Books Authors Recommend Most

Based on 11598 sourced recommendations from 1670 authors. Updated October 31, 2026.

  1. 1. The Bible

    The Bible

    By Unknown/Other

    Recommended by 25 of 1670 authors

    I always travel with my Bible because it helps keep me centered when life gets hectic.
    Source
  2. 2. Man's Search For Meaning

    Man's Search For Meaning

    By Viktor Frankl

    Recommended by 22 of 1670 authors

    Viktor Frankl’s book, MAN’S SEARCH FOR MEANING, provides the most compelling and triumphant account I have ever read of humanity’s ability to persevere through the unimaginable.
    Source
  3. 3. Sapiens

    Sapiens

    By Yuval Noah Harari

    Recommended by 21 of 1670 authors

    It just was a very, as you said, expansive book for me and for my thinking.
    Source
  4. 4. Principles

    Principles

    By Ray Dalio

    Recommended by 19 of 1670 authors

    Ray Dalio is a dear friend of mine and a total genius. ... In this book, Ray tells you how he figured it all out – and about all the principles that guided him toward success in his life, business and finances.
    Source
  5. 5. Thinking, Fast and Slow

    Thinking, Fast and Slow

    By Daniel Kahneman

    Recommended by 16 of 1670 authors

    I enjoyed that book, too. Fascinating.
    Source
  6. 6. Zero to One

    Zero to One

    By Peter Thiel, Blake Masters

    Recommended by 15 of 1670 authors

    Zero to One is the first book any working or aspiring entrepreneur must read—period.
    Source
  7. 7. Meditations

    Meditations

    By Marcus Aurelius

    Recommended by 14 of 1670 authors

    3. Meditations and Montaigne’s Essays — Reading these guys, along with Seneca, has really helped foster my interest in philosophy. So much of what they say speaks to me that I’m often left with entire pages underlined and margins filled with thoughts.
    Source
  8. 8. How to Win Friends and Influence People

    How to Win Friends and Influence People

    By Dale Carnegie

    Recommended by 12 of 1670 authors

    It's probably one of those books you want to read once a year, or listen to the audio once a year.
    Source
  9. 9. Shoe Dog

    Shoe Dog

    By Phil Knight

    Recommended by 12 of 1670 authors

    One of the good books I read recently and enjoyed was Shoe Dog, Phil Knight’s memoir on Nike. It was interesting to learn about his struggle to start the company.
    Source
  10. 10. 1984

    1984

    By George Orwell

    Recommended by 11 of 1670 authors

    Our enemy is speech control and thought control – the increasing use, in plain sight, of George Orwell's \"1984\" as an instruction manual.
    Source
  11. 11. Steve Jobs

    Steve Jobs

    By Walter Isaacson

    Recommended by 11 of 1670 authors

    A worthy follow-up to Isaacson's great biographies of Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs.
    Source
  12. 12. Animal Farm

    Animal Farm

    By George Orwell

    Recommended by 11 of 1670 authors

    If Orwell were writing Animal Farm today, "crime is falling" would be one of the commandments written on the barn door.
    Source
  13. 13. The Better Angels of Our Nature

    The Better Angels of Our Nature

    By Steven Pinker

    Recommended by 11 of 1670 authors

    He is also my friend and an occasional mentor. Steve's new book is The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined.
    Source
  14. 14. To Kill a Mockingbird

    To Kill a Mockingbird

    By Harper Lee

    Recommended by 11 of 1670 authors

    You know, you hear storytelling like in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and it just... it makes your mind wander. It makes you feel like it makes your world more vast.
    Source
  15. 15. The Coddling of the American Mind

    The Coddling of the American Mind

    By Greg Lukianoff, Jonathan Haidt

    Recommended by 10 of 1670 authors

    While every generation thinks the one that follows is more coddled than itself, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt argue that this time it really is different. I read this book as preparation for an interview with Jonathan for The Knowledge Project.
    Source
  16. 16. The 4-hour Workweek

    The 4-hour Workweek

    By Tim Ferriss

    Recommended by 10 of 1670 authors

    I had read The 4-Hour Workweek sometime in advance of that and so had Jason... We were both just impressed with that.
    Source
  17. 17. Bird by Bird

