Read by Steve Jobs, Marc Benioff, Rich Roll and 3 others
What books does Steve Jobs recommend?
Long before it was ever strategic, the reading life of Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple and Pixar, was famously spiritual, and these 16 book recommendations — assembled largely from Walter Isaacson's biography and documented reading lists — bear that out. The selection is weighted toward philosophy, Eastern spirituality, and health and wellness, alongside the occasional business classic and literary favorite. The book Jobs returned to most was Paramahansa Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi, which he first read as a teenager, reread in India, and revisited yearly — reportedly the only book he ever downloaded to his iPad. Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, Moby Dick, and Andrew Grove's Only the Paranoid Survive fill out a list that maps neatly onto the man who insisted technology should sit at the crossroads of engineering and the liberal arts.
Last updated January 2026 · Every recommendation cited to its original source.
byParamahansa Yogananda
1946592 Pages“Jobs read this book for the first time as a teenager, then rereading it in India and once a year ever since. It was the only book he downloaded to his iPad.”
— Steve Jobs
Source: GoodBooks.io 'Steve Jobs Book Recommendations' (Updated 2025)
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
byShunryu Suzuki
2020176 Pages(50,800)
“Zen has been a deep influence in my life ever since. At one point I was thinking about going to Japan and trying to get into the Eihei-ji monastery, but my spiritual adviser urged me to stay here.”
— Steve Jobs
Source: Walter Isaacson's 'Steve Jobs'
Read by Steve Jobs, Jensen Huang, Jeff Bezos and 5 others
The Innovator's Dilemma
When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail
byClayton M. Christensen
1997288 Pages“It's important that we make this transformation... because of what Clayton Christensen calls 'the innovator's dilemma,' where people who invent something are usually the last ones to see past it.”
— Steve Jobs
Source: Walter Isaacson's 'Steve Jobs'
Read by Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Jordan Peterson and 11 others
byGeorge Orwell
1949328 Pages(4,800,000)
“Jobs called this book 'one of his favorite' and recommended it to hires. The book also inspired the famous 1984 Super Bowl commercial.”
— Steve Jobs
Source: Headway 'Steve Jobs Favorite Books' (Jan 2025)
Read by Steve Jobs
Mucusless Diet Healing System
A Scientific Method of Eating Your Way to Health
byArnold Ehret
2012202 Pages“I got into it in my typical nutso way.”
— Steve Jobs
Source: Walter Isaacson's 'Steve Jobs'
Read by Charlie Munger, Jensen Huang, Steve Jobs and 3 others
Only the Paranoid Survive
How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company
byAndrew S. Grove
1996224 Pages“This book is about one super-important concept. You must learn about Strategic Inflection Points, because sooner or later you are going to live through one.”
— Steve Jobs
Source: Shortform 'Steve Jobs Book Recommendations' (Updated 2025)
Moby Dick
or, The Whale
byHerman Melville
1851720 Pages“Jobs told Walter Isaacson that he reread this book a lot as a teen and related to the character of Captain Ahab.”
— Steve Jobs
Source: GoodBooks.io 'Steve Jobs Book Recommendations' (Updated 2025)
Read by Steve Jobs
Inside the Tornado
Strategies for Developing, Leveraging, and Surviving Hypergrowth Markets
byGeoffrey A. Moore
2004272 Pages“Essential reading on how to make disruptive innovations a popular success... associated with Jobs's marketing strategies.”
— Steve Jobs
Source: Headway 'Steve Jobs Favorite Books' (Jan 2025)
byWilliam Shakespeare
1608456 Pages“I started to listen to music a whole lot, and I started to read more outside of just science and technology — Shakespeare, Plato. I loved King Lear.”
