Read by Sam Altman, Naval Ravikant, Mark Zuckerberg and 3 others
What books does Sam Harris recommend?
Neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris hosts the Making Sense podcast and built the Waking Up meditation app, and his book recommendations reflect a mind drawn equally to hard rationality and contemplative practice. This page collects 27 titles from Making Sense episodes, his appearance on the Tim Ferriss Show, his recommended reading list, blurbs he has written, and the Waking Up app, weighted toward philosophy, psychology, society and politics, and science. His top pick is David Deutsch's The Beginning of Infinity, which he says greatly expanded his sense of the potential power of human knowledge and calls a profoundly optimistic book. The list ranges from Derek Parfit's Reasons and Persons, which he describes as written as though by an alien intelligence, to William MacAskill's What We Owe the Future and Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now. Consciousness, morality, existential risk, and meditation recur across his choices.
Last updated February 2026 · Every recommendation cited to its original source.
The Beginning of Infinity
Explanations That Transform the World
byDavid Deutsch
2011487 Pages“Greatly expanded my sense of the potential power of human knowledge. It is a profoundly optimistic book... I don't think I've ever encountered a more hopeful statement of our potential to make progress.”
— Sam Harris
Source: Making Sense Podcast #42
Read by Sam Harris
byDerek Parfit
1984543 Pages“Brilliant and written as though by an alien intelligence. A deeply strange book filled with thought experiments that bend your intuitions left and right. A truly strange and unique document, and incredibly insightful about morality and questions of identity.”
— Sam Harris
Source: Tim Ferriss Show #87
What We Owe the Future
A Million-Year View
byWilliam MacAskill
2022352 Pages“No living philosopher has had a greater impact upon my ethics than Will MacAskill... This is an altogether thrilling and necessary book.”
— Sam Harris
Source: Book Blurb / Publisher
Enlightenment Now
The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
bySteven Pinker
2018576 Pages“Steve's book isn't even out yet, and it's already making waves... [Selected as the first Waking Up Book Club book].”
— Sam Harris
Source: Waking Up Book Club
Read by Sam Harris
The Madness of Crowds
Gender, Race and Identity
byDouglas Murray
2019288 Pages“Simply brilliant. Reading it to the end, I felt as though I'd just drawn my first full breath in years. At a moment of collective madness, there is nothing more refreshing—or, indeed, provocative—than sanity.”
— Sam Harris
Source: Twitter / Book Blurb
Read by Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Peter Thiel and 3 others
Superintelligence
Paths, Dangers, Strategies
byNick Bostrom
2014352 Pages“I highly recommend it. It's the clearest book I've come across that makes the case that the so-called 'control problem' is a truly difficult and important task.”
— Sam Harris
Source: Tim Ferriss Show #87
Read by Sam Harris
A History of Western Philosophy
And Its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day
byBertrand Russell
1945895 Pages“Bertrand Russell is one of the great philosophers of his time... a remarkably clear thinker and writer... a great example of how English should be written and just a great voice to have in your head.”
— Sam Harris
Source: Tim Ferriss Show #87
I Am That
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
byNisargadatta Maharaj
1973558 Pages“This is a collection of dialogues with a modern Indian sage named Nisargadatta Maharaj... He said a few crazy things, as many gurus do. But if you stick to what he was claiming about the nature of experience, I think you're on firm ground.”
— Sam Harris
Source: Tim Ferriss Show #87
Behave
The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
byRobert Sapolsky
2017800 Pages“It really is the most accessible discussion of brain science you will find.”
— Sam Harris
Source: Sam Harris Recommended Reading List
Read by Sam Harris
The Quran
Oxford World's Classics
byTraditional
2008512 Pages“Everyone should read the Holy Qur'an... Read it — it's much shorter than the Bible; you can read it in a weekend, and you'll be informed about the central doctrines of Islam in a way that you may not be.”
— Sam Harris
Source: Tim Ferriss Show #87
Read by Sam Harris
byThomas Nagel
1997160 Pages“I'm a big fan of Thomas Nagel's earlier work… He is a very fine writer — a very clear writer — and just as a style of communication … he's worth going to school on.”