    Bird by Bird

    By Anne Lamott

    Recommended by 10 of 1670 authors

    Anne Lamott relates an image from a friend in her great book on writing, Bird by Bird.
    Source
  18. 18. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

    Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

    By Robert M. Pirsig

    Recommended by 10 of 1670 authors

    Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Pirsig. It gives a summary of philosophy of Western Civilization.
    Source
  19. 19. The Hard Thing About Hard Things

    The Hard Thing About Hard Things

    By Ben Horowitz

    Recommended by 9 of 1670 authors

    Every management guide presumes that all great companies follow a formula. But successful startups don’t imitate; they build innovations that can't be copied. Ben Horowitz knows no recipe guarantees success, and with The Hard Thing About Hard Things, he has written the first true guide for protecting a startup from self-sabotage.
    Source
  20. 20. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

    Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

    By Walter Isaacson

    Recommended by 9 of 1670 authors

    [Walter Isaacson's] book on Benjamin Franklin, also incredibly successful and brilliant business person.
    Source
  21. 21. The Alchemist

    The Alchemist

    By Paulo Coelho

    Recommended by 9 of 1670 authors

    This is one of the first books that profoundly changed my life for the better.
    Source
  22. 22. Guns, Germs, and Steel

    Guns, Germs, and Steel

    By Jared Diamond

    Recommended by 9 of 1670 authors

    One of the classic non-fictions is Rats, Lice, and History, by Hans Zinnser. Guns, Germs and Steel also does pandemics
    Source
  23. 23. The War of Art

    The War of Art

    By Steven Pressfield

    Recommended by 9 of 1670 authors

    I read this book on the recommendation of Joe Rogan and it has been one of the most influential books in my life.
    Source
  24. 24. Poor Charlie's Almanack

    Poor Charlie's Almanack

    By Charlie Munger

    Recommended by 9 of 1670 authors

    4. Letters to Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders and Poor Charlie’s Almanack — Because I have an MBA a lot of people inevitably ask me if they should pursue one. If it’s knowledge and not credentials you’re after, save your money and read these two. The letters are freely available on Berkshire’s website but I find the paperback collection works best for me. If you’re scared t
    Source
  25. 25. The Lean Startup

    The Lean Startup

    By Eric Ries

    Recommended by 9 of 1670 authors

    For discipline, I chose Lean Startup.
    Source
  26. 26. The Rational Optimist

    The Rational Optimist

    By Matt Ridley

    Recommended by 9 of 1670 authors

    They include the Red Queen, Genome, the Rational Optimist, and the Evolution of Everything.
    Source
  27. 27. Anna Karenina

    Anna Karenina

    By Leo Tolstoy

    Recommended by 9 of 1670 authors

    What’s the best love story you’ve ever read? Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina” — even though the love goes sour and the book has a sad ending.
    Source
  28. 28. Why We Sleep

    Why We Sleep

    By Matthew Walker

    Recommended by 9 of 1670 authors

    Read this book and think again. "Why We Sleep" is highly recommended
    Source
  29. 29. Getting to Yes

    Getting to Yes

    By William Ury, Roger Fisher, Bruce Patton

    Recommended by 9 of 1670 authors

    Getting to Yes is one, and that's all about telling a story… telling a really great story for why people should say yes.
    Source
  30. 30. One Hundred Years of Solitude

    One Hundred Years of Solitude

    By Gabriel García Márquez

    Recommended by 9 of 1670 authors

    @NoahBraxMarsh A 100 years of solitude,,,great book. Read it in Spanish class in the 11th grade.
    Source
  31. 31. The Prince

    The Prince

    By Niccolò Machiavelli

    Recommended by 9 of 1670 authors

    to learn that people not in power will do all they can to acquire it, and people in power will do all they can to keep it
    Source
  32. 32. Influence

    Influence

    By Robert Cialdini

    Recommended by 9 of 1670 authors

    I read this book many many many years ago it's a very very book good book
    Source
  33. 33. Atlas Shrugged

    Atlas Shrugged

    By Ayn Rand

    Recommended by 8 of 1670 authors

    you'll sit there and you can thank me later when you read this book
    Source
  34. 34. The Four Agreements

