Read by Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman and 8 others
What books does Reid Hoffman recommend?
Reid Hoffman co-founded LinkedIn and built a career on scaling companies and careers at speed, and his book recommendations blend the strategist's toolkit with the storyteller's imagination. His 13 recommendations are drawn from a Tim Ferriss Show interview, official endorsements and forewords, LinkedIn posts and reading lists, and they range across science and technology, business strategy, and leadership. The book he has read most often is J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, which he loves for its "hero's journey about how you can change the world." As a technologist he points hard at the present, calling Mustafa Suleyman's The Coming Wave "the best analysis yet of what AI means for the future of humanity," and recommending Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens and Ethan Mollick's Co-Intelligence. Hoffman has also authored five books of his own, including Blitzscaling and The Start-up of You.
Last updated February 2026 · Every recommendation cited to its original source.
The Lord of the Rings
The Fellowship of the Ring / The Two Towers / The Return of the King
byJ.R.R. Tolkien
19541178 Pages(721,705)
“The book that I've most often read is Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Because it's so important to show this journey of these hobbits, these little people in a hero's journey about how you can change the world...”
— Reid Hoffman
Source: Tim Ferriss Show Interview
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“The best analysis yet of what AI means for the future of humanity. Mustafa is a profoundly talented entrepreneur, a deep thinker, and one of the most important voices on the coming wave of technologies that will shape our world.”
— Reid Hoffman
Source: Official LinkedIn Recommendation
Conscious Business
How to Build Value Through Values
byFred Kofman
2006325 Pages“Consciousness is the main source of organizational greatness.”
— Reid Hoffman
Source: Authored Foreword
Read by Tim Ferriss, Barack Obama, Ray Dalio and 21 others
byYuval Noah Harari
2014443 Pages(1,100,000)
“Sapiens has had me thinking a lot about the evolution of humanity and what our future looks like.”
— Reid Hoffman
Source: LinkedIn 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“Zero to One is the first book any adventurer or entrepreneur must read if they are serious about building something.”
— Reid Hoffman
Source: Book Endorsement (Blurb)
Read by Reid Hoffman
The Seventh Sense
Power, Fortune, and Survival in the Age of Networks
byJoshua Cooper Ramo
2016352 Pages“In this hyper networked world remade fresh every day, with new perils and new opportunities, there is one book to be sure to read: Joshua Ramo's new book, a masterpiece, The Seventh Sense.”
— Reid Hoffman
Source: Book Endorsement (Blurb)
Co-Intelligence
Living and Working with AI
byEthan Mollick
2024256 Pages“Ethan Mollick's new book Co-Intelligence is a must-read for anyone trying to understand the AI era.”
— Reid Hoffman
Source: LinkedIn Recommendation
Read by Reid Hoffman
The Founders
The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley
byJimmy Soni
2022496 Pages“Jimmy Soni does a fantastic job of detailing the early days of PayPal... It was a journey of intense problem-solving and radical innovation.”
— Reid Hoffman
Source: LinkedIn Post
The True Believer
Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
byEric Hoffer
2002192 PagesSource: Tim Ferriss Show Interview
Read by Sheryl Sandberg, Sundar Pichai, Reid Hoffman and 1 others
Measure What Matters
How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs
byJohn Doerr
2018320 Pages“Whether you're a seasoned CEO or a first-time entrepreneur, you'll find valuable lessons, tools, and inspiration in the pages of Measure What Matters.”
— Reid Hoffman
Source: Book Endorsement (Blurb)
Scaling People
Tactics for Management and Company Building
byClaire Hughes Johnson
2023480 Pages“There's a lot of reinventing the wheel in a startup environment. Scaling People offers strong frameworks, sound advice, and tried-and-true processes.”
— Reid Hoffman
Source: LinkedIn / Stripe Press
The Airbnb Story
How Three Ordinary Guys Disrupted an Industry, Made Billions . . . and Created Plenty of Controversy
byLeigh Gallagher
2017256 Pages“Gallagher captures the remarkable journey of Airbnb exceedingly well; she takes readers from its earliest and scrappiest days through becoming an enduring company.”
— Reid Hoffman
Source: Book Endorsement (Blurb)
Recoding America
Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better
byJennifer Pahlka
2023336 Pages“One of the best policy books ever written. Why government services and policies often fail, and how to fix these systems in the digital age.”
— Reid Hoffman
Source: Tertulia Summer Reading Pick
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Frequently asked questions
What books does Reid Hoffman recommend?
His 13 recommendations include The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman, Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, Zero to One by Peter Thiel, and Co-Intelligence by Ethan Mollick.
What is Reid Hoffman's favorite book?
The book he says he has most often read is Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, which he values for its "hero's journey about how you can change the world." Among AI books, he calls The Coming Wave "the best analysis yet of what AI means for the future of humanity."
Where do Reid Hoffman's book recommendations come from?
They are drawn from an interview on the Tim Ferriss Show, official book endorsements and forewords he has written, LinkedIn posts and reading lists, and a Tertulia summer reading pick.
Has Reid Hoffman written any books?
Yes, five, including Blitzscaling (2018), The Start-up of You (2012), The Alliance (2014), Masters of Scale (2021), and Superagency (2025). Most distill his frameworks for scaling companies, careers, and, more recently, humanity's relationship with AI.
What AI books does Reid Hoffman recommend?
He points to Mustafa Suleyman's The Coming Wave and Ethan Mollick's Co-Intelligence, which he calls "a must-read for anyone trying to understand the AI era," reflecting his own work with OpenAI and Inflection AI.
All 13 Books Reid Hoffman Has Recommended
- The Lord of the Rings · J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Coming Wave · Mustafa Suleyman
- Conscious Business · Fred Kofman
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind · Yuval Noah Harari
- Zero to One · Peter Thiel
- The Seventh Sense · Joshua Cooper Ramo
- Co-Intelligence · Ethan Mollick
- The Founders · Jimmy Soni
- The True Believer · Eric Hoffer
- Measure What Matters · John Doerr
- Scaling People · Claire Hughes Johnson
- The Airbnb Story · Leigh Gallagher
- Recoding America · Jennifer Pahlka