What books does Jordan Peterson recommend?
As a clinical psychologist who built his work on the intersection of mythology, philosophy, and psychology, Jordan Peterson reads the way he lectures — and these 18 book recommendations, drawn mostly from the Great Books List on his official website, reflect that gravity. The selection concentrates on psychology and human behavior, philosophy, and the literature of totalitarianism, with Russian novels and Holocaust histories recurring throughout. Peterson calls Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago "the most powerful indictment of a political regime ever written," while naming Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment "possibly my favorite book of all time." Carl Jung, Viktor Frankl, and George Orwell round out a list preoccupied with suffering, meaning, and the fragile line between order and chaos — the same territory his own writing patrols.
Last updated February 2026 · Every recommendation cited to its original source.
The Gulag Archipelago
An Experiment in Literary Investigation
byAleksandr Solzhenitsyn
2007528 Pages“The most powerful indictment of a political regime ever written. It is a forceful, terrible book, written with the overwhelming moral force of unvarnished truth.”
— Jordan Peterson
Source: Official Website - Great Books List
Read by Jordan Peterson, Fareed Zakaria, David Lynch and 2 others
byFyodor Dostoevsky
1866608 Pages“Possibly my favorite book of all time. It’s difficult to explain the way in which I was so completely swept up in the torrent of psychological desolation.”
— Jordan Peterson
Source: Official Website - Great Books List
Read by Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Jordan Peterson and 4 others
byFyodor Dostoevsky
1880824 Pages“Dostoyevsky… his novels just absolutely flatten me. He's so brilliant, and I've never read anyone who takes moral questions so seriously.”
— Jordan Peterson
Source: Official Website - Great Books List
Read by Jordan Peterson
byCarl Jung
1933244 Pages“Every time I read Jung, it's like reading Nietzsche. It's terrifying because he's so damn smart.”
— Jordan Peterson
Source: Official Website - Great Books List
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“One of the most important books I've ever read.”
— Jordan Peterson
Source: Official Website - Great Books List
Read by Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Jordan Peterson and 11 others
byGeorge Orwell
1949328 Pages(4,800,000)
“If you want to gain a striking and precise vision of the dangers governments pose, read 1984 today.”
— Jordan Peterson
Source: Official Website - Great Books List
Beyond Good and Evil
Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future
byFriedrich Nietzsche
2003240 Pages(111,047)
“Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil isn’t a book at all. It’s a series of bombs, and each sentence is a bomb.”
— Jordan Peterson
Source: Official Website - Great Books List
Ordinary Men
Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland
byChristopher R. Browning
2017384 Pages“Ordinary Men is the best book of its type—maybe it’s the only book of its type. It shows how ordinary men ended up becoming murderers.”
— Jordan Peterson
Source: Official Website - Great Books List
Read by Jordan Peterson, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Ben Shapiro and 4 others
byAldous Huxley
2006288 Pages“Aldous Huxley was a genius of incomparable talents... Brave New World is Huxley's masterpiece.”
— Jordan Peterson
Source: Official Website - Great Books List
Read by Jordan Peterson
Affective Neuroscience
The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions
byJaak Panksepp
2004480 Pages“The best book on neuroscience that I've read. Panksepp was a genius.”
— Jordan Peterson
Source: Official Website - Great Books List
byJerzy Kosiński
1995234 Pages“The most shocking book you have ever read. Hands down.”
— Jordan Peterson
Source: Official Website - Great Books List
Read by Jordan Peterson
The Rape of Nanking
The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II
byIris Chang
1997290 Pages“I could not recommend The Rape of Nanking enough.”
— Jordan Peterson
Source: Official Website - Great Books List
Read by Jordan Peterson
Iron John
A Book About Men
byRobert Bly
1990268 Pages“If you're interested in manhood on a different level, I would highly suggest the book written by a good old poet named Robert Bly.”
— Jordan Peterson
Source: Lecture Mention
Read by Jordan Peterson
The Parasitic Mind
How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense
byGad Saad
2020264 Pages“Read this book, strengthen your resolve, and help us all return to reason.”
— Jordan Peterson
Source: Book Endorsement
The Strange Death of Europe
Immigration, Identity, Islam
byDouglas Murray
2017352 Pages“Prophetic... eerie.”
— Jordan Peterson
Source: Podcast Discussion
Demons
A Novel in Three Parts
byFyodor Dostoevsky
1872768 Pages“One of humanity’s most impressive achievements—perhaps even its supreme achievement—in the art of prose fiction.”
— Jordan Peterson
Source: Official Website - Great Books List
Read by Jordan Peterson
byErich Neumann
2014552 Pages“I was very impressed with this book. It is a good introduction to Jung's work.”
— Jordan Peterson
Source: Official Website - Great Books 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: Official Website - Great Books List
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Frequently asked questions
What books does Jordan Peterson recommend?
His 18 recommendations include The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Modern Man in Search of a Soul by Carl Jung, and Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.
What is Jordan Peterson's favorite book?
He calls Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment "possibly my favorite book of all time," describing how completely he was "swept up in the torrent of psychological desolation." He also names The Gulag Archipelago the most powerful indictment of a political regime ever written.
Where do Jordan Peterson's book recommendations come from?
Most are drawn from the Great Books List on his official website, supplemented by lecture mentions, podcast discussions, and book endorsements he has written. The website list forms the backbone of the collection.
Has Jordan Peterson written any books?
Yes. Peterson has authored four: Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief (1999), 12 Rules for Life (2018), Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life (2021), and An ABC of Childhood Tragedy (2022).
Why does Jordan Peterson recommend so many Russian novels?
Dostoevsky appears three times — Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, and Demons — because Peterson regards him as unmatched at taking moral questions seriously. He has said Dostoevsky's novels "absolutely flatten me," praising his refusal to simplify the problem of good and evil.
All 18 Books Jordan Peterson Has Recommended
- The Gulag Archipelago · Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
- Crime and Punishment · Fyodor Dostoevsky
- The Brothers Karamazov · Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Modern Man in Search of a Soul · Carl Jung
- Man's Search for Meaning · Viktor E. Frankl
- 1984 · George Orwell
- Beyond Good and Evil · Friedrich Nietzsche
- Ordinary Men · Christopher R. Browning
- Brave New World · Aldous Huxley
- Affective Neuroscience · Jaak Panksepp
- The Painted Bird · Jerzy Kosiński
- The Rape of Nanking · Iris Chang
- Iron John · Robert Bly
- The Parasitic Mind · Gad Saad
- The Strange Death of Europe · Douglas Murray
- Demons · Fyodor Dostoevsky
- The Origins and History of Consciousness · Erich Neumann
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance · Robert M. Pirsig