13 Best Natural History Books

We analyzed 4+ expert sources, curated book lists, and recommendations from successful people to find the 13 best natural history books according to the internet — not just one person's opinion. Each book on this list was mentioned by at least two independent sources, and the ranking is based on how frequently each title appears across all sources studied. This consensus-based approach ensures you get recommendations backed by multiple experts, not a single reviewer's bias.

Goal: Find the best Natural History books according to the internet (not just one person's opinion).

Method:

Search for "best natural history books" and study the top 4+ pages.
Add only the books mentioned 2+ times.
Rank the results neatly here.

13 Best Natural History Books

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Last updated: August 2, 2025

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Sapiens

A Brief History, Book 1

by Yuval Noah Harari

Also recommended by

32 people

Joe Rogan recommended this book
Bill Gates recommended this book
Naval Ravikant recommended this book
Lex Fridman recommended this book
Mark Zuckerberg recommended this book
Peter Attia recommended this book
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More recommendations
- Ashton Kutcher
  "The brainy book I seem to be sharing or talking about the most lately." - Ashton Kutcher
- Whitney Cummings
  "A great book about [how] we’ve evolved and why we have anxiety." - Whitney Cummings
- Richard Branson
  "I just love the style of his writing." - Richard Branson
- Ray Dalio
  Ray Dalio mentioned this book on "The Tim Ferriss Show" podcast.
- Vinod Khosla
  "A previous favorite." - Vinod Khosla
- James Cameron
  "It explains human behavior and why we are the way we are in human civilization from soup to nuts. And I’ve read it now a couple of times. It’s a pretty astonishing book." - James Cameron
- Demis Hassabis
  "There's not many times where I read a book and come out with 20 new ideas I hadn't thought about before, and [this book] made me think like that." - Demis Hassabis
- Keith Rabois
  Keith Rabois recommended this book on a Medium blog post.
- Daniel Ek
  "Both sobering and conservatively optimistic in equal measure." - Daniel Ek
- Reid Hoffman
  "A grand theory of humanity." - Reid Hoffman
- Sam Kass
  Sam Kass recommended this book in the "Tools of Titans" book.
- Sebastian Junger
  "I’m going to give [this book] over and over again to everyone I know." - Sebastian Junger
- Kishore Biyani
  "Fascinating because of its multi-disciplinary approach towards understanding human society, our behaviour and our future." - Kishore Biyani
- Ryan Shea
  One of Ryan Shea's 4 answers to "what is the book (or books) you’ve given most as a gift?"
- Melinda Gates
  Melinda Gates recommended this book on Likewise.com.
- Bill Gurley
  "I really enjoyed [this book]." - Bill Gurley
- Karlie Kloss
  "An amazing book on the beginning of humanity." - Karlie Kloss
- Anthony Pompliano
  "[One of the] best books I read in 2017." - Anthony Pompliano
- Changpeng Zhao
  "Gives me a greater perspective about how humans emerged and why we behave the way we do." - Changpeng Zhao
- PewDiePie
  "Tells the major revolutions of human history." - PewDiePie
- Patrick O'Shaughnessy
  "Provides a concise history of humankind and outlines why we have the psychology we do today." - Patrick O'Shaughnessy
- Chris Evans
  "Truly mind-blowing. It’s changed the way I look at almost everything. I can’t endorse it enough." - Chris Evans
- Simon Mayo
  "Love this book still." - Simon Mayo
- Penn Jillette
  Penn Jillette mentioned this book in a New York Times interview.
- Mark Manson
  Mark Manson recommended this book on his website.
- James Clear
  "[One of] the 10 best nonfiction books of all-time." - James Clear