lappe

4.1
Here again is the extraordinary bestselling book that taught America the social and personal significance of a new way of eating-- one that remains a complete guide for eating well in the 90s. Featuring: simple rules for a healthy diet; a streamlined, easy-to-use format; delicious food combinations of protein-rich meals without meat; hundreds of wonderful recipes, and much more.