— Sam Harris
Source: Tim Ferriss Show #87
Read by Sam Harris
On Having No Head: Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious
Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious
byDouglas Harding
2013124 Pages“My favorite book on [the subject of Dzogchen practice], though it is not explicitly a Dzogchen book.”
— Sam Harris
Source: Waking Up App
Read by Sam Harris
The Precipice
Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity
byToby Ord
2020480 PagesSource: Making Sense Podcast #208
Read by Sam Harris
Humiliation: And Other Essays on Honor, Social Discomfort, and Violence
And Other Essays on Honor, Social Discomfort, and Violence
byWilliam Ian Miller
1993270 Pages“An unusual book... It is a very insightful analysis of the psychology of social awkwardness and shame.”
— Sam Harris
Source: Tim Ferriss Show #87
Read by Sam Harris
Machete Season
The Killers in Rwanda Speak
byJean Hatzfeld
2005272 Pages“If you want to understand the logic of genocide, and the terrifying ease with which normal people can be conscripted into it, read this book.”
— Sam Harris
Source: Sam Harris Recommended Reading List
Read by Elon Musk, Sam Harris
Our Final Invention
Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era
byJames Barrat
2013336 PagesSource: Sam Harris Recommended Reading List
God Is Not Great
How Religion Poisons Everything
byChristopher Hitchens
2007307 Pages(112,916)
Source: Sam Harris Recommended Reading List
byDaniel Gilbert
2007336 PagesSource: Sam Harris Recommended Reading List
Read by Sam Harris
The Flight of the Garuda
The Dzogchen Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism
byKeith Dowman
2003256 PagesSource: Tim Ferriss Show #87
Read by Sam Harris
byJoseph Goldstein
2013480 PagesSource: Waking Up App
Read by Sam Harris
Shift into Freedom: The Science and Practice of Open-Hearted Awareness
The Science and Practice of Open-Hearted Awareness
byLoch Kelly
2015288 Pages“Loch Kelly is one of the people I point students to who want to go deeper into non-dual mindfulness.”
— Sam Harris
Source: Waking Up App
A Guide to the Good Life
The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy
byWilliam B. Irvine
2008336 Pages“My favorite book on Stoicism.”
— Sam Harris
Source: Making Sense Podcast
Read by Sam Harris
byJanet Malcolm
1990176 PagesSource: The Marginalian (citing official list)
Loading more
Also recommends books in
Frequently asked questions
What books does Sam Harris recommend?
His 27 picks include The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch, Reasons and Persons by Derek Parfit, What We Owe the Future by William MacAskill, Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker, and The Madness of Crowds by Douglas Murray.
What is Sam Harris's most recommended book?
His top pick is The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch, which he says "greatly expanded my sense of the potential power of human knowledge," calling it "a profoundly optimistic book."
Where do Sam Harris's book recommendations come from?
They are drawn from his Making Sense podcast, his appearance on the Tim Ferriss Show, his recommended reading list, blurbs he has written, and titles featured in his Waking Up app.
Has Sam Harris written any books?
Yes. He has authored eight books listed here, including The End of Faith, The Moral Landscape, Free Will, Waking Up, Lying, Letter to a Christian Nation, Islam and the Future of Tolerance, and Making Sense, spanning religion, morality, and the mind.
What subjects does Sam Harris read most?
His recommendations concentrate on philosophy and psychology, with strong society and politics and science threads. They span the nature of consciousness, the foundations of morality, existential risk and artificial intelligence, and contemplative practice, reflecting both his neuroscience background and his work on the Waking Up app.
All 27 Books Sam Harris Has Recommended
- The Beginning of Infinity · David Deutsch
- Reasons and Persons · Derek Parfit
- What We Owe the Future · William MacAskill
- Enlightenment Now · Steven Pinker
- The Madness of Crowds · Douglas Murray
- Superintelligence · Nick Bostrom
- A History of Western Philosophy · Bertrand Russell
- I Am That · Nisargadatta Maharaj
- Behave · Robert Sapolsky
- The Quran · Traditional
- The Last Word · Thomas Nagel
- On Having No Head: Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious · Douglas Harding
- The Precipice · Toby Ord
- Humiliation: And Other Essays on Honor, Social Discomfort, and Violence · William Ian Miller
- Machete Season · Jean Hatzfeld
- Our Final Invention · James Barrat
- God Is Not Great · Christopher Hitchens
- Stumbling on Happiness · Daniel Gilbert
- The Flight of the Garuda · Keith Dowman
- Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening · Joseph Goldstein
- Shift into Freedom: The Science and Practice of Open-Hearted Awareness · Loch Kelly
- A Guide to the Good Life · William B. Irvine
- Infidel · Ayaan Hirsi Ali
- The Journalist and the Murderer · Janet Malcolm
- The Anxious Generation · Jonathan Haidt
- The Ego Tunnel · Thomas Metzinger
- Thinking, Fast and Slow · Daniel Kahneman