Books Recommended by Kevin Kelly
The Ultimate Resource
Julian Lincoln Simon
Source: "[The author]’s clarifying insight—that mind and intelligence can overcome any physical limitations, and are therefore the only scarce resource—has become a big idea that colors much of what I look at today." - Kevin Kelly
Future Shock
Alvin Toffler
Source: "[The author] was the one who introduced the term 'future shock' which was that people would actually have like a resistance or a reaction to the future." - Kevin Kelly
Leaves of Grass
Walt Whitman
Source: "While reading this classic poetic ode to America and possibilities ('I am multitude!') my gasket blew, and I became seized with an unstoppable urge to travel." - Kevin Kelly
Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Source: "[This book] curiously led me to Jesus. [The author]'s stance of radical honesty prompted me to attempt the same. It started my spiritual awakening." - Kevin Kelly
Shantaram
Gregory David Roberts
Source: "You get an incredibly vivid, immersive, deep, and in some ways uplifting view of India and the underworld in India, into that part of Asia." - Kevin Kelly
Gödel, Escher, Bach
Douglas R. Hofstadter
Source: "Over the years, I kept finding myself returning to its insights, and each time I would arrive at them at a deeper level." - Kevin Kelly
So Good They Can't Ignore You
Cal Newport
Source: "What you really want to do is to master something and to use your mastering of something as a way to get to your passion." - Kevin Kelly
The Fountainhead
Ayn Rand
Source: "By the end of the book, I decided to drop out of school. I never returned. It was the best decision of my life." - Kevin Kelly
The Adventures of Johnny Bunko
Daniel Pink
Source: "It's a cartoon, basically, and it's aimed at young people as trying to teach them how to become indispensable." - Kevin Kelly
It's All Too Much
Peter Walsh
Source: "I actually gave it a whole page [in my book 'Cool Tools'] because I thought the message was so profound." - Kevin Kelly
Peopleware
Tom DeMarco
Source: "A hugely underappreciated book. I remember all kinds of things from it." - Kevin Kelly
Childhood's End
Arthur C. Clarke
Source: "This story of a singularity always stuck with me as something to prepare for." - Kevin Kelly
The Essential Rumi
Jalal Al-Din Rumi
Source: "There is nothing that I enjoy more than at night reading Rumi." - Kevin Kelly
Finite and Infinite Games
James Carse
Source: "Gave me a mathematical framework for my own spirituality." - Kevin Kelly
Holy Bible
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Source: "Probably the most amazing thing you haven’t read yet." - Kevin Kelly
What the Dormouse Said
John Markoff
Source: "About the hippy origins of the personal computer industry." - Kevin Kelly
The Sound of the One Hand
Yoel Hoffman
Source: Kevin Kelly recommended this book in the "Tools of Titans" book.
The Qur'an
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Source: "Read it through. It’s an amazing book." - Kevin Kelly
Regional Advantage
AnnaLee Saxenian
Source: "A really good book." - Kevin Kelly
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