All Tim Ferriss Books, Sorted Chronologically (and by Popularity)

The first time I heard about Tim Ferriss was from my statistics professor (of all people!) in 2013. Back then, the American entrepreneur and author’s 4-Hour Chef had just come out, and his original #1 New York Times bestseller The 4-Hour Workweek was still going strong. If you want a full overview of all Tim Ferriss books, look no further! This is the right place.

Ferriss was born in 1977, grew up in East Hampton, New York, and struggled to finish his degree in East Asian Studies at Princeton. After college, he briefly worked in sales before starting his own supplement company, BrainQUICKEN, which he eventually automated to the point of having to work only 4 hours a week — hence the title and content of his first book.

Since selling the company, Ferriss has published five books, all of them bestsellers. He also became an angel investor, notably investing in companies like Uber, Evernote, and Shopify. He was also part of an early group pioneering the “interviewing famous people” podcast concept, and his Tim Ferriss Show has garnered over 900 million downloads to date.

We still need one of his five books as part of our 1,000-summary roster here on Four Minute Books, but we’ve decided to compile all Tim Ferriss books in order of both publication and popularity for you in the meantime. We even included a section recommending which one you should read first.

You can easily navigate this list by clicking on whichever section interests you the most in the below table of contents. For each book, we’ve included an image of the cover, a 1-sentence-summary, and our favorite quote. We will also share our most important takeaways and why you might want to read the book yourself.

If you want to dive deeper into any book, click the “Read on Four Minute Books” button or use one of our Amazon affiliate links to buy a copy for yourself. So, without further ado, here’s the complete list of Tim Ferriss books!

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All Tim Ferriss Books (in Chronological Order)

1. The 4-Hour Workweek (2007)

Favorite Quote

“Doing something unimportant well does not make it important.” – Tim Ferriss

The Book in One Sentence

The 4-Hour Workweek is the step-by-step blueprint to free yourself from the shackles of a corporate job, create a business to fund the lifestyle of your dreams, and live life like a millionaire, without actually having to be one.

Why should you read it?

This book is all about optimizing your work so you can spend your life doing whatever is meaningful to you. More than just full of productivity hacks, however, it explains the process of starting a company from scratch, carefully guiding you every step of the way. It’ll show you what mistakes to avoid, how to test ideas cheaply, and how to not end up down a rabbit hole you don’t want to be in. Tim will help you identify what you want from work, eliminate the areas you cannot live with, and automate what you can. If you’re not yet fully satisfied with your career, read this book.

Key Takeaways

1. Be effective, not efficient.
2. Validate all of your business ideas.
3. Charge a premium to make your life easier.

If you want to learn more, you can read our free four-minute summary or get a copy for yourself.

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2. The 4-Hour Body (2010)

Favorite Quote

“The decent method you follow is better than the perfect method you quit.” – Tim Ferriss

The Book in One Sentence

The 4-Hour Body is a complete guide to hacking your health, helping you achieve anything from rapid fat loss and quick muscle gain to better sleep, sex, and extreme athletic performance.

Why should you read it?

There is a wealth of information in this book, and it has helped people lose weight, get stronger, and run faster. Personally, I used the book to try a new diet, cure a Vitamin D deficiency, and bring my testosterone to healthier levels. This book is about getting the maximum benefit from the minimum input – but that ‘minimum input’ will still require effort and dedication. Don’t think of this as a book that you need to read from cover to cover. You can use it to optimize just one small part of your health, then set it aside and come back later if you want to tackle another area of your fitness. If there’s anything you want to change about your health, I’d recommend this book.

Key Takeaways

1. Make managing your health too simple rather than too complicated.
2. Start tracking data points of things you want to improve.
3. A Harajuku Moment is what really helps you commit to making changes.

If you want to learn more, you can read our free four-minute summary or get a copy for yourself.

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3. The 4-Hour Chef (2012)

Favorite Quote

“When you have the best and tastiest ingredients, you can cook very simply and the food will be extraordinary because it tastes like what it is.” – Tim Ferriss

The Book in One Sentence

The 4-Hour Chef is not just a cookbook but a choose-your-own-adventure guide to the world of rapid learning, breaking down what it takes to learn and master any skill quickly, using lots of delicious recipes as examples.

Why should you read it?

The 4-Hour Chef is a guide on how to maximize your potential in life while having the most possible fun. It’s a speed-learning book that uses cooking as its main example. The first 100 pages are dedicated to “meta-learning,” and that might be the most fascinating section of the book. More than just making you a star in the kitchen, it’ll show you how to shine in other areas of your life. If you want to learn new things faster, this book will help you crack the code and take your learning ability to new levels.

Key Takeaways

1. What you learn is always more important than how specifically you’re trying to master it. Eliminate everything you don’t need, and you’re halfway there!
2. Use the “DiSSS” framework to learn anything: Deconstruct, Select, Sequence, and create real Stakes.
3. To remember what you learn, use the acronym “CaFE:” Compress, frequently practice, and encode your knowledge.

If you want to learn more, you can click below or get a copy for yourself.

