Read by Bill Gates, Eric Topol
What books does Eric Topol recommend?
A cardiologist and one of medicine's most-cited researchers, Eric Topol reads at the intersection of science and story, and his book recommendations reflect that vantage. The founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute has flagged 20 titles here, sourced from his Ground Truths Substack, his podcasts, and his Twitter feed. Science and technology lead, joined by society and politics, history, health and wellness, and psychology. Walter Isaacson's The Code Breaker is a top pick; Topol calls it "the best book I've read in years, a page turner, by the master biographer." He praises Michael Lewis's The Premonition and Peter Attia's Outlive, the latter for making "a solid case for insulin resistance to be recognized as a critical condition." From CRISPR to long COVID, his list keeps returning to the frontier where AI, genomics, and medicine meet, a subject of his own writing.
Last updated February 2026 · Every recommendation cited to its original source.
The Code Breaker
Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
byWalter Isaacson
2021560 Pages“The best book I've read in years, a page turner, by the master biographer. 🙏 for bringing genetics, genome editing, #CRISPR to the forefront, the life science breakthrough of our era.”
— Eric Topol
Source: Twitter
Read by Eric Topol
byMichael Lewis
2021320 Pages“One of my favorite books this year was Michael Lewis's The Premonition: A Pandemic Story, a page-turner in which he traced the problematic issues of the CDC long before and intra-Covid-19.”
— Eric Topol
Source: Ground Truths Substack
Read by Eric Topol
The Song of the Cell
An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human
bySiddhartha Mukherjee
2022496 Pages“Sid's most recent book, The Song of the Cell, is extraordinary.”
— Eric Topol
Source: Ground Truths Podcast
Read by Bill Gates, Reid Hoffman, Eric Topol and 4 others
The Coming Wave
Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma
byMustafa Suleyman, Michael Bhaskar
2023332 Pages“I did wind up taking copious notes when I read it... it's calm, clear-eyed, and levelheaded. It is the only AI book that I've read which integrates the two different languages—life science and AI.”
— Eric Topol
Source: Ground Truths Substack
Read by Bill Ackman, Bryan Johnson, Rich Roll and 4 others
Outlive
The Science and Art of Longevity
byPeter Attia, Bill Gifford
2023496 Pages“Attia really shines with his knowledge in this area, and it's the best presentation of the data and explainers that I've seen. He makes a solid case for insulin resistance to be recognized as a critical condition.”
— Eric Topol
Source: Ground Truths Substack
Read by Tim Cook, Eric Topol, Fei-Fei Li and 2 others
byPaul Kalanithi
2016256 Pages(1,300,000)
“I loved the book and it fully deserved to be the #1 book (non-fiction) in the world. I feel it immortalized Paul.”
— Eric Topol
Source: American College of Cardiology
byAbraham Verghese
2023736 Pages“I would say masterpiece... We are thrilled to have you.”
— Eric Topol
Source: Medscape Medicine and the Machine Podcast
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
byJohn Carreyrou
2018352 Pages“The definitive book on the @theranos debacle is John Carreyrou’s 'Bad Blood'. A must-read.”
— Eric Topol
Source: Twitter
Read by Eric Topol
Everything Is Tuberculosis
The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection
byJohn Green
2025208 Pages“If you want to understand the history of tuberculosis, and why it is still a global scourge, this is the book to read.”
— Eric Topol
Source: Ground Truths Substack
Read by Eric Topol
How Charts Lie
Getting Smarter about Visual Information
byAlberto Cairo
2019256 Pages“My top 10 books for 2019.”
— Eric Topol
Source: Twitter
Read by Eric Topol
More from Less
The Surprising Story of How We Learned to Prosper Using Fewer Resources—and What Happens Next
byAndrew McAfee
2019352 Pages“My top 10 books for 2019.”
— Eric Topol
Source: Twitter
Read by Eric Topol
Infinite Powers
How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe
bySteven Strogatz
2019384 Pages“My top 10 books for 2019.”
— Eric Topol
Source: Twitter
Read by Eric Topol
You Look Like a Thing and I Love You
How Artificial Intelligence Works and Why It's Making the World a Weirder Place
byJanelle Shane
2019272 Pages“My top 10 books for 2019.”
— Eric Topol
Source: Twitter
Read by Eric Topol
Superior: The Return of Race Science
The Return of Race Science
byAngela Saini
2019256 Pages“My top 10 books for 2019.”
— Eric Topol
Source: Twitter
Read by Eric Topol
Race After Technology
Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code
byRuha Benjamin
2019172 Pages“My top 10 books for 2019.”
— Eric Topol
Source: Twitter
Human Compatible
Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control
byStuart Russell
2019352 Pages“My top 10 books for 2019.”
— Eric Topol
Source: Twitter
Read by Eric Topol, Mark Cuban
Rebooting AI
Building Artificial Intelligence We Can Trust
byGary Marcus, Ernest Davis
2019288 Pages“My top 10 books for 2019.”
— Eric Topol
Source: Twitter
Read by Eric Topol
Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans
A Guide for Thinking Humans
byMelanie Mitchell
2019336 Pages“My top 10 books for 2019.”
— Eric Topol
Source: Twitter
Read by Eric Topol
The Long COVID Survival Guide
How to Take Care of Yourself and What Comes Next
byFiona Lowenstein
2022288 Pages“I'd recommend on #LongCovid”
— Eric Topol
Source: Twitter
Read by Eric Topol
The Long Haul
How Long Covid Survivors Are Revolutionizing Health Care
byRyan Prior
2022336 Pages“I'd recommend on #LongCovid”
— Eric Topol
Source: Twitter
Also recommends books in
Frequently asked questions
What books does Eric Topol recommend?
His 20 recommendations include The Code Breaker, The Premonition, The Song of the Cell, The Coming Wave, and Outlive, concentrating on genomics, artificial intelligence, medicine, and public health.
What is Eric Topol's favourite book?
Walter Isaacson's The Code Breaker is a top pick. Topol calls it "the best book I've read in years, a page turner, by the master biographer," praising its account of CRISPR and genome editing.
Where do Eric Topol's book recommendations come from?
They are drawn from his Ground Truths Substack, his podcasts including Ground Truths and Medscape's Medicine and the Machine, and his Twitter/X account, where he shared a top-10 books list for 2019.
Has Eric Topol written any books?
Yes. He has authored four titles noted here: The Patient Will See You Now, The Creative Destruction of Medicine, Deep Medicine, and the Textbook of Interventional Cardiology.
Which books on AI does Eric Topol recommend?
He singles out The Coming Wave as "the only AI book that I've read which integrates the two different languages - life science and AI," and his 2019 list included Human Compatible and Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans.
All 20 Books Eric Topol Has Recommended
- The Code Breaker · Walter Isaacson
- The Premonition: A Pandemic Story · Michael Lewis
- The Song of the Cell · Siddhartha Mukherjee
- The Coming Wave · Mustafa Suleyman
- Outlive · Peter Attia
- When Breath Becomes Air · Paul Kalanithi
- The Covenant of Water · Abraham Verghese
- Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup · John Carreyrou
- Everything Is Tuberculosis · John Green
- How Charts Lie · Alberto Cairo
- More from Less · Andrew McAfee
- Infinite Powers · Steven Strogatz
- You Look Like a Thing and I Love You · Janelle Shane
- Superior: The Return of Race Science · Angela Saini
- Race After Technology · Ruha Benjamin
- Human Compatible · Stuart Russell
- Rebooting AI · Gary Marcus
- Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans · Melanie Mitchell
- The Long COVID Survival Guide · Fiona Lowenstein
- The Long Haul · Ryan Prior