Books Recommended by Naval Ravikant
Naval Ravikant co-founded, and in 2018 was the CEO of, AngelList, a platform designed to connect startups with angel investors and job-seekers. Its mission is to democratize the investment process and help startups with their challenges in fundraising and finding talent.
He is an angel investor and has invested in more than 100 companies, including Twitter, Uber, Stack Overflow, Yammer, OpenDNS, and others.
Previously he co-founded Epinions, which went public as part of Shopping.com, and was the CEO of Vast.com, a platform that provides big data for big purchases, informing decisions in complex and/or high-risk environments.
In 2017, Naval spent much of the year building CoinList, a platform for holding initial coin offerings.
As of 2026, Naval is the co-founder and chairman of AngelList. In 2023, he co-founded Airchat, a social media app that uses voice notes and AI-powered transcription.
He’s an avid reader – at any given time, he’s cycling through more than 50 books. Here’s what he said:
“At any given time, I’m at probably about 50 books on my Kindle, and probably about six or seven hard-cover or soft-cover books that I’m cycling through. I opened up my Kindle. I look through. Based on my mood, I’ll flip through to whatever book matches my mood. I’ll flip to whatever part of it looks the most interesting, and I’ll just read that part. I don’t read in the sequential order. The most important thing that does for me is it lets me read on a regular basis.”
Naval compares taking book-notes to taking photos on trips: it takes us out of the moment, hanging on to memories. He prefers to re-read the really great books more than he reads new books. He’ll sometimes re-read the passages he highlighted in his favorite books – especially when he doesn’t have the time to re-read the whole books, and something usually catches his eye and he gets sucked back into the book. Twitter has helped him share a few of the insights or concepts he has while reading, by forcing himself to distill those lessons into a limited set of characters and sharing them there.
If you want to learn more about reading habits, reading more books, we recommend that you read this article: How to Build a Lifetime Reading Habit
Also, there are two collections of books curated by the best entrepreneurs in the world here:
Books recommended by Naval Ravikant:
30 books recommended by Naval Ravikant
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
I’m rereading Sapiens again, because I love that book so much.
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
I also recently finished The Power of Habit, or close to finish as I get. That one was interesting, not because of its content necessarily, but because it’s good for me to always keep on top of mind how powerful my habits are. [...] I… Read the full quote
I also recently finished The Power of Habit, or close to finish as I get. That one was interesting, not because of its content necessarily, but because it’s good for me to always keep on top of mind how powerful my habits are. [...] I think learning how to break habits is a very important meta-skill that can serve you better in life than almost anything else. Although you can read tons of books on it, the reality is you’re never going to learn how to break bad habits until you just break them.
The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves
by Matt Ridley
Getting into the more evolution, science kind of books, I really highly, highly recommend picking up [...] The Rational Optimist.
The Lessons of History
Great book. I really like how it summarizes some of the larger themes of history. Very incisive and, unlike most history books, is actually kind of small and it covers a lot of ground.
The Prophet
It actually read like a modern-day poetic religious tome. Up there with the Bhagavad-gita, the Tao Te Ching, The Bible, The Qur’an. It was written in that style where it had that feel of religiosity and truth, but it was very approachable and beautiful and… Read the full quote
It actually read like a modern-day poetic religious tome. Up there with the Bhagavad-gita, the Tao Te Ching, The Bible, The Qur’an. It was written in that style where it had that feel of religiosity and truth, but it was very approachable and beautiful and non-denominational and non-secretarian. I really liked that. I loved that book. He has a gift for poetically describing what children are like, what lovers are like, what marriage should be like, how you should treat your enemies and your friends, how you should work with money, what can you think of every time you have to kill something to eat it. I felt, like the great religious books, it gave a very deep, very philosophical, but very true answer to how to approach the major problems in life. I recommend The Prophet to anybody, whether you’re religious or not. Whether you are Christian or Hindu or Jewish or Atheist. I think it’s a beautiful book, and it’s worth reading.
Stories of Your Life and Others
by Ted Chiang
I’m rereading Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang. It’s one of my favorite sci-fi novels.
The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World
But the concepts that came out of The Beginning of Infinity are transformational because they very convincingly change the way that you look at what is true and what is not.
The Power of Myth
I’m rereading The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell. Sometimes I think it’s better to just to reread the greats than it is to read something that’s not as great.
Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters
by Matt Ridley
Getting into the more evolution, science kind of books, I really highly, highly recommend picking up Genome [...].
Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade
I just finished reading Pre-Suasion, or I should say I just finished skimming Pre-Suasion by Robert Cialdini. I don’t think I needed to read the entire book to get the point, but it was still good to read what I did.
The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms
I’m reading [...] The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms, by Nassim Taleb, who is famous for The Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness. I sort of like his collection of ancient wisdom, In the Bed of Procrustes.
The Fabric of Reality
I’m currently stuck in a loop where, at least in science, I’m only going to read The Beginning of Infinity and The Fabric of Reality over and over again until I understand them fully.
Total Freedom: The Essential Krishnamurti
I’m always reading something by Krishnamurti. Usually, it’s Total Freedom, which is the book that I just reread over and over again. Doesn’t necessarily make sense, but when you’re ready for it, there’s nothing else like it.
Falling into Grace: Insights on the End of Suffering
by Adyashanti
In the philosophy side, [...] I just finished Falling Into Grace by Adyashanti, which I thought was very good.
Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman
by James Gleick
I’ve been reading Perfectly Reasonable Deviations, and I’ve also been rereading Genius.
Liftoff
by Eric Berger
So when you read these stories like Liftoff, which is a story of Musk and his team building the first SpaceX rocket, or The Macintosh Way, which is about Jobs and his team building the first Macintosh
Mastering in the Core Teachings: The Buddha
That’s a great book. Recommended to me by a friend. It’s available online. I would get that one. If you’re interested in Buddhism, meditation, insight, I thought that one brought everything together, while leaving the mysticism out of it. That should give you the indication.
Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track
I’ve been reading Perfectly Reasonable Deviations, and I’ve also been rereading Genius.
The Boys Vol. 1: The Name of the Game
by Garth Ennis
I love graphic novels. I’ve been rereading The Boys recently.
The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge
by Matt Ridley
The Evolution of Everything by Matt Ridley, one of my favorite authors. I’ve read everything of his, and reread everything of his.
The Macintosh Way
by Guy Kawasaki
So when you read these stories like Liftoff, which is a story of Musk and his team building the first SpaceX rocket, or The Macintosh Way, which is about Jobs and his team building the first Macintosh
The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation
by Matt Ridley
Getting into the more evolution, science kind of books, I really highly, highly recommend picking up [...] Origins of Virtue.
The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature
by Matt Ridley
Getting into the more evolution, science kind of books, I really highly, highly recommend picking up [...] The Red Queen.
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