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4. Tools of Titans (2016)

Favorite Quote

“The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.” – Tim Ferriss

The Book in One Sentence

Tools Of Titans is a massive compendium of everything Tim Ferriss has learned about health, wealth, and wisdom from interviewing over 200 world-class performers on his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show.

Why should you read it?

If you know your field, what you need help with, or even some of the experts Tim has interviewed and want to pick individual people’s brains, Tools Of Titans is a great go-to resource. The book gathers the best ideas from over 200 of his podcast interviews, sorted by people. If you want to flourish in your personal development, health, starting a business, or your investments, then this book is highly recommended. 

Key Takeaways

1. There is no formulaic path to health, wealth, or wisdom.
2. One of the first things you should learn to combat is peer pressure.
3. You can only be creative if your life offers you the space to be creative in.

If you want to learn more, you can read our free four-minute summary or get a copy for yourself.

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5. Tribe of Mentors (2017)

Favorite Quote

“Often, all that stands between you and what you want is a better set of questions.” – Tim Ferriss

The Book in One Sentence

Tribe Of Mentors is a collection of over 100 mini-interviews in which some of the world’s most successful people share their ideas about habits, learning, money, relationships, failure, success, and life.

Why should you read it?

This is described as a ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ book, but it’s better than that. It’s a ‘flip-to-a-random-page-and-learn-something’ book, perfect for reading in short, daily doses. However, you can just as well filter the advice strategically if you want to come up with a more elaborate plan. If you are curious about some of the habits and preferences of successful people, chasing a certain, big goal, or want to create the life of your dreams, this book is for you.

Key Takeaways

1. Failure holds a lot of chances if you look for them.
2. Learning to say no in new ways helps you make a long-term habit of it.
3. Always check why you should not take someone’s advice, then decide if you’ll listen.

If you want to learn more, you can read our free four-minute summary or get a copy for yourself.

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Tim Ferriss Books by Popularity

Want to know which Tim Ferriss books are the most popular? Here’s a short reorder of the list based on the total number of Amazon ratings, ranked from most to least.

1. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich (⭐️ 19,100+ Ratings ⭐️)
2. Tools Of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers (⭐️ 7,700+ Ratings ⭐️)
3. The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman (⭐️ 6,600+ Ratings ⭐️)
4. Tribe Of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World  (⭐️ 3,100+ Ratings ⭐️)
5. The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life (⭐️ 2,800+ Ratings ⭐️)

The 4-Hour Workweek alone has sold over 2.1 million copies, and I’m sure the others have sold more than another million combined. As of 2022, Tim Ferriss has an estimated net worth of over $100 million, mostly thanks to some of his very successful, early startup investments. Regardless of his wealth, however, Tim always puts a ton of research and effort into his books, which makes him a must-read non-fiction author.

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In What Order Should You Read Tim Ferriss’s Books?

Which of Tim Ferriss’s books should you read first? If you ask us, here’s the order in which reading his books makes the most logical sense based on their topics:

1. The 4-Hour Workweek: This book is written for all those who are delaying their life and happiness until retirement. Why not live right now?. In this book, Ferriss will show you how to reap the rewards of working without waiting until the end of your career. It is also his seminal book and thus worth starting with.
2. The 4-Hour Body: After your work, why not figure out your health next? In this book, you’ll find the collective knowledge of dozens of doctors and elite athletes, and the results of thousands of hours of jaw-dropping personal experimentation. Pick a habit to build or problem to solve, and go!
3. The 4-Hour Chef: Once you’ve learned how to thrive at work and stay healthy, it’s a good time to learn how to learn anything! Read the first 100 pages to master accelerated learning of any skill, then enjoy the practical cooking and recipe tips.
4. Tools Of Titans: Since this is more of a collection of tips for when you need inspiration or to solve a specific problem, it makes sense to keep this on your shelf and go back to it as you need it. If you use it at the right moments, the many tips, tools, and tactics shared by Tim’s interviewees can help you answer life’s most challenging questions, achieve extraordinary results, and transform your life.
5. Tribe Of Mentors: This is a shorter, more inspiration-focused version of Tools Of Titans, and thus also worth keeping on your shelf and pulling out on occasion. Tim went out to ask 100 people for their advice when he turned 40 and found himself a bit directionless, and the resulting, short little quotes and tips never fail to inspire.

No matter which of these Tim Ferris books you pick first, you can expect exceptional ideas on how to better yourself and live a more fulfilling life.

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Conclusion

Tim Ferriss is one of the world’s most influential voices today. His books help us improve ourselves in the best way possible — and then we can go out and help others! Whatever area of life interests you the most, be it work, health, or learning new things, pick one of his books, browse it a bit, and see what new ideas you will find. We hope this list will help you make a choice and get started!

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Other Book Lists by Author

Looking for more books by the world’s most celebrated authors? Here are all of the book lists by the author we’ve curated for you:

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Other Book Lists by Topic

Looking for more of the best books on various topics? Here are all the book lists we’ve made for you so far:

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Last Updated on December 14, 2022