Data study · 56 reading lists analyzed
The books top founders & investors recommend most
We went through the public reading lists of 56 of the world's most influential founders and investors — Naval Ravikant, Peter Thiel, Jeff Bezos, Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and more — and counted which books show up again and again. These 109 titles are the ones recommended by at least two of them.
The most-recommended, at a glance
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind 12
- High Output Management 11
- Poor Charlie's Almanack 10
- Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future 10
- Guns, Germs, and Steel 8
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things 8
- The Intelligent Investor 8
- Security Analysis 7
- The Innovator's Dilemma 7
- Thinking, Fast and Slow 7
- Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder 6
- Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life 6
The full ranking
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Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Yuval Noah Harari
On 12 of 56 lists
Andrew Wilkinson · Bill Gates · Daniel Ek · Keith Rabois · Li Lu · Marc Andreessen · Mark Zuckerberg · Naval Ravikant · Patrick O'Shaughnessy · Sahil Lavingia · Shane Parrish · Vinod Khosla
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High Output Management
Andrew S. Grove
On 11 of 56 lists
Balaji Srinivasan · Ben Horowitz · Brad Feld · Brian Chesky · Drew Houston · Keith Rabois · Marc Andreessen · Paul Graham · Reid Hoffman · Sam Altman · Tobi Lütke
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Poor Charlie's Almanack
Charlie Munger
On 10 of 56 lists
Charlie Munger · Daniel Ek · Drew Houston · Guy Spier · Josh Wolfe · Li Lu · Mohnish Pabrai · Naval Ravikant · Sam Altman · Warren Buffett
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Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
Peter Thiel
On 10 of 56 lists
Ben Horowitz · Brad Feld · Jeff Bezos · Marc Andreessen · Nassim Nicholas Taleb · Patrick O'Shaughnessy · Paul Graham · Peter Thiel · Reid Hoffman · Sam Altman
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Guns, Germs, and Steel
Jared Diamond
On 8 of 56 lists
Bill Gates · Charlie Munger · Daniel Ek · Li Lu · Marc Andreessen · Ray Dalio · Stewart Brand · Tyler Cowen
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The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Ben Horowitz
On 8 of 56 lists
Andrew Wilkinson · Brad Feld · Chris Dixon · Keith Rabois · Marc Andreessen · Reid Hoffman · Sam Altman · Tobi Lütke
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The Intelligent Investor
Benjamin Graham
On 8 of 56 lists
Bill Ackman · Charlie Munger · Guy Spier · Joel Greenblatt · Li Lu · Mohnish Pabrai · Seth Klarman · Warren Buffett
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Security Analysis
Benjamin Graham
On 7 of 56 lists
Bill Ackman · Howard Marks · Joel Greenblatt · Li Lu · Mohnish Pabrai · Seth Klarman · Warren Buffett
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The Innovator's Dilemma
Clayton M. Christensen
On 7 of 56 lists
Aaron Levie · Ben Horowitz · Bill Gurley · Jeff Bezos · Marc Andreessen · Paul Graham · Reid Hoffman
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Thinking, Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman
On 7 of 56 lists
Bill Gates · Charlie Munger · Jason Fried · Nassim Nicholas Taleb · Naval Ravikant · Sahil Bloom · Sahil Lavingia
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Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
On 6 of 56 lists
David Perell · Marc Andreessen · Nassim Nicholas Taleb · Naval Ravikant · Tobi Lütke · Vinod Khosla
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Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
On 6 of 56 lists
Ben Horowitz · Chris Dixon · Marc Andreessen · Naval Ravikant · Sahil Lavingia · Vinod Khosla
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Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Richard P. Feynman
On 6 of 56 lists
Elon Musk · Josh Wolfe · Naval Ravikant · Patrick Collison · Paul Graham · Sahil Lavingia
- 14
Foundation
Isaac Asimov
On 5 of 56 lists
Elon Musk · Jeff Bezos · Marc Andreessen · Sahil Lavingia · Sam Altman
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Only the Paranoid Survive
Andrew S. Grove
On 5 of 56 lists
Balaji Srinivasan · Ben Horowitz · Drew Houston · Marc Andreessen · Reid Hoffman
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Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike
