What books does Albert Einstein recommend?

Preserved in letters, prefaces, and the memoirs of those who knew him, the book recommendations of Albert Einstein, the physicist whose theory of relativity remade our sense of space and time, reveal a devoted reader of philosophy and fiction. This set of 11 titles draws on those sources, spanning philosophy, psychology, history, and literature. Einstein credited David Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature as an influence on his own thinking, writing that "this line of thought was of great influence on my efforts... especially Hume." He held Dostoevsky in extraordinary regard, saying "Dostoevsky gives me more than any scientist, more than Gauss," and he located his sense of the divine in Spinoza's Ethics: "I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals Himself in the orderly harmony of what exists."

Last updated January 2026 · Every recommendation cited to its original source.