Books Recommended by Tim O’Reilly
The Meaning of Culture
John Cowper Powys
Source: "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
The Whole Internet User's Guide & Catalog
Ed Krol
Source: "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
The Lean Startup
How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
Eric Ries
Source: "[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
Dune (6 books)
Frank Herbert
Source: "Definitely one of [the series that have shaped my life]." - Tim O’Reilly
The Warden
Chronicles of Barsetshire, Book 1
Anthony Trollope
Source: "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
Can You Forgive Her?
Palliser, Book 1
Anthony Trollope
Source: "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
Working Backwards
Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon
Colin Bryar
Source: "[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
The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats
W. B. Yeats
Source: "I learned [that 20 of these poems] do nothing for me, and there’s this one that just goes 'Bang!'" - Tim O’Reilly
Trilby
George Du Maurier
Source: "Everybody knows Charles Dickens, but only a certain number of people will have read [this book]." - Tim O’Reilly
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen
Source: "In terms of classics, you can’t do better than [this author] for understanding the human soul." - Tim O’Reilly
The Collected Poems
The Corrected Edition
Wallace Stevens
Source: "Maybe it’s too intellectual for some people, but [...] go find a couple of poems of [this author]." - Tim O’Reilly
Night Train to Lisbon
A Novel
Pascal Mercier
Source: "Sometimes there was just a line in [this book] that changed my life in some way." - Tim O’Reilly
Liar's Poker
Michael Lewis
Source: "A time machine into this place when our financial economy went crazily wrong." - Tim O’Reilly
AI Superpowers
China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order
Kai-Fu Lee
Source: "If you care about the future being brought to us by AI, this is the one indispensable book of 2018." - Tim O’Reilly
When Nietzsche Wept
A Novel Of Obsession
Irvin D. Yalom
Source: "An imagined story of early psychoanalysis about a guy who was a predecessor to Freud." - Tim O’Reilly
The Essential Rumi
Jalal Al-Din Rumi
Source: "The introduction alone [...] will make the hair stand up on your arms." - Tim O’Reilly
Unrig
How to Fix Our Broken Democracy
Daniel G. Newman
Source: "I love [this book]. A graphic 'novel' explaining how to unrig the US's broken democracy." - Tim O’Reilly
The Way of Life, According to Laotzu
Witter Bynner
Source: "Most people who know me have heard me quote from this book." - Tim O’Reilly
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
Tom Wolfe
Source: "[Gets you] into the world of psychedelia and that era of the ‘70s." - Tim O’Reilly
Riders of the Purple Sage
Riders of the Purple Sage, Book 1
Zane Grey
Source: "A time machine into how people felt about the world in [1915]." - Tim O’Reilly
FAQ
Did Tim O’Reilly recommend all these books?
Not necessarily. This book list has Tim O’Reilly must-read recommendations, but it also has a mix of mentions and suggestions.
How do you know Tim O’Reilly mentioned these books?
Every suggestion made by Tim O’Reilly is validated by our editors. You can find the sources to the recommendations linked next to the books.
Did Tim O’Reilly actually create this list?
No. This reading list was curated by our editors based on confirmed mentions from Tim O’Reilly, the sources are made available under each recommendation.
24 books
Got feedback? Email us 📧