market folly

If you haven't noticed before, on the right sidebar of the website we've catalogued various recommended reading lists from top investors.  Many of these investors have recommended expanding your horizons beyond just books on investing.

So this time around we're taking a look at a recommendations from an entrepreneur.  Elon Musk is the founder of electric car company Tesla (TSLA), space exploration company SpaceX, and he also previously co-founded online payments firm PayPal (PYPL).

Here are books Elon Musk has recommended over the years, as well as books he said shaped him into who he is today.


Elon Musk's Recommended Reading List

  Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel

  Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom

  Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Orestes and Erik M. Conway

  Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down by J.E. Gordon

  Nikola Tesla Biographies: Musk didn't specify which one but there's The Tesla Autobiography as well as Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age by W. Bernard Carlson

  The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

  Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson

  Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson

  Howard Hughes: His Life and Madness by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele

  Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants by John D. Clark  


Musk has also recommended various fiction books such as The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov, as well as The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams, and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.


If you're looking for more investing-focused books, be sure to check out Charlie Munger's recommended reading list as well as Seth Klarman's favorite books.