Books influence the way many of us think. Since you’ve found your way to a publisher’s website, chances are you feel the same.
Books leave traces. Even those we disagree with shape our thinking. They introduce new perspectives, test our assumptions, and can change the way we see the world. The more we read, the better we become at imagining new ideas and bringing something of our own into the world.
Because reading shapes how we think and create, we asked the founders of Hungry Minds, Seva and Timur, along with our lead illustrator, Lev Kaplan, to share the books that have influenced them the most. What they gave us were their personal Top 5 lists. These picks don’t just reflect their tastes. They also speak to the ideas behind The Book: The Ultimate Guide to Rebuild Civilization and connect to the themes in our upcoming titles.
If books help shape how we think, then the ones that shaped us are a good place to begin.
Two of his picks are by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The Little Prince, often mistaken for a children’s book, offers reflections on love, loss, and responsibility. It continues to resonate into adulthood and even shaped the tone of The Book, where a quiet tribute to its characters can be found.
His lesser-known work, Citadel, is a collection of philosophical parables exploring leadership, ideal societies, and the human condition. Though left unfinished at the time of his death, it remains Saint-Exupéry’s most ambitious project. Its form and themes recall Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, especially in its mystical and moral reflections.
Hesse’s Siddhartha offers a blend of narrative and philosophy. Influenced by Eastern religion and Jungian psychology, it follows a man’s spiritual journey through ancient India. Its influence is visible in the "Human" section of The Book, which draws from its aphoristic style and inner focus.
James Clavell’s Shōgun brings historical scale and cultural depth. Its vivid portrait of feudal Japan helped shape parts of The Book and sparked Seva’s long-standing interest in East Asia. It’s even part of what led him to Japan, where the idea for The Book was born.
Lastly, Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead speaks to Seva’s focus on the individual’s role in society. Architect Howard Roark’s refusal to compromise mirrors the kind of conviction and creative independence that runs through all five of these works. Whether or not one agrees with Rand, the challenge her ideas present is part of what makes them worth engaging.
Luigi Serafini’s Codex Seraphinianus is the most visually unusual title. This surreal encyclopedia, written in an invented language and filled with strange illustrations, had a strong influence on The Book. More than forty years after its release, it remains a landmark in speculative art. Readers may even notice a hidden tribute to Serafini’s work in the Art section.
Douglas Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach explores the nature of thought through the patterns found in mathematics, music, and visual art. By connecting Gödel’s logic, Escher’s illusions, and Bach’s compositions, Hofstadter builds a framework for understanding consciousness and self-reference. The ideas are complex, but Hofstadter presents them in a way that remains accessible to curious readers without a background in math, music, or logic.
Kurt Vonnegut’s Bluebeard shifts the focus to the personal. Framed as the fictional autobiography of an aging abstract painter, the novel reflects on creativity, loss, and meaning. While it takes a more intimate approach, it wrestles with the same questions found in more philosophical works, particularly around the individual’s role in a society that often misunderstands art and expression. It also connects closely to The Last Book, which follows a similar format and tone.
Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens offers a sweeping history of civilization, arguing that many systems that structure modern life are human inventions built on shared illusions. Religion, nations, and economic systems are presented as tools that allowed large-scale societies to function, rather than fixed truths. Harari’s conclusions are deliberately provocative. He suggests agriculture was humanity’s greatest mistake, proposing a future rooted in scientific rationality, ethical clarity, and mindful autonomy.
The final entry, James C. Scott’s The Art of Not Being Governed, presents a counterpoint to mainstream history. Focusing on the Zomia region of Southeast Asia, Scott explores how stateless societies have resisted government control by rejecting hierarchy, bureaucracy, and even literacy. He frames this as a kind of anarcho-primitivism, where autonomy and solidarity take precedence over progress as defined by the state. These communities offer a rare and powerful example of civilization built through resistance rather than conquest.
The Book, has a Top 5 list that feels like a direct window into his creative world. These are stories of time travel, survival, lost technology, and human resilience. It’s easy to see how they helped shape his imaginative style and the visual language of The Book.
Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas is a pillar of early speculative fiction. The introduction of Captain Nemo and the submarine Nautilus predates the term “science fiction” but clearly represent the genre nonetheless. Beneath the action and exploration, the novel reflects on science, empire, and isolation. Verne envisioned Nemo as a Polish noble rebelling against Russian oppression, but later rewrote him as an Indian prince scarred by British imperialism.
Verne’s The Mysterious Island focus to a group of castaways who survive by recreating tools, technologies, and inventions from scratch. The themes of self-reliance and rediscovery mirror the core of The Book, which similarly invites readers to reimagine how civilization could be rebuilt with only the knowledge we carry.
Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court imagines a 19th-century American engineer transported to the world of King Arthur, where he applies modern knowledge to medieval problems. But Twain elevates this premise well beyond the usual adventure setup. The book is a sharp satire that critiques both romanticized history and the America of Twain’s own time. There’s clear connective tissue between the idea of applying modern knowledge to a primitive society and the core premise of The Book.
Harry Harrison’s The Technicolor Time Machine takes the concept of time travel in a different direction. It’s a satirical novel about a failing movie studio whose director and crew are sent back in time to film a Viking epic during the actual Viking era. It is fast, funny, and self-aware, while raising real questions about how we shape history through narrative. The story plays with paradoxes, media, and cultural myth-making, all through a deeply unique lens of absurdist humor.
Finally, Kai Meyer’s The House of Books and Shadows combines gothic fiction, literary mystery, and historical drama in a plot weaves together two timelines, one set in a frozen Baltic village before World War I, the other in Leipzig during the rise of fascism. A missing couple, occult symbols, and secret societies form the heart of a layered, atmospheric thriller.
These titles filter generously through Lev’s creative output, with themes of knowledge, curiosity, and invention, providing a rich framework while still leaving room for his distinctive style to evolve.
Taken together, these fifteen books offer a deeper look into the minds behind The Book. They form a kind of creative foundation, linking art, philosophy, fiction, and lived experience. That noted, this collection’s value goes far beyond our projects. It’s about what you make of the stories and concepts that speak to you. The real value lies in your choices and how those ideas influence your own journey.