Elon Musk's Reading List
The 6 books that shaped Elon Musk — founder of spacex & tesla.
Serial entrepreneur who taught himself rocket science from textbooks and aims to make humanity multiplanetary.
Influential Books
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Adams(1979)
Musk credits this book with shaping his worldview — the answer is 42, but the real challenge is asking the right question.
Foundation
Isaac Asimov(1951)
Asimov's saga of preserving civilization across the galaxy directly inspired Musk's mission to make humanity multiplanetary.
Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down
J.E. Gordon(1978)
Musk taught himself rocket engineering partly through books like this — first principles thinking about physical structures.
The Lord of the Rings
J.R.R. Tolkien(1954)
A childhood favorite that fueled Musk's sense that individuals can take on seemingly impossible quests.
Ignition!
John D. Clark(1972)
An informal history of liquid rocket propellants. Musk called it a key resource when he was building SpaceX.
Zero to One
Peter Thiel(2014)
Thiel, Musk's PayPal co-founder, wrote the book on building monopolies. Musk has praised its contrarian thinking.