Books Recommended by Elon Musk

A contrarian manifesto on building startups that create new categories rather than competing in existing ones. Thiel draws from PayPal and his investments in Facebook to argue that the best businesses are monopolies that avoid competition entirely. The book revolves around one question—What important truth do you believe that very few people agree with?—and uses it to interrogate everything from sales culture to the energy crisis. It reads like a sharp dinner argument with someone often right in a way that is uncomfortable to admit.

A sprawling ideological novel set in a dystopian America where productive industrialists and creators go on strike against a society that shackles them with regulation and collective guilt. The plot follows railroad executive Dagny Taggart as she fights to keep her company running while the most capable minds mysteriously disappear. At well over a thousand pages, it is less a novel than a philosophical argument dressed in fiction—the characters deliver extended speeches on individualism, rational self-interest, and the moral evil of altruism. It polarizes because it demands you take a side.

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Biology, NonFiction, Evolutionary, Psychology, Genetics lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for decision-making, behavior, or human motivation. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Science, For lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for imaginative storytelling, atmosphere, or character-driven reflection. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

“Available recommendation signals cluster around NonFiction, Business, Biography, Entrepreneurship lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for business judgment, leadership, or practical strategy. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

Sun Tzu's ideas on survival and success have been read across the world for centuries. Today they can still be applied to business, politics and life. The Art of War demonstrates how to win without conflict. It shows that with enough intelligence and planning, it is possible to conquer with a minimum of force and little destruction. This luxury hardback edition includes an introduction by Tom Butler-Bowdon that draws out lessons for managers and business leaders, and highlights the power of Sun Tzu's thinking in everyday life.

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Comedy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Humor, Fantasy lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for imaginative storytelling, atmosphere, or character-driven reflection. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

“Available recommendation signals cluster around NonFiction, Biographies, History, Physics, Science lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for big-picture nonfiction and accessible learning. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

“Available recommendation signals cluster around NonFiction, Biographies, History, American, Revolutions lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for big-picture nonfiction and accessible learning. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Social Sciences, ificial, Intelligence, NonFiction, Artificial lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for creative discipline, craft, or artistic motivation. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, generally referred to by its shortened title The Wealth of Nations, is the magnum opus of the Scottish economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith. First published in 1776, the book offers one of the world's first collected descriptions of what builds nations' wealth, and is today a fun...

“Available recommendation signals cluster around NonFiction, Fiction, History, Autobiography lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for imaginative storytelling, atmosphere, or character-driven reflection. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

A New York Times bestseller Superintelligence asks the questions: What happens when machines surpass humans in general intelligence Will artificial agents save or destroy us Nick Bostrom lays the foundation for understanding the future of humanity and intelligent life.The human brain has some capabilities that the brains of other animals lack. It...

As it was in Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, and Othello, so it is in life. Most forms of private vice and public evil are kindled and sustained by lies. Acts of Adult,ery and other personal betrayals, financial fraud, government corruption—even murder and genocide—generally require an additional moral defect: a willingness to lie.In Lying, bestselli...

Masters of Doom is the amazing true story of the Lennon and McCartney of video games: John Carmack and John Romero. Together, they ruled big business. They transformed popular culture. And they provoked a national controversy. More than anything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream, escaping the broken homes of their youth to produce ...

Robert Heinlein's Hugo Awardwinning alltime masterpiece, the brilliant novel that grew from a cult favorite to a bestseller to a science fiction classic.Raised by Martians on Mars, Valentine Michael Smith is a human who has never seen another member of his species. Sent to Earth, he is a stranger who must learn what it is to be a man. But his own...

At the dawn of the next world war, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of schoolboys. At first, with no Adult, supervision, their freedom is something to celebrate; this far from civilization the boys can do anything they want. Anything. They attempt to forge their own society, failing, however, in the face of terror, sin and e...

For fans of ArtemisThe visionary tour de force from "one of the grand masters of science fiction" (The Wall Street Journal).Widely acknowledged as one of Robert A. Heinlein's greatest works, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress rose from the golden age of science fiction to become an undisputed classicand a touchstone for the philosophy of personal res...

An Oxford philosopher makes the case for “longtermism” — that positively influencing the longterm future is a key moral priority of our time.The fate of the world is in our hands. Humanity’s written history spans only five thousand years. Our yetunwritten future could last for millions more — or it could end tomorrow. Astonishing numbers of peopl...

“Available recommendation signals cluster around ificial, Intelligence, NonFiction, Artificial, Programming lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for big-picture nonfiction and accessible learning. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Social Sciences, NonFiction, Philosophy, Physics, Science lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for decision-making, behavior, or human motivation. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

One of the great masterworks of science fiction, the Foundation novels of Isaac Asimov are unsurpassed for their unique blend of nonstop action, daring ideas, and extensive world-building. The story of our future begins with the history of Foundation and its greatest psychohistorian: Hari Seldon. For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. Only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future--a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. To preserve knowledge and save mankind, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire--both scientists and scholars--and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the Galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for future generations. He calls his sanctuary the Foundation. But soon the fledgling Foundation finds itself at the mercy of corrupt warlords rising in the wake of the receding Empire. And mankind's last best hope is faced with an agonizing choice: submit to the barbarians and live as slaves--or take a stand for freedom and risk total destruction.

