The Favorite and Recommended Books of Elon Musk
Books that inspired Elon Musk to think differently
Why Elon Musk
Elon Musk holds many titles including engineer, investor and entrepreneur — all of which are related to technology one way or another.
He has ranked by Forbes as one of The World’s Most Powerful People in 2016 and has a net worth of $19.4 billion which gained him a spot as the 40th richest person in the world.
Elon Musk truly is a remarkable man being the founder, CEO, and lead designer of SpaceX — a private US aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services. It was founded in 2002 by the innovator with the goal of reducing space transportation costs to enable the colonization of Mars.
Not only that, Musk is also the co-founder, CEO, and product architect of Tesla, Inc., co-founder of Neuralink; founder of The Boring Company; co-founder and co-chairman of OpenAI; and co-founder of PayPal.
From all the amazing things he had and will accomplish, Musk, just like anyone else, had setbacks. I talked about it on my of my articles:
Sources of Elon Musk’s Favorite Books
I’ve admired Musk since the announcement of SpaceX and even more when I found out he’s an environmentalist during an interview for Tesla.
I even wrote an article about a few things I’ve learned from him:
One of my favorite reading quotes is from Dr. Seuss, he said, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you will go.”
When I admire someone’s way of thinking in real life, I usually ask that person what his or her favorite book is.
Obviously, I can’t ask Elon Musk personally, (maybe one day I can) so I went to his social media, read articles about him, and watched him being interviewed for hours just to get inside his head.
Here are the sources that I’ve gathered to find out what Elon Musk’s favorite books are:
- During an interview with Kevin Rose
- Jim Cantrell — Elon Musk’s co-founder at SpaceX when asked, “what are the books that Elon Musk used to self-study rocket science?” He responded with a list of books that Musk borrowed but never returned.
- On a Business Insider article
- Elon Musk’s Twitter profile
- In an interview with Alison van Diggelen
A List of Elon Musk’s Favorite Books
Elon Musk’s Recommended Fiction Books
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
- The Lord of the Rings
- The Foundation Series
- The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
- The Culture Series
Elon Musk’s Recommended Science Books
- Rocket Propulsion Elements by George P. Sutton, Oscar Biblarz
- Fundamentals of Astrodynamics by Roger R. Bate, Donald D. Mueller, Jerry E. White
- International Reference Guide to Space Launch Systems by S. Isakowitz, J. Hopkins, J. Hopkins Jr
- Elements of Propulsion: Gas Turbines and Rockets by J. Mattingly, H. von Ohain
- Structures: Or Why Things Don’t Fall Down’ by J.E. Gordon
- Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants’ by John D. Clark
- Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies’ by Nick Bostrom
- Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Orestes and Erik M. Conway
Elon Musk’s Recommended Autobiography and Biographies
- The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin
- Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson
- Howard Hughes: His Life and Madness by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele
- Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson
There you go! A list of Elon Musk’s favorite and recommended books for bibliophiles out there.
Quite frankly, this list is more for myself than for other people. I like reading other people’s book suggestions, especially people that I admire. I feel like it’s a glimpse into how they think and what shaped them as high-functioning humans.
I find that not all readers are leaders but all leaders are readers, and that thought really stuck with me growing up.
It’s important to feed the mind with useful information, books train your imagination to think big to be able to do big things.
