On Sunday, Elon Musk's SpaceX made history, successfully completing the first commercial rocket launch from the NASA launch pad that also sent astronauts to the moon.
The win comes after multiple failures for the SpaceX and Tesla CEO, who wants to change the way people travel and send humans to Mars.
Since his childhood, books have played a crucial role in fueling Musk's ambitions. It's said that he read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica at age nine and would pore through science fiction novels for more than 10 hours a day.
When asked how he learned about rockets, Musk reportedly said, "I read books." His voracious reading habit was essential to launching his history-making career.
Here are eight books that shaped the revolutionary entrepreneur
1. "Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down" by J.E. Gordon
When Musk decided he wanted to learn rocket science, he studied textbooks on astrophysics and engineering. While reading advanced texts on physics may not be for everyone, this book offers a lighter take on the science behind SpaceX.
"It is really, really good if you want a primer on structural design," Musk says in an interview with KCRW.
2. "Benjamin Franklin: An American Life" by Walter Isaacson
Ben Franklin, author, inventor, scientist and diplomat, is one of Musk's heroes.
"You can see how [Franklin] was an entrepreneur," Musk says in an interview with Foundation's Kevin Rose. "He was an entrepreneur. He started from nothing. He was just a runaway kid."
3. "Einstein: His Life and Universe" by Walter Isaacson
Musk tells Rose he was influenced by the biography of theoretical physicist Albert Einstein, and it's clear why.
Some of Einstein's most famous quotes, like "The important thing is not to stop questioning," and "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new," speak directly to Musk's vision for his companies.
4. "Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies" by Nick Bostrom
Though Musk is a futurist and deeply interested in artificial intelligence, he has shared his worries about potential dangers and ethical concerns associated with the technology.
Bostrom's book, which deals with the potential challenges presented should computational intelligence surpass human intelligence, is "worth reading" Musk tweeted in 2014.

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