Tim O'Reilly's Top Book Recommendations

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)

Tim O'ReillyPositioning, and The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout. Anyone who wants to start a business with impact needs to read these books. (Source)

Seth GodinThis book is built around the brilliant insight that your prospect doesn't care nearly as much about what you do as you do, and thus you must boil down your offering into a unique slot that repositions the competition. (Source)

Marvin LiaoMy list would be (besides the ones I mentioned in answer to the previous question) both business & Fiction/Sci-Fi and ones I personally found helpful to myself. The business books explain just exactly how business, work & investing are in reality & how to think properly & differentiate yourself. On the non-business side, a mix of History & classic fiction to understand people, philosophy to make... (Source)

Jeff BezosI’m a big science-fiction fan. I love [this book]. (Source)

Elon MuskBrilliant. [The author] advocates placing limits on machine intelligence. (Source)

Adam SavageIf you haven't read it, just go read it. It is amazing! (Source)

Sheryl SandbergProvides a great inside look at how the tech industry approaches building products and businesses. (Source)

Ben HorowitzGreat. (Source)

Dustin MoskovitzAt Asana, we've been lucky to benefit from [the author]'s advice firsthand; this book will enable him to help many more entrepreneurs answer the tough questions about their business. (Source)

Jeff Bezosrecommends this book because it shows how to create a long lasting company. (Source)

Tim O'ReillyBuilt to Last, by James Collins and Jerry Porras. The idea here is that great companies aren't afraid to have strong values. In fact, their cult-like values are what make them stand out from the norm. (Source)

Alden MillsBuilt to Last focused my daydreaming mind into what it takes to build truly great companies. (Source)

Bill GatesIn Anand’s thought-provoking book his fresh perspective on solving complex societal problems is admirable. I appreciate his commitment and dedication to spreading social justice. (Source)

Tim O'ReillyAnand is a deeply insightful thinker, whose view of justice tempered with mercy needs to be widely shared. His forthcoming book is brilliant and important. https://t.co/QIcy3bEZMS (Source)

Darren Walker[A] landmark new book. (Source)

Mark ZuckerbergIt's a history of science book that explores the question of whether science and technology make consistent forward progress or whether progress comes in bursts related to other social forces. I tend to think that science is a consistent force for good in the world. I think we'd all be better off if we invested more in science and acted on the results of research. I'm excited to explore this... (Source)

Tim O'ReillyThe Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas Kuhn. Kuhn introduced the term "paradigm shift" to describe the changeover from Ptolemaic to Copernican astronomy. But the book is far more than a classic in the history of science. It's also a book that emphasizes how what we already believe shapes what we see, what we allow ourselves to think. I've always tried to separate seeing itself from... (Source)

Andra ZahariaI’ve gone through quite a few experiences brought on or shaped by what I’ve learned from books. A particularly unexpected one happened in college when our public relations teacher asked us to read a book called The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn. As a humanities student, you can imagine that I wasn’t thrilled I’d have to read a book on science, but what followed blew my mind... (Source)

Mark MansonI read a bunch of books on writing before I wrote my first book and the two that stuck with me were Stephen King’s book and “On Writing Well” by Zinsser (which is a bit on the technical side). (Source)

Tim O'ReillyOn Writing Well, by William Zinsser. I wouldn't say this book influenced me, since my principles of writing were established long before I read it. However, it does capture many things that I believe about effective writing. (Source)

Derek SiversGreat blunt advice about writing better non-fiction. So inspiring. (Source)

Tim O'ReillyI am loving @KateRaworth’s book Doughnut Economics. It puts #inequality in a far broader context, connecting a great many 21st century problems with a single vision. Every business leader and every policy maker should read it. For a quick summary, see https://t.co/harwQvlLlC (Source)

George MonbiotDoughnut Economics tries to reconcile an environmental vision with the vision of widely shared prosperity. (Source)

Fernando Lelo Larrea🍩Amazing book by @KateRaworth #DoughnutEconomics . I really wish all my Economics students can read it. Fundamental rethinking of our science and what lays ahead. https://t.co/oWUL1TwSYh (Source)

Tim O'ReillyThe Way of Life According to Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching), translated by Witter Bynner. My personal religious philosophy, stressing the rightness of what is, if only we can accept it. Most people who know me have heard me quote from this book. "Seeing as how nothing is outside the vast, wide-meshed net of heaven, who is there to say just how it is cast?" (Source)

Naval RavikantIn the philosophy side, I’ve been rereading the Tao Te Ching. (Source)

Jack DorseyQ: What are the books that had a major influence on you? Or simply the ones you like the most. : Tao te Ching, score takes care of itself, between the world and me, the four agreements, the old man and the sea...I love reading! (Source)

Steven PinkerSteven B. Johnson is one of our most insightful analysts of technology, science, and culture. Interesting piece today, adapted from his forthcoming book, on making decisions (with a priceless quote from my intellectual hero Thomas Schelling). https://t.co/lxE90dCy56 (Source)

Tim O'ReillyA lovely little teaser from @stevenbjohnson’s brilliant book Farsighted. The book is a must-read! https://t.co/A4Q9sDJ96k (Source)

Tim O'ReillyRobert Caro's book Working succeeds on so many levels: brilliant lessons on the art of researching and writing, a teaser for his great biographies, an endearing autobiography. A quick and delightful read. I can't recommend it highly enough. https://t.co/UJ9X04xx9W (Source)

