17 BOOKS ELON MUSK RECOMMENDS YOU READ - GEOGRAFÍA - 2025

Today I come with a list of 17 books recommended by Elon Musk. If you want to know what are the writings that have helped him grow as a person and an entrepreneur, you cannot miss it.

Do you consider that you have a vision of entrepreneurship that others do not? Visionary and multimillionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk is today one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world.

When they ask him how he learned to make rockets, he always answers the same thing: "reading." Throughout his life, Musk has read a multitude of books that have served as inspiration when it comes to achieving the necessary motivation to achieve the challenges that he was proposing.

Elon Musk Recommended Books

1- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, JRR Tolkien

Elon Musk spent his childhood among books. One of his favorites was The Lord of the Rings.

Set in a magical land full of strange beings, it is narrated how a group consisting of a dwarf, an elf, two men, a magician and four hobbits undertake a dangerous journey in order to destroy a magic ring. In this first installment they must survive different adversities.

If said object falls into the hands of the enemy, the destruction of his world would be practically assured.

2- The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, JRR Tolkien

Second part of the series. On this occasion, a dispersed community must continue with its objective.

On the one hand, two of the hobbits carry the ring in their possession, while the rest fight against the forces of evil from different fronts.

3- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, JRR Tolkien

Last book in the famous Tolkien trilogy. In it, the last steps are counted before destroying the unique ring of power. The grandeur of the battles is assured along with a deep and serious plot.

And how did this trilogy inspire the famous businessman? Elon Musk himself stated that "the heroes of the books I read, always felt a duty to save the world", something that we can see reflected in their mentality to help the planet.

4- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

Story that tells how the earth is destroyed to build a hyperspace highway.

Faced with these events, the protagonist, Arthur, flees the planet together with his extraterrestrial friend Ford in a ship where he will meet other types of curious beings. Its existential background will leave you quite surprised.

For Musk, this book served to elicit the following reflection: "If you can formulate the question properly, you will know that the answer is the easy part."

5- Benjamin Franklin: an American life, Walter Isaacson

Biography compiled and prepared by Walter Isaacson about one of the most famous presidents in the history of the United States of America.

For Elon Musk, Benjamin “was a true entrepreneur who started from scratch. "He was just a lost child." It is for this reason that the South African praised and did not hide his admiration for the famous politician.

6- Einstein: his life and his universe, Walter Isaacson

Biography of one of the most famous scientists of all time. Walter Isaacson created a book that is totally practical as well as entertaining and entertaining.

In addition, he deals in extreme detail with the different aspects that surrounded his life, such as family, friends or work.

7- Structures or why things don't fall, JE Gordon

In the words of Elon Musk, Structures or why things don't fall apart was very useful for him to bring new ideas to his company SpaceX, since "it is a really good book for a first approach to structural design."

8- Ignition !: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Boosters, John D. Clark

Ignition! dedicates its pages to explain what is behind those space rockets that we see on TV.

It is a kind of mixture of multiple themes: we will observe the technical details of the rockets, going through the description of experiments, until we even go as far as detailing the role that politics plays in this type of technology.

It would most likely lead him to understand the complex world of rockets much better.

9- Superintelligence: roads, dangers, strategies, Nick Bostrom

Instructional book that has helped him to know a little better what could come to him when he started his career in technology. It explains what would happen if artificial intelligence surpassed human intelligence, and what are the problems that this can lead to.

His own status as leader of three of the most advanced companies in the world requires him to be in constant training on the latest developments in both technology and artificial intelligence.

10- From zero to one: how to invent the future, Peter Thiel

Peter Thuel is about a visionary just like Musk. He has created several of the most important companies in the world, such as Paypal.

That is why the businessman did not hesitate to buy and read this book as soon as it went on sale. It explains the keys to get dreams and projects to build a consistent future.

11- Howard Hughes: His Life and Madness, Donald L. Bartlett and James B. Steele

Biography of Howard Hughes, one of the greatest entrepreneurs of the 20th century. He would rise to fame thanks to his contributions to aviation and advancements in this sector. He would build some planes like the Hughes H-4 Hercules Seaplane or the Hughes H-1.

Likewise, Howard accomplished several aerial feats, breaking some of the already established records for speed or length.

12- Doubt Merchants, Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway

Book that deals with another of Elon Musk's great concerns: pollution and climate change.

Among its pages you can see how, after a meticulous research work, several theories put forward by scientists working for the powerful are dismantled that were once introduced as propaganda.

13- The Foundation series, Isaac Asimov

Set of 16 books that describe a series of futuristic stories. Robots and colonization are the main themes in most of his works.

Perhaps what inspired Musk was the vision of Asimov, a man of the early twentieth century who could already anticipate certain advances in today's society in his books.

To this day, Elon Musk intends to colonize Mars, an idea that is reflected in the saga of The Foundation when humans try to conquer and expand throughout the galaxy.

14- The Moon is a cruel lover, Robert Heinlein

Curious and novel story that mixes science fiction with political overtones.

Its history is at least peculiar, where a settlement on the Moon desperately seeks independence from planet earth. Its protagonists will be an informative and a super computer called MIKE.

The work was published in 1966, precisely three years before the arrival of man on the Moon.

15- "Culture" Series, Iain M. Banks

A set of books by Iain M. Banks with a story centered on a universe where chaos reigns. Anarchy and scarcity are the main problems to alleviate. The planetary population will be made up of different humanoid races that are led by artificial intelligences.

The background will be the wars and different ideological confrontations between the different civilizations and races that are found, in some books even moving the action to different planets.

16- Our final invention, James Barrat

One of Elon Musk's most inspiring books.

Our final invention speaks to the concerns of science for artificial intelligence in a world where vast amounts of millions of dollars are invested for its research and development.

It seems that the goal is to create machines as developed as the human mind, but what if they surpass the human being? What problems could arise when their concerns are equal to or greater than ours? All these questions are raised in the well-known book by James Barrat.

17- Elon Musk: Inventing the future, Ashlee Vance

You may have noticed that this book is different from the rest. It is the most recommended writing by Elon Musk. The reason?

In it, the most relevant events that led him to be among the greatest visionaries in the world are related, from his childhood, to the latest advances of his different companies

The creation of X.com, the investment in Tesla Motors or the rise of SpaceX are detailed to the millimeter on its pages. All this without forgetting the aspects of his personal life that conditioned him as a person.