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Books Nassim Taleb recommends

Public list compiled from their own recommendations. Essayist, statistician and former options trader; author of the Incerto (Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, Antifragile, Skin in the Game).

Compiled by Kaffe from public sources, with a link to each one. Nassim Taleb is not affiliated with Kaffe.

Birth of a Theorem: A Mathematical Adventure by Cédric Villani: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; calls it a unique gem on how pure mathematicians work abstractly source
Confessions of a Philosopher by Bryan Magee: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; insider's personal journey through philosophy, very clear source
Idea Makers: Personal Perspectives on the Lives & Ideas of Some Notable People by Stephen Wolfram: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; praises it as an insider's view of mathematical scientists, unlike science-communicator books source
No Bull: My Life In and Out of Markets by Michael Steinhardt: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; prefers a great trader's account to journalist prose source
Models.Behaving.Badly. by Emanuel Derman: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; memoir-essay on why financial models are not science source
The (Mis)behavior of Markets by Benoit Mandelbrot, Richard L. Hudson: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; first economics book that spoke directly to him source
The Hour Between Dog and Wolf by John Coates: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; 5 stars; biology of risk-taking and stressors source
How Nature Works: The Science of Self-organized Criticality by Per Bak: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; intuitive, visionary book on power laws and sandpiles source
Body by Science by Doug McGuff, John Little: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; says he owes a lot to it; intensity training and recovery source
Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; read twice; praises Taubes as a true empiricist source
Happy Accidents: Serendipity in Modern Medical Breakthroughs by Morton A. Meyers: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; calls it a must-read, read it twice; serendipity in medicine source
Strangers to Ourselves by Timothy D. Wilson: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; the book that influenced his thinking most that year; returned to it often source
The Wisdom Paradox by Elkhonon Goldberg: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; enjoyed the romantic-science style; opinionated neuroscientist source
A History of Private Life, Volumes I–V by Paul Veyne, Philippe Ariès, Georges Duby: One of five books he chose for Penguin UK as having informed him as a writer. source
Bull by the Horns by Sheila Bair: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; 5 stars; candid insider account of the financial crisis source
The Discovery of France by Graham Robb: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; most profound look at how nationhood was imposed source
Explaining Social Behavior: More Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences by Jon Elster: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; read twice; best compendium of social-science ideas source
Kant and the Platypus by Umberto Eco: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; deep yet lively essays on categories and cognition source
Perilous Interventions: The Security Council and the Politics of Chaos by Hardeep Singh Puri: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; says it should be mandatory reading in foreign affairs; harms of interventionism source
Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger by Peter Bevelin: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; bedside book on wisdom and decision-making, by a practitioner source
The Dream of Reason by Anthony Gottlieb: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; could not put it down; readable and scholarly history of philosophy source
The Status Syndrome by Michael Marmot: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; 5 stars; social standing, control and longevity source
The Tyranny of Experts by William Easterly: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; 5 stars; against top-down development and naive interventionism source
Thinking and Deciding by Jonathan Baron: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; rebought after losing his copy, which he treats as the real endorsement source
Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite by Robert Kurzban: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; one of the best and most readable cognitive-science books source
Information: The New Language of Science by Hans Christian von Baeyer: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; best intuitive front-door introduction to information theory source
Why Stock Markets Crash by Didier Sornette: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; learned more about disequilibrium here than anywhere source
A Few Lessons from Sherlock Holmes by Peter Bevelin: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; 5 stars; a wisdom map through Conan Doyle source
Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges: One of five books he chose for Penguin UK as having informed him as a writer. source
Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky: One of five books he chose for Penguin UK as having informed him as a writer. source
The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; calls it one of the 20th century's masterpieces; long his favorite novel source
The Complete Essays by Michel de Montaigne: One of five books he chose for Penguin UK as having informed him as a writer. source
The Opposing Shore by Julien Gracq: One of five books he chose for Penguin UK as having informed him as a writer. source
The Secret of Fatima by Peter Tanous: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; 5-star page-turner thriller he could not put down source