Jerry Neumann@jdgalarneau Great book. He did this too though he had a dedicated space for it. My apartment isn’t big enough to leave these lying around is the problem. Of course, he probably had 100x the cards (Source)

Tim O'ReillyThe Unix Programming Environment, by Brian Kernighan and Rob Pike. In addition to its articulation of the Unix tools philosophy that is so dear to my heart, the writing is a model of clarity and elegance. As a technical writer, I aspired to be as transparent as Kernighan. (Source)

Tim O'ReillyThe Lymond Chronicles, by Dorothy Dunnett. I discovered this series of six difficult, complex historical novels about a character roving the world at the turn of the seventeenth century as my company was passing the critical 50-person inflection point. Lymond is a brilliant leader who isn't afraid of the opprobrium of his peers--he does the right thing, seeing further than those around him. He... (Source)

Tim O'Reilly2/ and @MichaelS_Kimmel's book Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era https://t.co/ui0waJoaJv Great podcast episode, @InTheThickShow! #AspenIdeas (Source)

Tim O'ReillyThis is a fascinating book, full of thought-provoking questions (one to a page) that will help you think more deeply about the challenges facing humanity and the opportunities in science and technology. It is a great one-a-day vitamin to spark your thinking. https://t.co/RjSb2Oh5Cv (Source)

Tim O'ReillyCode and Other Laws of Cyberspace, by Larry Lessig. One of my all-time favorite quotes is Edwin Schlossberg's "The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think." This book gave me a whole new set of tools for thinking about the complex interplay between four forces: government laws and regulations, social norms, technology, and markets. Lessig makes a simple but... (Source)

Tim O'ReillyFor those of you in the Bay Area on Wednesday, this should be an awesome event. @eburfield has great insights for any business leader operating in what he calls "complex markets." I learned a lot from his book. https://t.co/TgazOX4UNt (Source)

Tim O'ReillySo many great lines in this book. It opens with Theodore Roosevelt: "There can be no real political democracy unless there is something approaching an economic democracy." https://t.co/SVZNrKRvL5 (Source)

Tim O'ReillyWith @billjaneway at Bloomberg Beta last night to celebrate the updated edition of his landmark book, Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy (https://t.co/IgmCQpTbAw) Bill and I had a really great conversation and you can see the chemistry here, as @jamescham introduces us. https://t.co/PREi13c09X (Source)

Walter IsaacsonDouglas Rushkoff is one of today's most incisive media theorists and a provocative critic of our digital economy. He's also fun to read (Source)

Tim O'ReillyEvery great advance begins when someone sees that what everyone else takes for granted may not actually be true. Douglas Rushkoff questions the deepest assumptions of the modern economy and blazes a path toward a more human-centered world. (Source)

Seth GodinIf you don't know Rushkoff, you're not serious about figuring out what's going to happen next. (Source)

Tim O'ReillyIslandia, by Austin Tappan Wright. A utopian novel written in the 1930s, about an imaginary country where technology has not yet hastened the pace of life, and where people find time to nurture relationships and the land they live on. Also a novel of "the long view." My first Sun workstation was named Isla, and the dream of living on the land was a part of my move to Sebastopol. Physical labor is... (Source)

Tim O'ReillyScience and Sanity, by Alfred Korzybski. OK, General Semantics was the 30s equivalent of pop-psychology in the 70s, but there are some great concepts there. "The map is not the territory." The idea is that people get stuck in concepts and don't go back to observation. My friend George Simon applied General Semantics to psychology, and gave me a grounding in how to see people and to acknowledge... (Source)

Tim O'ReillyColin Wilson's The Outsider is another book that addresses the same theme: the untapped power of the mind and its constant battle with the world, to make sense of it, or be broken by it. But the book is also significant for me because at 23, reading this book, I wanted to write something as good as Wilson had done at that age. (For a wonderful story recapitulating Wilson's ideas, I also recommend... (Source)

Tim O'ReillyRasselas, by Samuel Johnson. Johnson, author of the first major dictionary of the English language, is one of my heroes. His work can be considered an extended meditation on Milton's phrase from Paradise Lost: "The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven." The quote from Johnson I subject people to most often is from his short novel Rasselas, in which a... (Source)

Tim O'ReillyThe Palm at the End of the Mind, by Wallace Stevens. Stevens is my favorite poet, and this is the most commonly available collection of his poems. His meditations on the relationship of language and reality have entranced me for more than thirty years. I keep reading the same poems, and finding more and more in them. Also someone I quote often. Special favorites are "Sunday Morning," "An Ordinary... (Source)

Tim O'ReillyIn The Meaning of Culture, John Cowper Powys makes the point that the difference between education and culture is that culture is the incorporation of music, art, literature, and philosophy not just into your library or your CV but into who you are. He talks too about the interplay of culture and life, the way that what we read can enrich what we experience, and what we experience can enrich what... (Source)

Tim O'ReillyPositioning, and The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout. Anyone who wants to start a business with impact needs to read these books. (Source)

Bogdana ButnarI thought I might put my money where my mouth is. I keep whining that young people are not in touch with some essential books on advertising that have helped me shape the way I practise my trade today, but I never did anything about it. So I am starting here the ultimate books to read list. I will add to it as I get suggestions and as more good books get written. (Source)