Read by Sam Altman, Ray Dalio, Ryan Holiday and 4 others
What books does Bryan Johnson recommend?
Bryan Johnson sold Braintree to PayPal, founded the neurotech company Kernel, and now spends millions trying to reverse his own biological age, and his book recommendations map that relentlessly data-driven mind. Collected here are 28 titles from his Twitter feed, the Kernel reading list, and podcast interviews including the Diary of a CEO, weighted toward science, psychology, philosophy, history, and biography. His top pick is Alfred Lansing's Endurance, which he reads for 30 minutes nightly before bed, imagining himself a member of Shackleton's crew, saying that is how he wants to behave in life. Also central are Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning and Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow, which he says convinced him of his own fickleness and inability to act rationally. Longevity, cognition, existential risk, and the limits of human rationality recur across his choices.
Last updated February 2026 · Every recommendation cited to its original source.
byAlfred Lansing
1959416 Pages“Daily before bed, read Endurance for 30 min. No screens. No ruminations. Imagine yourself a member of Shackleton's crew. ... That is how I want to behave in life.”
— Bryan Johnson
Source: Twitter / X Post
Read by Tim Ferriss, Charlie Munger, Sam Altman and 22 others
Man's Search for Meaning
An Introduction to Logotherapy
byViktor E. Frankl
2006165 Pages“His basic point is no matter the conditions we surround ourselves in, we can author our life. We can author however we respond.”
— Bryan Johnson
Source: Diary of a CEO Podcast
Read by Barack Obama, Sam Altman, Ray Dalio and 14 others
byDaniel Kahneman
2011498 Pages“I started reading Thinking, Fast and Slow and I became increasingly convinced of my own fickleness and inability to actually act rationally in life.”
— Bryan Johnson
Source: Kernel Reading List
Read by Bryan Johnson
A Good Man
Rediscovering My Father, Sargent Shriver
byMark Shriver
2012288 Pages“Helped me rebuild my parent identity and my parent-child relationships when transitioning through a divorce. ... An exceptional father, a good friend, loyal, and he is a mental model of the kind of person I want to be in life.”
— Bryan Johnson
Source: Twitter / X Post
Read by Arianna Huffington, Marc Benioff, Michael Bloomberg and 6 others
byRay Dalio
2017592 Pages“The author open sourced Bridgewater's methods in Principles and the results were good evidence that collectives can operate at higher levels when they are open and honest about and can see past their cognitive flaws.”
— Bryan Johnson
Source: Kernel Reading List
Why We Sleep
Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams
byMatthew Walker
2017368 Pages“Not only did I become convinced that getting high-quality sleep is the best protector and enhancer of health and cognition, but it is also the most underappreciated.”
— Bryan Johnson
Source: Kernel Reading List
Read by Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Jensen Huang and 9 others
Zero to One
Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
byPeter Thiel, Blake Masters
2014224 Pages“Just finished @peterthiel's Zero to One. A must read.”
— Bryan Johnson
Source: Twitter / X Post
bySiddhartha Mukherjee
2016592 Pages“A great book.”
— Bryan Johnson
Source: Kernel Reading List
Read by Tim Ferriss, Naval Ravikant, Bryan Johnson and 7 others
Siddhartha
An Indian Tale
byHermann Hesse
2002176 Pages“I guess I will also throw in there Siddhartha. Have you read that?”
— Bryan Johnson
Source: Diary of a CEO Podcast
Finite and Infinite Games
A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility
byJames P. Carse
1986180 Pages“Another book that floored me.”
— Bryan Johnson
Source: The Jordan Harbinger Show
Read by Bill Ackman, Bryan Johnson, Rich Roll and 4 others
Outlive
The Science and Art of Longevity
byPeter Attia, Bill Gifford
2023496 Pages“Congratulations to @PeterAttiaMD on his new book Outlive. A great read and clearly a labor of love.”
— Bryan Johnson
Source: Twitter / X Post
Behave
The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
byRobert Sapolsky
2017800 PagesSource: Twitter / X Post
The Alignment Problem
Machine Learning and Human Values
byBrian Christian
2020496 Pages“It's hard to understand why we're not obsessed with alignment and on the other hand it's entirely expected we humans wouldn't be.”
— Bryan Johnson
Source: Twitter / X Post
Read by Bryan Johnson
Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
How to Build Habit-Forming Products
byNir Eyal, Ryan Hoover
2014256 Pages“Reading [this book] today to remind myself how to avoid being puppeteered and to care for the most valuable thing each of us has: time.”
