Books Naval Ravikant has recommended
The books Naval Ravikant recommends in the Almanack of Naval Ravikant's reading list, with his own one-line reasons.
Naval Ravikant has no affiliation with this site and does not endorse it. Recommendations are quoted from public sources listed at the bottom. Background: Wikipedia.
Naval's recommendations are unusually consistent across a decade of podcasts and tweets: foundational science, a few philosophers, and whatever makes him see the world more clearly. The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, compiled by Eric Jorgenson with Naval's blessing, collects them on one page with his comments, and that is the source for this list.
His own advice on reading: read what you love until you love to read, and treat books as a buffet, not a syllabus. The quotes below are his.
The list
Sapiens
Yuval Noah Harari · 2015
"The best book of the last decade I have read." A history of humanity dense with ideas; he returns to it often.
The Rational Optimist
Matt Ridley · 2010
Among "the most brilliant and enlightening" books he has read; he has read everything Ridley wrote, including Genome and The Red Queen.
The Beginning of Infinity
David Deutsch · 2011
"Not the easiest read, but it made me smarter." Deutsch's argument that knowledge and explanation have no limits.
Skin in the Game
Nassim Nicholas Taleb · 2018
"The best book I read in 2018." He recommends the whole Incerto: Antifragile, The Black Swan and The Bed of Procrustes too.
Poor Charlie's Almanack
Charles T. Munger, ed. Peter Kaufman · 2023
"A business book, but really Munger's advice on overcoming oneself to live a successful and virtuous life."
The Sovereign Individual
James Dale Davidson & William Rees-Mogg · 1997
"The best book I've read since Sapiens," and far less mainstream: a 1997 forecast of how the information age would reshape nations and money.
Reality Is Not What It Seems
Carlo Rovelli · 2017
"The best book I've read in the last year." Quantum gravity for readers; he also recommends Rovelli's Seven Brief Lessons on Physics.
Six Easy Pieces
Richard P. Feynman · 1994
The book he would give his kids; he admires Feynman's demeanor and his depth of understanding in equal measure.
Meditations
Marcus Aurelius (Gregory Hays translation) · 2002
"Absolutely life-changing." A reminder that the most powerful man alive still fought the same inner battles; he recommends the Hays translation.
Siddhartha
Hermann Hesse · 1922
The book he has given away more than any other; a short novel he calls a good introduction to philosophy.
Questions people ask
Where does Naval Ravikant list his book recommendations?
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant (free online at navalmanack.com) has a 'Naval's Recommended Reading' chapter with his comments on each title. The rest are scattered across podcasts and his X account.
What is Naval's advice on how to read?
Read what you love until you love to read; skip books that bore you without guilt; re-read the great ones; and prefer foundational science and philosophy over whatever is new.
Sources
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Keep going
Charlie Munger
Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman (1924–2023)
The books Charlie Munger recommended in Poor Charlie's Almanack and at Berkshire Hathaway and Daily Journal meetings, with sources.
Patrick Collison
Stripe co-founder and CEO
Books Patrick Collison flags as particularly great on his personal bookshelf page, several of which Stripe Press later republished.
Paul Graham
Y Combinator co-founder, essayist
Books Paul Graham has recommended in his essays and on X, each linked to the essay or post where he said it.
E-ink reading & analog notes
The one gadget that makes you do less, plus the notebook and pen you'll actually open.
Readers of this list also open
From a $800 Mac mini to a 512GB Mac Studio: the hardware that actually fits the model you want.
A sub-20 W mini PC running Proxmox, a NAS for the data, and a UPS so a power blip never eats your drives.
No soldering. A hot-swap kit, switches and keycaps you chose, and the three tools worth owning.
Monitor at eye height, a chair that fits, a desk that lets you stand. Buy those first; cheap out on the rest until it bugs you.