Billionaire Book Recommendations

Who are the mentors to billionaires, chess prodigies, rockstars, and mega-bestselling authors?  Who teaches them to do what they do? To achieve the success they achieve? Oftentimes…it’s books.

On The Tim Ferriss Show (iTunes, SoundCloud), I dissect world-class performers to find the tools and tricks you can use.  Here’s a full list of guests.  One of the questions I always ask is:

“What book have you gifted most often to others, and why?”  

Below is a list of answers from people like billionaire investor Peter Thiel, Tony Robbins, Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull, chess prodigy Josh Waitzkin, etc.. (And here are my own current answers, if you’re interested.)

You’ll see several books that appear more than once. Can you guess which they are?

The Ultimate To-Read Book List

Kevin Kelly is the founding editor of WIRED magazine, real-life Dos Equis “Most Interesting Man In The World.”

Favorite book(s):

• Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
• The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide by James Fadiman
• The Adventures of Johnny Bunko by Daniel H. Pink
• So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport
• Shantaram: A Novel by Gregory David Roberts

Peter Thiel, billionaire investor (first outside investor in Facebook) and co-founder of PayPal, Palantir…

Favorite book(s):

• Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World by René Girard

Tony Robbins, performance coach to Bill Clinton, Serena Williams, Paul Tudor Jones, Leonardo DiCaprio, Oprah Winfrey, and more.

Favorite book(s):

• As a Man Thinketh by James Allen
• Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E.Frankl
• The Fourth Turning by William Strauss
• Generations by William Strauss
• Slow Sex by Nicole Daedone
• Mindset by Carol Dweck

Peter Diamandis has been named one of the world’s 50 greatest leaders by Fortune Magazine.  In the field of Innovation, Diamandis is Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation, best known for its $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for private spaceflight. Today, the X PRIZE leads the world in designing and operating large-scale global competitions to solve market failures.

Favorite book(s):

• The Spirit of St. Louis by Charles A.Lindbergh
• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
• The Man Who Sold the Moon and Orphans of the Sky by Robert Heinlein
• The Singularity Is Near by Ray Kurzweil

Joshua Waitzkin – Considered a chess prodigy and the basis for Searching for Bobby Fischer, Josh has perfected learning strategies that can be applied to anything, including chess, Brazilian jiu-jutsu (he is a black belt under phenom Marcelo Garcia), business, and Tai Chi Push Hands (he is a world champion).

Favorite book(s):

• On the Road by Jack Kerouac
• The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
• Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English Translation
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
• Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
• For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
• Green Hills of Africa by Ernest Hemingway
• The Complete Short Stories Of Ernest Hemingway by Ernest Hemingway
• The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
• A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
• Ernest Hemingway on Writing by Larry W. Phillips

Ed Catmull is a co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios (along with Steve Jobs and John Lasseter) and president of Pixar Animation and Disney Animation.

Favorite book(s):

• The Hero’s Journey by Joseph Campbell
• The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
• One Monster After Another by Mercer Mayer

Neil Strauss has written 7 New York Times bestsellers, including The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists.

Favorite book(s):

• On the Shortness of Life by Seneca
• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Gregory Rabassa
• The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski
• Life Is Elsewhere by Milan Kundera

Tracy DiNunzio is the self-taught founder and CEO of Tradesy.com, which has attracted legendary investors like Sir Richard Branson and John Doerr.

Favorite book(s):

• Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great by Jim Collins
• The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone

Mike Shinoda is best known as the rapper, principal songwriter, keyboardist, rhythm guitarist and one of the two vocalists of the band Linkin Park, which has sold 60+ million albums worldwide.

Favorite book(s):

• The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
• Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
• Becoming a Category of One by Joe Calloway

James Altucher is an American hedge fund manager, entrepreneur, and bestselling author.

Favorite book(s):

• Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
• Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and Schoolby John Medina
• Dynamic Hedging: Managing Vanilla and Exotic Options by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Marketsby Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable: With a new section: “On Robustness and Fragility” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
• Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
• Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way by Richard Branson
• Jesus’ Son: Stories by Denis Johnson
• Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

Joe De Sena is the co-founder of The Death Race, Spartan Race (1M+ competitors), and more.

Favorite book(s):

• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
• Shogun by James Clavell
• The One-Minute Manager by Ken H.Blanchard

Brian Koppelman is a screenwriter, novelist, director, and producer. He is best known as the co-writer of Ocean’s Thirteen and Rounders, as well as a producer of The Illusionist and The Lucky Ones.

Favorite book(s):

• What Makes Sammy Run? by Budd Schulberg
• The Artist’s Way – Morning Pages Journal by Julia Cameron
• Daily Rituals by Mason Currey
• The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

Chase Jarvis is a master photographer and the CEO of CreativeLIVE.com.

Favorite book(s):

• The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries
• Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim
• Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
• Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon
• The Rise of Superman by Steven Kotler

Jason Silva , called the “Timothy Leary of the viral video age” by The Atlantic, host of Brain Games on National Geographic Channel.

Favorite book(s):

• The Rise of Superman by Steven Kotler

Ryan Holiday is an American author and the media strategist behind authors Tucker Max and Robert Greene. Former Director of Marketing for American Apparel.

Favorite book(s):

• Meditations: A New Translation by Marcus Aurelius
• Wilderness Essays by Epictitus
• The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable Fragilityby Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Marketsby Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson
• Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Cherow
• How to Live by Sarah Bakewell
• The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King by Rich Cohen
• Tough Jews by Rich Cohen
• Edison – A Biography by Matthew Josephson
• Ulysses S. Grant: Triumph Over Adversity by Brooks D. Simpson
• The Control of Nature by John McPhee
• Giving Good Weight by John McPhee
• The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

Ramit Sethi is an American personal finance advisor and entrepreneur. Sethi is the author of the 2009 book on personal finance, I Will Teach You To Be Rich, a New York Times Bestseller, and a co-founder of PBworks, a commercial wiki website.

Favorite book(s):

• The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
• Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink
• The Robert Collier Letter Book by Robert Collier
• Age of Propaganda by Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson
• The Social Animal by Elliot Aronson
• Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time by Keith Ferrazzi
• Iacocca: An Autobiography by Lee Iacocca and William Novak
• What They Don’t Teach You At Harvard Business School: Notes From A Street-Smart Executive by Mark H. McCormack