For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. But only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future to a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. To preserve knowledge and save mankind, Seldon gathers the best minds in th...

The first book in Iain M. Banks's seminal science fiction series, The Culture. Consider Phlebas introduces readers to the utopian conglomeration of human and alien races that explores the nature of war, morality, and the limitless bounds of mankind's imagination.The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, p...

Carl von Clausewitz's On War has been called, "not simply the greatest, but the only truly great book on war." It is an extraordinary attempt to construct an allembracing theory of how war works. Its coherence and ambition are unmatched by other military literature. On War is full of sharp observation, biting irony, and memorable phrases, the most...

The Culturea humanoid/machine symbiotic societyhas thrown up many great Game Players. One of the best is Jernau Morat Gurgeh, Player of Games, master of every board, computer and strategy. Bored with success, Gurgeh travels to the Empire of Azad, cruel & incredibly wealthy, to try their fabulous game, a game so complex, so like life itself, tha...

A hightech thriller for the wireless age that explores the unthinkable consequences of a computer program running without human control?a daemon?designed to dismantle society and bring about a new world orderTechnology, controls almost everything in our modernday world, from remote entry on our cars to access to our homes, from the flight controls...

In as little as a decade, Artificial Intelligence, could match, then surpass human intelligence. Corporations & government agencies around the world are pouring billions into achieving AI?s Holy Grail?humanlevel intelligence. Once AI has attained it, scientists argue, it will have survival drives much like our own. We may be forced to compete with ...

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind themIn ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elvensmiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it t...

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Romance, Fiction, Teen, Young, Adult lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for imaginative storytelling, atmosphere, or character-driven reflection. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Social Sciences, ificial, Intelligence, NonFiction, Artificial lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for creative discipline, craft, or artistic motivation. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

Instead of inquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long'Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire compresses thirteen turbulent centuries into an epic narrative shot through with insight, irony and incisive character analysis. Sceptical about Christianity, sympathetic to the b...

Surface Detail Book Description It begins in the realm of the Real, where matter still matters. Lededje Ybreq is one of the Intagliated, her marked body bearing witness to a family shame, her life belonging to a man whose lust for power is without limit. Prepared to risk everything for her freedom, her release, when it comes, is at a price, and to ...

FROM THE REVIEWS: Webb offers coherent, understandable, and sometimes humorous coverage of a diverse range of topics. He provides readers with nontrivial insights into research fields they may not have encountered previously . . . I think everyone who has ever considered the possibility that other intelligent civilizations exist elsewhere within o...

Now a powerful documentary from the acclaimed director of Food Inc., Merchants of Doubt was one of the most talkedabout climate change books of recent years, for reasons easy to understand: It tells the controversial story of how a looseknit group of highlevel scientists and scientific advisers, with deep connections in politics and industry, ra...

“Available recommendation signals cluster around NonFiction, History, American lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for big-picture nonfiction and accessible learning. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

"An amazing book." - Elon Musk

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Social Sciences, Finance, Economics, NonFiction, Philosophy lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for decision-making, behavior, or human motivation. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

"[A] tale of power, perseverance and passion . . . a great story in the hands of a master storyteller."The Wall Street Journal The Pulitzer Prizewinning author of Peter the Great, Nicholas and Alexandra, and The Romanovs returns with another masterpiece of narrative biography, the extraordinary story of an obscure German princess who became one ...

Each chapter of Creasy's strategy book dissects a different battle. The fifteen chapters are: I THE BATTLE OF MARATHONII DEFEAT OF THE ATHENIANS AT SYRACUSE, B.C. 413III THE BATTLE OF ARBELA, B.C. 331IV THE BATTLE OF THE METAURUS, B.C. 207V VICTORY OF ARMINIUS OVER THE ROMAN LEGIONS UNDER VARUS, A.D. 9VI THE BATTLE OF CHALONS, A.D. 451V...

An extraordinary mythology has grown up around the Third Reich that hovers over political and moral debate even today. Adam Tooze's controversial new book challenges the conventional economic interpretations of that period to explore how Hitler's surprisingly prescient vision ultimately hindered by Germany's limited resources and his own racial id...

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Space, Opera, Artificial, Intelligence, Fiction lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for imaginative storytelling, atmosphere, or character-driven reflection. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Space, Opera, Fiction, Science Fiction lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for imaginative storytelling, atmosphere, or character-driven reflection. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Space, Opera, Fiction, Science Fiction lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for imaginative storytelling, atmosphere, or character-driven reflection. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Space, Opera, Fiction, Science Fiction, Science lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for imaginative storytelling, atmosphere, or character-driven reflection. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for imaginative storytelling, atmosphere, or character-driven reflection. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

Book four in Frank Herbert's magnificent Dune Chroniclesone of the most significant sagas in the history of literary science fiction.Millennia have passed on Arrakis, and the oncedesert planet is green with life. Leto Atreides, the son of the world's savior, the Emperor Paul Muad'Dib, is still alive but far from human. To preserve humanity's fut...

