Entrepreneur Steve Jobs is a name that most people recognize around the world. He co-founded Apple in 1976 and the rest is history. Today, we will be looking at Steve Jobs’ 20 favorite books. Keep reading to see which books made his list!
Jobs was an avid reader and was always reading or recommending books to his friends. Looking at a person’s favorite books can tell you a lot about them and that is true for this list too. The books chosen gives us an inside look at one of the smartest business minds of the past century. You can see the full list below
Steve Jobs 20 Favorite Books
- Cosmic Consciousness by Richard Maurice Burke
- The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen
- Mucusless Diet Healing System by Arnold Ehret
- Be Here Now by Ram Dass
- The Way of the White Clouds by Lama Anagarika Govinda
- Only the Paranoid Survive by Andrew S. Grove
- Meetings with Remarkable Men by George Ivanovich Gurdjieff
- Ramakrishna and His Disciples by Christopher Isherwood
- The Tao of Programming by Geoffrey James
- Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe
- Moby Dick by Herman Melville
- Inside the Tornado by Geoffrey A. Moore
- 1984 by George Orwell
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
- Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
- King Lear by William Shakespeare
- Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki
- The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas by Dylan Thomas
- Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism by Chögyam Trungpa
- Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
Moby Dick
I was surprised to see Moby Dick by Herman Melville on the list. The novel was published in 1851 and I haven’t seen it mentioned on most lists. When published, the novel was a commercial failure and fell out of print by 1891, the year the author passed way. But it saw a resurgence in the 1920’s as famous authors claimed the novel to be a masterpiece.
1984
Another novel I did not expect to see on this list was 1984. It is a sci-fi novel that has risen to popularity in modern times due to reality matching fiction. When some ideas in this sci-fi and dystopian novel came true, people’s interest in the novel rose. The novel touches on issues such as mass surveillance, a controlling regime, and disinformation.
Atlas Shrugged
If you are one of the leading innovators in the world, then there is a good chance you will like Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. The story is honestly interesting but the politics and the message of the novel make it hard to enjoy. Plus, no novel should have a speech go on for about 50 pages. I don’t find myself thinking about this novel and do think it is overrated and takes too long when it could have been shorter and still got the message across.
Conclusion
That is all for Steve Jobs’ 20 favorite books list. How many books have you read from this list and what did you think of Job’s favorite books? Let us know in the comments below!