photo: Wikimedia
Genius inventor and engineer was also an avid reader: as a student Tesla set himself a goal to read all the books in the university library and to make it happen he left only a few hours a day for sleep
“Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain
– Nikola Tesla in one of his interviews, freedomtek.org
While Twain’s other classic (Tom Sawyer) is known for the chapter on the joys of fence-painting, Huck Finn is known for his friendship with an escaped slave and enmity with the Widow Douglas who adopts him. Being an enterprising and adventurous soul, Huck manufactures his own death to throw his drunken father off the scent of discovered treasure. While on the run down the Mississippi River, Huck discovers a different sort of life on boats that appeals to his love of change; the work also appealed to Ernest Hemingway and the American public, who ignored initial critical reviews.
“Faust” by Goethe
– Nikola Tesla in one of his interviews, freedomtek.org
Also recommended by Angela Merkel
Much learning has driven Faust mad – mad with the desire to discover the meaning of life. He wants to perceive order without the aid of outside or divine forces, and so he goes beyond prescribed limits to gain an understanding that is not his to obtain. From dabbling in magic to making an unwise pact with the cunning and diabolical Mephistopheles, this ‘everyman’ or Ecclesiastes-like poem could describe the lengths to which any human being will go to understand the trajectory of history and their place in both this world and the next.
The Bible
– Nikola Tesla in his autobiography “My Inventions”
Also recommended by Neil DeGrasse Tyson