— Bryan Johnson
Source: Twitter / X Post
Read by Bryan Johnson, Jonathan Haidt, Adam Grant and 1 others
Indistractable
How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life
byNir Eyal, Julie Li
2019290 Pages“Reading [this book] today to remind myself how to avoid being puppeteered and to care for the most valuable thing each of us has: time.”
— Bryan Johnson
Source: Twitter / X Post
Read by Bryan Johnson
When the Heavens Went on Sale
The Misfits and Geniuses Racing to Put Space Within Reach
byAshlee Vance
2023528 Pages“A fantastic read.”
— Bryan Johnson
Source: Twitter / X Post
byCixin Liu
2015512 Pages“loved this book. when I want to get my mind in a forward looking state, I'll listen to one of the final chapter and then do some work.”
— Bryan Johnson
Source: Twitter / X Post
Read by Michael Bloomberg, Bryan Johnson, Charlie Kirk and 4 others
The Coddling of the American Mind
How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure
byGreg Lukianoff, Jonathan Haidt
2018352 PagesSource: Kernel Reading List
Read by Bryan Johnson
byTim O'Reilly
2017448 Pages“I loved [this book]. Especially [the] sections on algorithms and focusing on improving human ability for the future of jobs.”
— Bryan Johnson
Source: Kernel Reading List
Read by Jordan Peterson, Bryan Johnson, Paul Graham and 2 others
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
An Inquiry into Values
byRobert M. Pirsig
1974540 PagesSource: Twitter / X Post
Read by Bryan Johnson
But What If We're Wrong?
Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past
byChuck Klosterman
2016288 PagesSource: Twitter / X Post
Read by Bryan Johnson
The End of Science
Facing the Limits of Knowledge in the Twilight of the Scientific Age
byJohn Horgan
2015368 PagesSource: Twitter / X Post
Read by Bryan Johnson
A Mind at Play
How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age
byJimmy Soni, Rob Goodman
2017384 PagesSource: Twitter / X Post
Read by Bryan Johnson
byCharles Seife
2000256 Pages“Chronicles how hard it was for humanity to come up with and hold onto the concept of zero.”
— Bryan Johnson
Source: Twitter / X Post
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Frequently asked questions
What books does Bryan Johnson recommend?
His 28 picks include Endurance by Alfred Lansing, Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, A Good Man by Mark Shriver, and Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio.
What is Bryan Johnson's most recommended book?
His top pick is Endurance by Alfred Lansing, which he reads for 30 minutes nightly before bed with no screens. Imagining himself in Shackleton's crew, he says, "That is how I want to behave in life."
Where do Bryan Johnson's book recommendations come from?
They come from his Twitter and X posts, the Kernel reading list he compiled around neuroscience and the future, and podcast interviews such as the Diary of a CEO and The Jordan Harbinger Show.
Has Bryan Johnson written a book?
Yes. He is the author of one book listed here, Code 7: Cracking the Code for an Epic Life, a collection of short stories for young readers about ambitious kids solving problems, reflecting his interest in reshaping how we live.
What subjects does Bryan Johnson read most?
His recommendations focus on science and technology and psychology, with strong philosophy, history, and biography threads. They span longevity and sleep, cognition and decision-making, AI alignment and existential risk, and the limits of human rationality, mirroring his data-driven Blueprint and Kernel work.
All 28 Books Bryan Johnson Has Recommended
- Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage · Alfred Lansing
- Man's Search for Meaning · Viktor E. Frankl
- Thinking, Fast and Slow · Daniel Kahneman
- A Good Man · Mark Shriver
- Principles: Life and Work · Ray Dalio
- Why We Sleep · Matthew Walker
- Zero to One · Peter Thiel
- The Gene: An Intimate History · Siddhartha Mukherjee
- Siddhartha · Hermann Hesse
- Finite and Infinite Games · James P. Carse
- Outlive · Peter Attia
- Behave · Robert Sapolsky
- The Alignment Problem · Brian Christian
- Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products · Nir Eyal
- Indistractable · Nir Eyal
- When the Heavens Went on Sale · Ashlee Vance
- The Dark Forest · Cixin Liu
- The Coddling of the American Mind · Greg Lukianoff
- WTF?: What's the Future and Why It's Up to Us · Tim O'Reilly
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance · Robert M. Pirsig
- But What If We're Wrong? · Chuck Klosterman
- The End of Science · John Horgan
- A Mind at Play · Jimmy Soni
- Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea · Charles Seife
- Number: The Language of Science · Tobias Dantzig
- When Einstein Walked with Gödel · Jim Holt
- Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions · Edwin A. Abbott
- How the War Was Won · Phillips Payson O'Brien