What famous people are reading

Featured on his annual list of favorite books.

Selected as an Oprah's Book Club pick.

A Reese's Book Club monthly pick.

Reviewed and recommended on his blog, GatesNotes.

A Read with Jenna monthly book club pick.

Shared through her feminist book club, Our Shared Shelf.

Frequently cited as a top recommendation on his podcast.

Calls it by far the best book on investing ever written.

Frequently names it among the books that shaped his thinking.

Selected for his 'A Year of Books' reading challenge.

A pick from Natalie's Book Club.

The debut title she chose for her imprint, SJP Lit.

"To my mind, there have been two great American novels in the past fifty years. Catch-22 is one of them."

Cuban has said he'd rather invest in someone who's read this book than someone with an MBA.

"Required reading" — favorites include "Understand," "Story of Your Life," and "Division by Zero."

"Within an hour of finishing this book (which I read in one sitting), I called my family and planned a trip together. It showed me how short life is."

Her favorite novel by her favorite author. "I've read all her books so many times I've lost count" — and Emma, she says, at least 20 times.

Named among his favorite books of the year.

Chosen as an Oprah's Book Club selection.

A Reese's Book Club pick she later adapted for TV.

A recommended read on GatesNotes.

A Read with Jenna monthly book club pick.

The inaugural pick for her book club, Our Shared Shelf.

A book he frequently names as deeply influential.

A book he credits as shaping his investing philosophy.

"Terrific, well-written novel about California running out of water. Couldn't put it down."

"You feel beaten down, and you need some motivation, and that's when I turn to that book."

A castaway-on-Mars story with excellent science and entertainment value.

"It was fascinating to see the patterns across leadership styles and personal lives. Reading how different leaders handled similar challenges across history gives you a better perspective on today's problems."

"Perhaps more than any other book, it has a direct influence on the Harry Potter books." Goudge was the one childhood author whose influence Rowling says she was consciously aware of.

Included on his yearly favorite-books list.

An Oprah's Book Club pick.

A Reese's Book Club pick she produced into a film.

Recommended as one of his favorite memoirs on GatesNotes.

Shared through her feminist book club, Our Shared Shelf.

"Most literary fiction doesn't last very long. This is going to be around. It's the real deal. Jarring, horrible, compassionate, funny."

"No business should ever take what they have for granted."

"Highly enjoyable world-building set in a Neuralink future."

A reread. "One of the more important ways to find happiness is to find meaning in your work — and that meaning doesn't have to be some big idea. It could be just creating jobs, or spending time with people you love and admire."

"My favorite literary heroine is Jo March. It is hard to overstate what she meant to a small, plain girl called Jo, who had a hot temper and a burning ambition to be a writer."

Named on his year-end list of favorite books.

An Oprah's Book Club selection.

A Reese's Book Club monthly pick.

Recommended on GatesNotes as a fascinating science read.

"Two terrific female characters, both with secrets... a book you won't be able to put down."

Cuban has invested in hundreds of startups himself, making this guide on avoiding startup failure especially relevant to him.

"Required reading" — top favorites are "Exhalation," "What's Expected of Us," and "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate."

"Not one person died on his watch. It's an amazing story about endurance, but also leadership. He showed me what it means to be a good leader."

Rowling ranks E. Nesbit among her favorite authors. "She's the children's writer with whom I most identify. She said, 'By some lucky chance, I remember exactly how I felt and thought at 11.' That struck a chord with me."

Featured on his annual favorite-books list.

The very first Oprah's Book Club pick, in 1996.

A Reese's Book Club monthly pick.

"Abigail Thomas is the Emily Dickinson of memoirists... the impact will stay with you for a long, long time."

Cuban told Vanity Fair this book used to get him "all fired up."

Described as "Carl Sagan's Contact but for adults."

"Japan today has more of an American culture and fashion than America itself — it's really crazy and interesting how that happened."

Rowling loved Mitford so much she named her daughter after her. Her great-aunt gave her the memoir at 14, and Mitford instantly became her heroine: "I think I've read everything she wrote."

Named on his year-end list of favorite books.

Called the Chet and Bernie series "without a doubt the most original mystery series currently available."

"If you can't sell, you can't survive" — Cuban says every CEO needs to read it.

Features "one of my top favorite alien portrayals," with a good balance of plausibility and entertainment.

"I was very interested in how you raise a privileged child to be emotionally healthy and stable. This book gave me insights into parenting and raising a healthy person."

"That really, really, REALLY moved me when I read it when I was 19. The idea of the desecration of a body, a very ancient idea… I was thinking of that when Harry saved Cedric's body."

Featured on his annual favorite-books list.

Cuban tweeted this is the book he wished he'd had as a young entrepreneur.

"A twisted, raw, curious portrayal of a future with an AGI gone... mixed."

"I could not put this thing down — it was so awesome. Probably the best page-turner that I've ever read."

Her favorite Shakespeare, about a fellow Scot. Its prophecy- and fate-driven plot is an acknowledged influence on the shape of the Harry Potter story.

"A most interesting alien contact. Inventive, cool."

One of two books whose final lines make her cry "without fail, irrespective of how many times I read them." She bows to the writing: a plot that could have been worthless, made in Nabokov's hands into a great and tragic novel.

Explores simulation and artificial life — "highly inventive, enjoyable."

Rowling names Dickens her ideal dinner guest. "I've just got a feeling that I would have a very good time with Charles Dickens. And he was a performer, wasn't he? I think he could be phenomenal company."

An alien contact narrative — the book is preferred over the film adaptation.

One of her "favourite books for younger people." Rowling blurbed a later edition, calling its narrator Cassandra "one of the most charismatic narrators I've ever met."

A VR metaverse story described as "super nerdy" and a "total page turner."

"My favorite living writer is Roddy Doyle." Of this novel about a woman and a violent man: "I don't think I've ever encountered such a believable, fully rounded female character from any other heterosexual male writer in any age."

"Really fun mystery alien contact page turner."

"I lived in it the way that you do with truly great books — putting it down with glazed eyes and feeling disconcerted to find yourself in the 21st century." Goodwin's Pulitzer-winning portrait of Lincoln's political genius.

"Highly inventive alien contact. Very enjoyable."

Asked to name her favorite books as a child, Rowling said she loved "anything with a horse on it" — and Black Beauty was chief among them.

A microscopic alien organism makes first contact — "bio-heavy hard sci-fi."

"I absolutely bow to Colette." Of all the French author's books, Rowling loves Chéri — the story of a romance between a young man and an older woman — the most.

"Highly inventive and fascinating alien contact. A little too long."

Contains "fantastic diamonds of novel ideas," mixed with some character and narrative issues.

Early robot short stories — "would like to revisit."

"Incredible first chapter, bit downhill from there."

"Incredible first chapters and macro world building," featuring the psychohistory concept.

A friendly alien contact narrative with a twist, though humanoid aliens weren't a favorite.

The story of an intelligence enhancement procedure — "inventive, clever, interesting."