Books — Steve Jobs

01

Autobiography of a Yogi

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Paramahansa Yogananda·1946

Jobs reread this book annually from his teenage years onward and arranged for it to be the sole memento distributed to mourners at his memorial service, making it the last thing he chose to say to the people who knew him.

Isaacson reports Jobs first read it as a teenager, reread it during his 1974 trip to India, and thereafter reread it once a year for the rest of his life; it was reportedly the only book he downloaded to his iPad. Marc Benioff recounts that mourners at Jobs' memorial each received a small box containing a copy of the book.

02

Whole Earth Catalog

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Stewart Brand·1968–1972

Jobs called it 'one of the bibles of my generation' and 'Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along' in his Stanford address, and took its farewell line 'stay hungry, stay foolish' as a personal motto he passed on to graduates.

In his 2005 Stanford commencement speech Jobs describes the catalog in these terms and recounts that its final back cover carried the words 'Stay hungry, stay foolish,' which he says he always wished for himself.

03

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

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Shunryu Suzuki·1970

Jobs said Zen was 'a deep influence in my life ever since' discovering it at Reed College, and once seriously considered abandoning his career to enter a Zen monastery in Japan before a teacher urged him to stay in business.

Isaacson reports Jobs 'devoured' the book during his freshman year at Reed; Jobs is quoted describing it as a lasting deep influence and recalling that he considered entering the Eihei-ji monastery.

04

Be Here Now

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Ram Dass·1971

Jobs said the book 'was profound, it transformed me and many of my friends,' directly tying his early psychedelic use to a spiritual search that led to his 1974 trip to India.

Isaacson recounts Jobs reading it during his first year at Reed alongside his early LSD use, and quotes Jobs's own description of the book as profound and transformative for him and his circle.

05

Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism

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Chögyam Trungpa·1973

Jobs read this alongside Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind and Autobiography of a Yogi during his early immersion in Eastern spirituality at Reed College, part of the same documented cluster of books he 'devoured' there.

Isaacson's account, as synthesized by Farnam Street, places this title directly among the books Jobs devoured during his Reed College spiritual immersion, in the same sourced list as the two other documented titles from that period.

06

Moby-Dick

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Herman Melville·1851

Jobs reread this novel repeatedly as a teenager and told Isaacson he identified with Captain Ahab's obsessive pursuit, a detail biographers connect to his own single-minded drive.

Isaacson reports Moby-Dick as a favorite Jobs reread often as a teen; Business Insider cites a biographer linking Jobs's temperament to Ahab's obsessive pursuit, and Jobs told interviewers it was among his favorite books.

07

King Lear

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William Shakespeare·c. 1605

Jobs told Isaacson directly, 'I loved King Lear,' marking the start of what Isaacson calls his literary awakening in his last two years of high school.

Isaacson records Jobs's direct quote 'I loved King Lear' as part of his account of Jobs's late-teens turn toward literature; Business Insider and Time repeat this quotation from the biography.

08

Diet for a Small Planet

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Frances Moore Lappé·1971

Jobs said reading this book at Reed was the point when 'I pretty much swore off meat for good,' directly crediting it with starting his lifelong vegetarian and fasting experiments.

Business Insider, drawing on Isaacson, quotes Jobs's direct statement that the book led him to give up meat for good during his first year at Reed.

09

The Innovator's Dilemma

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Clayton M. Christensen·1997

Jobs called this book 'deeply' influential and applied its warning about inventors failing to see past their own creations directly to Apple's decision to let the iPhone cannibalize the iPod.

Isaacson quotes Jobs describing the book as deeply influential; EliteReads and Headway report Jobs invoking its central idea when explaining Apple's willingness to let new products replace its own successful ones.

10

The Poetry of Dylan Thomas

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Dylan Thomas·mid-20th century collected editions

Isaacson describes Jobs's late-teens 'intellectual flowering' as including a love of Dylan Thomas's verse, praised by a biographer for its 'striking new forms and unerringly popular touch.'

Isaacson's account, via Business Insider, places Dylan Thomas among the poets Jobs turned to during his literary awakening in high school, with a biographer's quote describing the appeal of Thomas's style to Jobs.

11

Atlas Shrugged

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Ayn Rand·1957

The novel appears repeatedly on aggregated lists of Jobs's reading, but no interview or biographical anecdote records Jobs discussing it directly, so its personal significance to him remains unverified.

EliteReads, Headway, and Goodreads-based compilations list Atlas Shrugged as one of Jobs's influential books, but none cite a direct quotation or anecdote from Isaacson or Jobs himself.

12

1984

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George Orwell·1949

Secondary sources claim Jobs called it one of his favorite novels and link it to Apple's famous '1984' Super Bowl ad, but this rests on aggregated lists rather than a documented interview or biographical quotation.

EliteReads and Headway state that Jobs called the novel one of his favorites and connect it to the 1984 Apple ad, but neither cites a primary quotation from Jobs or from Isaacson's biography.

13

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

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Dylan Thomas·1951

A single secondary blog names this specific poem as Jobs's favorite, tying its 'rage against the dying of the light' to his resistance to illness, but the claim does not trace to Isaacson or any primary Jobs statement.

An AMACOM Books blog post asserts this was Jobs's favorite poem, but the claim is not corroborated by Isaacson's biography or any direct quotation from Jobs.

Steve Jobs' Favorite Poem: Do not go gentle into that good night

14

Only the Paranoid Survive

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Andrew S. Grove·1996

This title appears only on aggregated recommendation lists without any direct quotation or anecdote connecting Jobs personally to the book's ideas.

EliteReads and Headway list it among books Jobs recommended, but supply no direct quotation from Jobs or citation to Isaacson's biography.

15

Inside the Tornado

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Geoffrey A. Moore·1995

The book appears grouped with other business titles on curated lists, but the sources explicitly acknowledge no direct quotation from Jobs exists to confirm his personal engagement with it.

EliteReads and Headway include the title among Jobs-associated business books, while noting the absence of any direct quotation from Jobs discussing it.

16

The Way of the White Clouds

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Lama Anagarika Govinda·1966

This spiritual memoir appears only on aggregated reading lists tied to Jobs's general interest in Eastern spirituality, without any direct quotation or specific anecdote linking him to it.

EliteReads and Goodreads-based lists include the title among books Jobs read, but no direct quotation from Jobs or citation to Isaacson accompanies the claim.

17

Meetings with Remarkable Men

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G.I. Gurdjieff·1963

Sources compiling Jobs's reading include this spiritual autobiography, but explicitly note the lack of any direct quotation from Jobs about it, leaving the connection speculative.

EliteReads and Goodreads-based lists place this title among Jobs's spiritual reading, while acknowledging no direct quotation from Jobs exists to confirm his engagement with it.