Phil Knight
On 5 of 56 lists
Bill Gurley · Jeff Bezos · Morgan Housel · Patrick O'Shaughnessy · Reed Hastings
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The Essays of Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett
On 5 of 56 lists
Bill Ackman · Charlie Munger · Li Lu · Mohnish Pabrai · Warren Buffett
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The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Thomas S. Kuhn
On 5 of 56 lists
Charlie Munger · Mark Zuckerberg · Naval Ravikant · Patrick Collison · Stewart Brand
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7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy
Hamilton Helmer
On 4 of 56 lists
Daniel Ek · Keith Rabois · Patrick O'Shaughnessy · Reed Hastings
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Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies
Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh
On 4 of 56 lists
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Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
Robert B. Cialdini
On 4 of 56 lists
Andrew Wilkinson · Charlie Munger · Derek Sivers · Tobi Lütke
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One Up On Wall Street
Peter Lynch
On 4 of 56 lists
Bill Ackman · Joel Greenblatt · Mohnish Pabrai · Sahil Bloom
- 26
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Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson
On 4 of 56 lists
- 37
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The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
Walter Isaacson
On 3 of 56 lists
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The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success
William N. Thorndike
On 3 of 56 lists
- 45
- 51
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Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street
John Brooks
On 2 of 56 lists
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Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration
Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace
On 2 of 56 lists
- 67
- 81
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The Age of Wonder: The Romantic Generation and the Discovery of the Beauty and Terror of Science
Richard Holmes
On 2 of 56 lists
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The Aggressive Conservative Investor
Martin J. Whitman, Martin Shubik & Gene Isenberg
On 2 of 56 lists
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The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Michelle Alexander
On 2 of 56 lists
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The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
Erik Larson
On 2 of 56 lists
- 102
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Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts
Annie Duke
On 2 of 56 lists
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Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist
Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson
On 2 of 56 lists
Methodology
We compiled the publicly shared reading recommendations of 56 founders and investors into curated lists, then counted how many of them recommend each book. A book makes this ranking if it appears on at least two of the 56 lists. Where the same book appears under slightly different titles or editions, we count it once. Data compiled by the Superbook team from interviews, blog posts, and published lists; figures reflect our curated lists and update as those lists grow.
The 56 reading lists analyzed: Aaron Levie, Andrew Wilkinson, Balaji Srinivasan, Ben Horowitz, Bill Ackman, Bill Gates, Bill Gurley, Brad Feld, Brian Chesky, Chamath Palihapitiya, Charlie Munger, Chris Dixon, Daniel Ek, Daniel Gross, David Heinemeier Hansson, David Perell, Derek Sivers, Drew Houston, Elon Musk, Fred Wilson, Garry Tan, Guy Spier, Howard Marks, Jack Dorsey, Jason Fried, Jeff Bezos, Joel Greenblatt, Josh Wolfe, Keith Rabois, Li Lu, Marc Andreessen, Marc Benioff, Mark Zuckerberg, Mohnish Pabrai, Morgan Housel, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Naval Ravikant, Patrick Collison, Patrick O'Shaughnessy, Paul Graham, Peter Thiel, Ray Dalio, Reed Hastings, Reid Hoffman, Sahil Bloom, Sahil Lavingia, Sam Altman, Satya Nadella, Seth Klarman, Shane Parrish, Stewart Brand, Stewart Butterfield, Tobi Lütke, Tyler Cowen, Vinod Khosla, Warren Buffett.
Want to actually read them? With Superbook you can chat with any book on this list — ask questions, get the key ideas, and apply them — free to try.