In the winter palace, the King's new physician has more enemies than she at first realises. But then she also has more remedies to hand than those who wish her ill can know about.In another palace across the mountains, in the service of the regicidal Protector General, the chief bodyguard, too, has his enemies. But his enemies strike more swiftly, ...

Howard Hughes has always fascinated the public with his mixture of secrecy, dashing lifestyle, and reclusiveness. This is the book that breaks through the image to get at the man. Originally published under the title Empire: The Life, Legend, and Madness of Howard Hughes....

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Social Sciences, NonFiction, Philosophy, History lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for decision-making, behavior, or human motivation. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

From an inauspicious beginning at the tiny Left Bank Theatre de Babylone in 1953, followed by bewilderment among American and British audiences, Waiting for Godot has become of the most important and enigmatic plays of the past fifty years and a cornerstone of twentiethcentury drama. As Clive Barnes wrote, “Time catches up with genius … Waiting fo...

RICHARD BRANSON, one of the world's most famous and admired business leaders, argues that it's time to turn capitalism upside downto shift our values from an exclusive focus on profit to also caring for people, communities and the planetAs he writes:"It's a vibrant and definite sea change from the way business was always done, when financial profi...

"This is as important a book on space as has ever been written and it's a riveting pageturner, too." —Homer Hickam, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of Rocket BoysThe dramatic inside story of the historic flights that launched SpaceX—and Elon Musk—from a shaky startup into the world's leadingedge rocket company.SpaceX has enjoyed a miraculous...

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Fiction, Fantasy lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for imaginative storytelling, atmosphere, or character-driven reflection. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER _x0095_ THE BOOK BEHIND THE FIFTH SEASON OF THE ACCLAIMED HBO SERIES GAME OF THRONES Don_x0092_t miss the thrilling sneak peek of George R. R. Martin_x0092_s A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Six, The Winds of WinterDubbed _x0093_the American Tolkien_x0094_ by Time magazine, George R. R. Martin has earned international acclaim for his monumental cycle of...

When the First Foundation was conquered by a force Seldon had not foreseen the overwhelming power of a single individual, a mutant called the Mule the second Foundation was forced to reveal its existence and, infinitely worse, a portion of its power. One man understood the shifting patterns of the inhabited cosmos. This was Hari Seldon, the las...

This newly reissued debut book in the Rutgers University Press Classics Imprint is the story of the search for a rocket propellant which could be trusted to take man into space. This search was a hazardous enterprise carried out by rival labs who worked against the known laws of nature, with no guarantee of success or safety. Acclaimed scientist an...

In a world renowned even within a galaxy full of wonders, a crime within a war. For one man it means a desperate flight, and a search for the one maybe two people who could clear his name. For his brother it means a life lived under constant threat of treachery and murder. And for their sister, even without knowing the full truth, it means retu...

In a book that Business Insider noted as one of the "14 Books that inspired Elon Musk," J.E. Gordon strips engineering of its confusing technical terms, communicating its founding principles in accessible, witty prose.For anyone who has ever wondered why suspension bridges don't collapse under eight lanes of traffic, how dams hold backor give way...

"The Machine Stops" is a science fiction short story (12,300 words) by E. M. Forster. After initial publication in The Oxford and Cambridge Review (November 1909), the story was republished in Forster's 'The Eternal Moment and Other Stories' in 1928. After being voted one of the best novellas up to 1965, it was included that same year in the populi...

An alternative cover edition for ISBN 9781400076789 can be found hereThis widely acclaimed biography provides a vivid and riveting account of Stalin and his courtiers—killers, fanatics, women, and children—during the terrifying decades of his supreme power. In a seamless meshing of exhaustive research and narrative lan, Simon Sebag Montefiore give...

Frank Herbert's Final Novel in the Magnificent Dune Chroniclesthe Bestselling Science Fiction Adventure of All TimeThe desert planet Arrakis, called Dune, has been destroyed. The remnants of the Old Empire have been consumed by the violent matriarchal cult known as the Honored Matres. Only one faction remains a viable threat to their total conque...

Book five in Frank Herbert's magnificent Dune Chroniclesone of the most significant sagas in the history of literary science fiction.Leto Atreides, the God Emperor of Dune, is dead. In the fifteen hundred years since his passing, the Empire has fallen into ruin. The great Scattering saw millions abandon the crumbling civilization and spread out b...

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Fiction, Dark, Fantasy lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for imaginative storytelling, atmosphere, or character-driven reflection. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Grimdark, Fantasy, Fiction lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for imaginative storytelling, atmosphere, or character-driven reflection. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Fiction, Fantasy lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for imaginative storytelling, atmosphere, or character-driven reflection. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

Book Three in the Magnificent Dune Chroniclesthe Bestselling Science Fiction Adventure of All TimeThe Children of Dune are twin siblings Leto and Ghanima Atreides, whose father, the Emperor Paul Muad'Dib, disappeared in the desert wastelands of Arrakis nine years ago. Like their father, the twins possess supernormal abilitiesmaking them valuabl...

"All characters – even those based on real people – are entirely fictional..." - Elon Musk

"Rereading [this book]." - Elon Musk