— Steve Jobs
Source: Walter Isaacson's 'Steve Jobs'
Read by Steve Jobs
Diet for a Small Planet
The Book That Started a Revolution in the Way Americans Eat
byFrances Moore Lappé
2021512 Pages“That's when I pretty much swore off meat for good.”
— Steve Jobs
Source: Walter Isaacson's 'Steve Jobs'
Read by Steve Jobs
The Way of the White Clouds
A Buddhist Pilgrim in Tibet
byLama Anagarika Govinda
2006320 Pages“Jobs read this spiritual autobiography early in his life, and it helped spark his lifelong interest in Buddhism and Eastern spirituality.”
— Steve Jobs
Source: Walter Isaacson's 'Steve Jobs'
Read by Steve Jobs
Cosmic Consciousness
A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind
byRichard Maurice Bucke
1901416 Pages“Read by Jobs during his time at Reed College, this book explores the concept of a higher form of consciousness.”
— Steve Jobs
Source: Walter Isaacson's 'Steve Jobs'
Read by Steve Jobs
Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism
A classic overview of the spiritual path
byChögyam Trungpa
2002272 Pages“Jobs and his friend Daniel Kottke read this book at Reed College; it warns against using spirituality to boost the ego.”
— Steve Jobs
Source: Walter Isaacson's 'Steve Jobs'
Read by Steve Jobs
Meetings with Remarkable Men
All and Everything, Second Series
byG.I. Gurdjieff
1963320 Pages“Mentioned as one of the spiritual books Jobs read during his search for enlightenment.”
— Steve Jobs
Source: Walter Isaacson's 'Steve Jobs'
Read by Steve Jobs
byGeoffrey James
1987151 Pages“Oh, really? That was a good book. I enjoyed it.”
— Steve Jobs
Source: Inc. Magazine
Read by Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs and 8 others
byAyn Rand
19571168 Pages“I think 'Atlas Shrugged' was one of his guides in life.”
— Steve Jobs
Source: Steve Wozniak / Bloomberg
Also recommends books in
Frequently asked questions
What books did Steve Jobs recommend?
His 16 recommendations include Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki, The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen, 1984 by George Orwell, and Only the Paranoid Survive by Andrew Grove.
What was Steve Jobs's favorite book?
Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. Jobs first read it as a teenager, reread it in India, and returned to it once a year for the rest of his life — it was reportedly the only book he ever downloaded to his iPad.
What spiritual books influenced Steve Jobs?
Beyond Autobiography of a Yogi, Jobs read Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, The Way of the White Clouds, Cosmic Consciousness, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, and Meetings with Remarkable Men. He said Zen "has been a deep influence in my life ever since" his early exposure to it at Reed College.
Where do Steve Jobs's book recommendations come from?
Many are documented in Walter Isaacson's biography Steve Jobs, alongside curated lists from GoodBooks.io, Headway, and Shortform. An Inc. Magazine interview and remarks from Steve Wozniak supply the rest, since Jobs left behind no reading list of his own, only what others recorded of his habits.
What business books did Steve Jobs recommend?
He pointed to The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen, warning that "people who invent something are usually the last ones to see past it." He also recommended Andrew Grove's Only the Paranoid Survive and Geoffrey Moore's Inside the Tornado on navigating disruptive change.
All 16 Books Steve Jobs Has Recommended
- Autobiography of a Yogi · Paramahansa Yogananda
- Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind · Shunryu Suzuki
- The Innovator's Dilemma · Clayton M. Christensen
- 1984 · George Orwell
- Mucusless Diet Healing System · Arnold Ehret
- Only the Paranoid Survive · Andrew S. Grove
- Moby Dick · Herman Melville
- Inside the Tornado · Geoffrey A. Moore
- King Lear · William Shakespeare
- Diet for a Small Planet · Frances Moore Lappé
- The Way of the White Clouds · Lama Anagarika Govinda
- Cosmic Consciousness · Richard Maurice Bucke
- Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism · Chögyam Trungpa
- Meetings with Remarkable Men · G.I. Gurdjieff
- The Tao of Programming · Geoffrey James
- Atlas Shrugged · Ayn Rand