Modelling Extremal Events: for Insurance and Finance by Paul Embrechts, Claudia Klüppelberg, Thomas Mikosch: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; calls it the bible of extreme-value math; a desert-island probability book source
The Science of Conjecture: Evidence and Probability before Pascal by James Franklin: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; indispensable; deepest history of the idea of probability he has seen source
Probability, Random Variables and Stochastic Processes by Athanasios Papoulis: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; his go-to recommendation for practical probability source
Mathematics: Its Content, Methods and Meaning by A. D. Aleksandrov, A. N. Kolmogorov, M. A. Lavrent'ev: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; praises Russian clarity without pedantry; read and reread source
Statistical Models: Theory and Practice by David A. Freedman: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; first stats book he saw that uses statistics to get to the truth source
Critical Phenomena in Natural Sciences by Didier Sornette: via Farnam Street compilation of his own Amazon reviews; chose it as his graduate textbook; knows no better one source
A Guide to Econometrics by Peter E. Kennedy: Listed under Business and Money. source
Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense by Rory Sutherland: Listed under Business and Money. source
Financial Derivatives: Pricing, Applications, and Mathematics by Jamil Baz and George Chacko: Listed under Business and Money. source
The Blank Swan: The End of Probability by Elie Ayache: Listed under Business and Money. source
The Formula: The Universal Laws of Success by Albert-László Barabási: Listed under Business and Money. source
The New Financial Order: Risk in the 21st Century by Robert J. Shiller: Listed under Business and Money. source
The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less by Barry Schwartz: Listed under Business and Money. source
Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food by Terry Burnham: Listed under Health, Fitness and Dieting. source
A History of the Mind: Evolution and the Birth of Consciousness by Nicholas Humphrey: Listed under Health, Fitness and Dieting. source
Free The Animal: Lose Weight & Fat With The Paleo Diet by Richard Nikoley: Listed under Health, Fitness and Dieting. source
Mapping the Mind by Rita Carter: Listed under Health, Fitness and Dieting. source
Bull! A History of the Boom, 1982–1999 by Maggie Mahar: Listed under History. source
The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek Patristic Tradition by Norman Russell: Listed under History. source
The French Revolution and What Went Wrong by Stephen Clarke: Listed under History. source
Who We Are and How We Got Here by David Reich: Listed under History. source
Consciousness: An Introduction by Susan Blackmore: Listed under Politics, Humanities and Social Sciences. source
I Think, Therefore I Laugh by John Allen Paulos: Listed under Politics, Humanities and Social Sciences. source
Intellectuals in the Middle Ages by Jacques Le Goff: Listed under Politics, Humanities and Social Sciences. source
Invariances: The Structure of the Objective World by Robert Nozick: Listed under Politics, Humanities and Social Sciences. source
Order without Design by Alain Bertaud: Listed under Politics, Humanities and Social Sciences. source
The Mind Doesn't Work That Way by Jerry A. Fodor: Listed under Politics, Humanities and Social Sciences. source
A Burnt-Out Case by Graham Greene: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
A Love Affair by Dino Buzzati: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
Albertine Gone by Marcel Proust: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
Amerika: The Missing Person by Franz Kafka: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
Auto-da-Fé by Elias Canetti: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
Belle du Seigneur by Albert Cohen: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
Clea by Lawrence Durrell: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
Climates by André Maurois: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
History: A Novel by Elsa Morante: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain de Botton: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
Howard's End by E. M. Forster: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
I, Claudius by Robert Graves: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
Immortality by Milan Kundera: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
In Search of Lost Time, Vol. II: Within a Budding Grove by Marcel Proust: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Céline: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
Justine (Alexandria Quartet) by Lawrence Durrell: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
Lady L. by Romain Gary: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
Leo Africanus by Amin Maalouf: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
Man's Fate (La Condition Humaine) by André Malraux: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
Memoirs of an Anti-Semite by Gregor von Rezzori: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
Nadja by André Breton: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
Paulina 1880 by Pierre-Jean Jouve: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
Silk by Alessandro Baricco: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
The Girls by Henry de Montherlant: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
The Lost Estate by Alain-Fournier: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
The Man Without Qualities, Vol. 1 by Robert Musil: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
The Tattered Cloak by Nina Berberova: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
The Woman of Rome by Alberto Moravia: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
Travels with My Aunt by Graham Greene: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source
Villa Triste: A Novel by Patrick Modiano: Listed under Literature and Fiction. source

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