Steve Jobs's Top Book Recommendations

Steve JobsIn that first year at Reed, Jobs also read "Diet for a Small Planet," a book about protein-rich vegetarianism that went on to sell three million copies. It was a breakthrough. "That's when I pretty much swore off meat for good," Jobs told Isaacson. (Source)

Ruth ReichlWhen this book came out in the early 1970s, it was revolutionary. I feel this is a book that hasn’t gotten its due. (Source)

Yale Program On Climate Change CommunicationFrances Moore Lappé's best-selling book “Diet for a Small Planet” changed the way many people in the 1970s viewed the food system and its inefficiencies: https://t.co/xla4y5Nuzd via @nytimes https://t.co/wNIgZLCI9Z (Source)

Steve JobsNow, I had heard from my publisher (who knew Jobs from way back) that Jobs had liked my recently published book The Tao of Programming. So I thought, why not? and walked up and introduced myself. Jobs smiled, shook my outstretched hand and said: (Source)

Liz DerowI love this book because for one thing it’s just a great story, well-told. A lot of books about Indian sages are written in such a way that they just send you to sleep . . . But Ishwerood is a great writer, and he’s smart. He explains lots of things about Hindu tradition and thought throughout. It’s actually a very informative read on that level. (Source)

Steve JobsJobs told Walter Isaacson, the author of his biography, that he “loved King Lear”, which isn’t surprising. (Source)

Kathleen TaylorLear is about all sorts of things but one of the things it’s about is people getting old and not ceding what their kids think they should to them and the kids trying to bully them. (Source)

Steve Jobsis said by his Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak, to have regarded Atlas Shrugged as one of his “guides in life”. (Source)

Elon MuskA counterpoint to communism and useful as such, but should be tempered with kindness. (Source)

Travis Kalanick[Travis Kalanick mentioned this book in a Washington Post interview.] (Source)

Steve JobsOne book in particular stayed with Jobs his entire life, and Isaacson noted that it was the only book Jobs had downloaded on his iPad 2: “Autobiography of a Yogi,” “the guide to meditation and spirituality that he had first read as a teenager,” Isaacson writes, “then re-read in India and had read once a year ever since.” (Source)

Marc BenioffIf you haven't read it, and if you want to understand Steve Jobs, it's a goood idea to dip into [this book]. (Source)

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

Steve JobsIn late 1972, Jobs had just started at Reed College, an elite liberal arts school in Portland, Oregon. He started doing lots of LSD and reading lots of books about spirituality. (Source)

Jack KornfieldChanged countless lives. (Source)

Travis Brewer[Travis Brewer said this is one of his most-recommended books.] (Source)

Frieda HughesYes, let’s. I love a ‘collected poems’ because it gives you everything, so it’s very good value for money! (Source)

Steve JobsDuring his freshman year at Reed College, Jobs befriended Daniel Kottke, who went on to work at Apple, and together they devoured books such as Shunryu Suzuki’s “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind,” Chogyam Trungpa’s “Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism” and Paramahansa Yogananda’s “Autobiography of a Yogi,” a book Jobs read and re-read many times during his life. (Source)

Andy PuddicombeHe was calling out probably the biggest trap in the journey of self-discovery, that of spiritual materialism … If we meditate in order to let go of labels, to let go of identity, the last thing we want to do is take on another label: of being ‘spiritual.’ We’re looking to let go of that kind of judgment. (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)

Steve Jobscalled this book "one of his favorite" and recommended it to the hires. The book also inspired one the greatest TV ad (made by Jobs) (Source)

D J TaylorIn terms of how technology is working in our modern surveillance powers, it’s a terrifyingly prophetic book in some of its implications for 21st-century human life. Orwell would deny that it was prophecy; he said it was a warning. But in fact, distinguished Orwell scholar Professor Peter Davis once made a list of all the things that Orwell got right, and it was a couple of fairly long paragraphs,... (Source)

Steve JobsKottke recently shared a list of the books he and Jobs read around their time at Reed — ones that inspired Jobs's travels across the globe as well as his professional pursuits. One of the most influential works on that list is "Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind," originally published by a Canadian psychiatrist in 1901. (Source)

Steve JobsJobs' diet grew more adventurous after reading "Mucusless Diet Healing System" by early-20th-century German dietitian Arnold Ehret, a guy who recommends practices like "intermittent juice fasting." "I got into it in my typical nutso way," Jobs told Isaacson. After getting to know Ehret's work, Jobs became something of a nutritional extremist, subsisting on carrots for weeks at a time — to the... (Source)

Steve Jobsoften used the methods found in this book to center himself during difficult moments in his career. He was such an avid practitioner that he considered going to Japan to continue his practice, but was advised against it. (Source)

Kevin RoseIsn’t a religious book, but more on self-realization, study on yourself, breathing exercises, relaxation and understanding human nature. Really cool book, very short read and you will really enjoy reading. (Source)

David Heinemeier HanssonZen Mind, Beginner’s Mind is an introduction to Buddhism and meditation. There are a lot of echoes between Stoicism and Buddhism, and I thought I’d dive deeper into this on recommendation from Eric Dodson (great YouTube channel for existentialist and stoic explainers and introductions). So far I’m finding that there’s longer between the nuggets of wisdom that slot into my brain than with the... (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)

Charles T. MungerIn my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn't read all the time -- none, zero. You'd be amazed at how much Warren reads -- and at how much I read. My children laugh at me. They think I'm a book with a couple of legs sticking out. (Source)

Steve JobsThis book is about one super-important concept. You must learn about Strategic Inflection Points, because sooner or later you are going to live through one. (Source)

Ben HorowitzAndy Grove's Only the Paranoid Survive is a great book on strategy. (Source)

Jeff BezosBrad Stone's new book, The Everything Store, describes how Bezos developed this strategy after reading another book called The Innovator's Dilemma by Harvard professor Clayton Christensen. (Source)

Steve JobsIt's important that we make this transformation, because of what Clayton Christensen calls "the innovator's dilemma," where people who invent something are usually the last ones to see past it, and we certainly don't want to be left behind. (Source)

Max Levchin[Max Levchin recommended this book as an answer to "What business books would you advise young entrepreneurs read?"] (Source)