    The Four Agreements

    By Don Miguel Ruiz

    Recommended by 8 of 1670 authors

    A lot of people know Don Miguel Ruiz from The Four Agreements.
    Source
  35. 35. The Innovator's Dilemma

    The Innovator's Dilemma

    By Clayton Christensen

    Recommended by 8 of 1670 authors

    Clay... is best known for his book, The Innovator's Dilemma... I recommend reading everything he's written
    Source
  36. 36. Outliers

    Outliers

    By Malcolm Gladwell

    Recommended by 8 of 1670 authors

    I actually liked “Outliers” the best. The book asks a provocative question: Why do people succeed?
    Source
  37. 37. Brave New World

    Brave New World

    By Aldous Huxley

    Recommended by 8 of 1670 authors

    Aldous Huxley's Brave New World represents perhaps the scariest form of utopia: the utopia so many people seem to crave.
    Source
  38. 38. Only the Paranoid Survive

    Only the Paranoid Survive

    By Andrew Grove

    Recommended by 8 of 1670 authors

    I think Andy Grove is a great business leader. His recent book, Only the Paranoid Survive... that basic theme is in the culture of Microsoft, to wake up every day and say, 'What are we missing?' And so I thought he did a very good job of articulating that.
    Source
  39. 39. How to Change Your Mind

    How to Change Your Mind

    By Michael Pollan

    Recommended by 8 of 1670 authors

    The other books that I have are How to Change Your Mind, Michael Pollan. ... I have a whole rack of that book.
    Source
  40. 40. The Wealth of Nations

    The Wealth of Nations

    By Adam Smith

    Recommended by 8 of 1670 authors

    to learn that capitalism is an economy of greed, a force of nature unto itself
    Source
  41. 41. The Black Swan: Second Edition

    The Black Swan: Second Edition

    By Nassim Nicholas Taleb

    Recommended by 8 of 1670 authors

    If you haven’t read it already, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable Fragility, is a must-read.
    Source
  42. 42. The Great Gatsby

    The Great Gatsby

    By F. Scott Fitzgerald

    Recommended by 8 of 1670 authors

    This is why I know I'll never be a novelist because this quote is just… too perfect. … I can't do that. I'm sorry. I'll never be a novelist.
    Source
  43. 43. The Checklist Manifesto

    The Checklist Manifesto

    By Atul Gawande

    Recommended by 7 of 1670 authors

    The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande
    Source
  44. 44. The Power of Habit

    The Power of Habit

    By Charles Duhigg

    Recommended by 7 of 1670 authors

    Congrats to my pal @cduhigg on his great book, now in paperback: The Power of Habit.
    Source
  45. 45. Range

    Range

    By David Epstein

    Recommended by 7 of 1670 authors

    To those who are looking for something new to add to their read list, I recommend @DavidEpstein's Range.
    Source
  46. 46. The Obstacle Is the Way

    The Obstacle Is the Way

    By Ryan Holiday

    Recommended by 7 of 1670 authors

    I definitely recommend this book to everyone.
    Source
  47. 47. The True Believer

    The True Believer

    By Eric Hoffer

    Recommended by 7 of 1670 authors

    The True Believer is a must read. It's dense, it's more than fifty years old, it's an easy read and it's urgently important.
    Source
  48. 48. Mindset

    Mindset

    By Carol Dweck

    Recommended by 7 of 1670 authors

    You’ve got to go pick up Mindset by the Stanford University because you keep telling your kid how perfect they are, and you’re going to ruin them.
    Source
  49. 49. A Guide to the Good Life

    A Guide to the Good Life

    By William Braxton Irvine

    Recommended by 7 of 1670 authors

    A Guide to the Good Life is such a good book.
    Source
  50. 50. Atomic Habits

    Atomic Habits

    By James Clear

    Recommended by 7 of 1670 authors

    Is anyone else reading Atomic Habits again?
    Source

Every Author on Ultimate Book List

Frequently asked questions

What is the top book recommended by authors?

The Bible ranks first, recommended by 25 authors.

How is the ranking counted?

We count each person once per book, using only public people, books and approved recommendations. Books are ranked by recommenders in this group, then by total public recommenders. Source links are shown where available.

How many authors are included?

This group includes 1670 public profiles, including profiles with no public recommendations. 115 have recommended at least 10 books.