Tim O’Reilly Recommended Books
Tim O’Reilly has recommended 41 books. Browse the complete reading list with quotes and sources below.
Tim O'Reilly is the founder of O'Reilly Media.
(Read more on Wikipedia)41 Books Recommended
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The Meaning of Culture
"Talks about the interplay of culture and life, the way that what we read can enrich what we experience, and what we experience can enrich what we read." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
Night Train to Lisbon
A Novel
"Sometimes there was just a line in [this book] that changed my life in some way." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
Makers and Takers
How Wall Street Destroyed Main Street
"All about the financialization of the economy." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
Dune (6 books)
"Definitely one of [the series that have shaped my life]." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
Also recommended by:
Adam Savage, Andrew Chen, Elon Musk, Ev Williams, Jeff Bezos, Kelly Starrett, Kyle Maynard, Laird Hamilton, Seth Godin, Stewart Brand, Tim Draper, Tim Ferriss, Zooko Wilcox, Cameron Winklevoss, Sahil Lavingia, Paulo Coelho
The Discovery of the Mind
Tim O’Reilly mentioned this book on "The Tim Ferriss Show" podcast. (Source)
Information Rules
A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy
Tim O’Reilly mentioned this book on "The Tim Ferriss Show" podcast. (Source)
Liar's Poker
"A time machine into this place when our financial economy went crazily wrong." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
Also recommended by:
The Essential Rumi
"The introduction alone [...] will make the hair stand up on your arms." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
Also recommended by:
The Whole Internet User's Guide & Catalog
"It had a catalogue in the back of interests to internet sites. If you tell that to this site, you’ll get earthquake information. [...] There were only 200 web sites." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life
An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness
Tim O’Reilly mentioned this book on "The Tim Ferriss Show" podcast. (Source)
The Odyssey
Tim O’Reilly mentioned this book on "The Tim Ferriss Show" podcast. (Source)
Also recommended by:
Walter Isaacson, Michael Pollan, Caterina Fake, Stewart Brand, Jay-Z
Intermediate Microeconomics
A Modern Approach
"Almost every economist learned from [this book]." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
The Innovator's Dilemma
When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail
"[A] business classic." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
Also recommended by:
Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, Mark Cuban, Marc Benioff, Ben Horowitz, Drew Houston, Aaron Levie, Ev Williams, Max Levchin, Caterina Fake, Guy Kawasaki, Bill Gurley, Blake Scholl, Chris Dixon, Marc Andreessen, Michael Bloomberg, Steve Blank
The Kabir Book
Forty-Four of the Ecstatic Poems of Kabir
"I love [this book]." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
The Way of Life, According to Laotzu
"Most people who know me have heard me quote from this book." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
Also recommended by:
Unrig
How to Fix Our Broken Democracy
"I love [this book]. A graphic 'novel' explaining how to unrig the US's broken democracy." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
Babel-17 / Empire Star
"I’d loved [this] little book." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
Can You Forgive Her?
Palliser, Book 1
"It’s this sort of proto-feminist novel about these women who made choices that were unconventional in who they would marry." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
Loving Every Child
Wisdom for Parents
"A wonderful book." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
Pride and Prejudice
"In terms of classics, you can’t do better than [this author] for understanding the human soul." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
Also recommended by:
Riders of the Purple Sage
Riders of the Purple Sage, Book 1
"A time machine into how people felt about the world in [1915]." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
The Collected Poems
The Corrected Edition
"Maybe it’s too intellectual for some people, but [...] go find a couple of poems of [this author]." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
Also recommended by:
The Warden
Chronicles of Barsetshire, Book 1
"You read [this book] and you go, 'Oh, my God, I’m reading a novel about the moral quandaries of an 1850s British cleric, and it’s fricking fascinating.'" - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
The Way We Live Now
"About the great railroad bubbles of the 1860s." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
Also recommended by:
Trilby
"Everybody knows Charles Dickens, but only a certain number of people will have read [this book]." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
The Second Machine Age
Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies
Tim O’Reilly mentioned this book on "The Tim Ferriss Show" podcast. (Source)
Also recommended by:
Charlie Chan
Five Complete Novels: The House Without a Key; The Chinese Parrot; Behind That Curtain; The Black Camel; Keeper of the Keys
"Like a time machine with the casual racism." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
Islandia
"A personal passion project of a Boston lawyer." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
Rissa Kerguelen
Book One in the Saga of Rissa
"Influenced me deeply." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats
"I learned [that 20 of these poems] do nothing for me, and there’s this one that just goes 'Bang!'" - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
Also recommended by:
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
"[Gets you] into the world of psychedelia and that era of the ‘70s." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
Also recommended by:
When Nietzsche Wept
A Novel Of Obsession
"An imagined story of early psychoanalysis about a guy who was a predecessor to Freud." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
The Civil War
Tim O’Reilly mentioned this book on "The Tim Ferriss Show" podcast. (Source)
Working Backwards
Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon
"[The authors] dive deep into how Amazon has become the company to study if you want to succeed in 21st-century business." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
Also recommended by:
The Lean Startup
How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
"[This book] isn't just about how to create a more successful entrepreneurial business, it's about what we can learn from those businesses to improve virtually everything we do." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
Also recommended by:
Andrew Ng, Ben Horowitz, Dustin Moskovitz, Jason Calacanis, Kevin Systrom, Marc Andreessen, Mark Cuban, Mike Maples, Jr., Chris Dixon, Raoul Pal, Sheryl Sandberg, Steve Blank, Marty Cagan, Patrick Bet-David
AI Superpowers
China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order
"If you care about the future being brought to us by AI, this is the one indispensable book of 2018." - Tim O’Reilly (Source)
Also recommended by:
Yuval Noah Harari, Arianna Huffington, Chris Anderson, Marc Benioff, Peter Diamandis, Satya Nadella, Balaji Srinivasan, Ryan Shea
Other Recommenders
Edited by
Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.
Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.
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