If there’s one habit the world’s most successful people share in common, it’s reading voraciously. (I know, you thought I was going to say waking up at 6 AM.) Elon Musk, founder of PayPal, SpaceX, and Tesla Motors, got started at an early age; he used to “go through two books in one day” growing up. While you can’t go back in time and start reading more as a child, you can steal his current book list—as well as the book lists of all your favorite CEOs and entrepreneurs.
There are two ways to do this: Google things like “Bill Gates’ favorite books” and see what the internet churns up, or turn your attention toward these three awesome new resources.
If you’re familiar with Product Hunt, you know that it’s the premier destination to find the latest mobile apps, websites, and tech creations. Well, book lovers rejoice: Earlier this week, Product Hunt launched its Books Digest. It delivers new books, re-releases, and unknown gems to your inbox every day. And, unlike Product Hunt, where the best tech products are voted among users, the Books Digest features collections of favorite books by top CEOs and entrepreneurs—like Mark Cuban, Marc Andreessen, Jessica Livingston, and Tim Ferriss.
Even more exciting? The Digest is coupled with special AMA (Ask Me Anything) sessions with authors whose books are recommended. Notable authors lined up for July 2015 include Ashlee Vance, writer of the Elon Musk biography, and Seth Godin, best-selling author of 18 books and blogger extraordinaire.
Dubbed “a curated bookshelf made by awesome people,” Bookstck features over 100 books recommended by your favorite CEOs and entrepreneurs (think: Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and the like). Clement, co-founder of Bookstck, built the product because he’s always wondered what books are on the most successful people’s shelves. So, instead of reading endless “X Books Recommended by Y” articles individually, Clement decided to gather all the suggestions into a single website.
While the six individuals pictured above are all the people whose collections are featured on Bookstck right now, the lists for Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and Virgin Group’s Richard Branson’s favorite reads are arriving shortly!
In case you missed it earlier this year, Mark Zuckerberg challenged himself to read a new book every other week as part of his New Year’s resolutions. “A Year of Books” documents his to-be-reads—you’ll notice that all of his choices have an emphasis on learning about different cultures, beliefs, histories, and technologies.
Even if you’ve never heard of Zuckerberg’s challenge until today, it’s not too late to join in on the readathon now. You’ll get to discuss your thoughts and questions with the more than 450,000 members in Zuckerberg’s online community. Besides, half a year of books is better than a year of no books, right?
Not ready to jump into these resources yet? That’s OK. You can be a traditionalist and check out this list for aspiring leaders, this list for productivity lovers, and this list for everyone hoping to boost their careers.