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Microsoft founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has posted a list of five of his favorite books on his reading list in 2020.
in a blog post detailing the books, Gates said he turned to books in a variety of different genres to help him get through a difficult year.
“This year, I sometimes chose to delve into a difficult topic, such as the injustices underlying this year’s Black Lives Matter protests.
“Other times I needed a change of pace, something lighter at the end of the day. As a result, I read a wide variety of books and many excellent ones. “
The new Jim Crow: mass incarceration in the age of color blindness, by Michelle Alexander.
“Like many white people, I have tried to deepen my understanding of systemic racism in recent months,” Gates said.
Alexander’s book offers an eye-opening look at how the criminal justice system unfairly targets communities of color, and especially black communities.
“It is especially good at explaining the history and the numbers behind the mass incarceration. I was familiar with some of the data, but Alexander really helps put it in context.
“I finished the book more convinced than ever that we need a fairer approach to sentencing and more investment in communities of color.”
Rank: Why Generalists Succeed in a Specialized World, by David Epstein
“I started following Epstein’s work after watching his fantastic 2014 TED talk on athletic performance.
“In this fascinating book, he argues that although the world seems to be demanding more and more specialization, in his career, for example, what we really need is more people ‘who start broad and embrace diverse experiences and perspectives as they progress.’
His examples range from Roger Federer to Charles Darwin to Soviet affairs experts from the Cold War era, Gates said.
“I think his ideas even help explain part of Microsoft’s success, because we hired people who had real breadth in their field and across all domains. If you are a generalist who has ever felt overshadowed by your fellow specialists, this book is for you.
The splendid and the vile: a saga of Churchill, the family and the challenge during the bombing, by Erik Larson
“Sometimes history books end up feeling more relevant than their authors could have imagined. That’s the case with this brilliant tale from the 1940s and 1941s, when English citizens spent almost every night huddled in basements and subway stations while Germany tried to bombard them into submission.
“The fear and anxiety they felt, although much more severe than what we are experiencing with COVID-19, sounded familiar.
“Larson gives you a vivid idea of what life was like for average citizens during this terrible period, and he does a great job of profiling some of the British leaders who helped them through the crisis, including Winston Churchill and his close advisers.
“Its scope is too narrow to be the only book I have read on World War II, but it is a great addition to the literature focusing on that tragic period.”
The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Spy Story of the Cold War, by Ben Macintyre
This non-fiction account centers on Oleg Gordievsky, a KGB officer who became a double agent for the British, and Aldrich Ames, the American traitor who likely betrayed him.
“Macintyre’s account of his stories comes not only from Western sources (including Gordievsky himself) but also from the Russian perspective. It’s as exciting as my favorite spy novels, ”Gates said.
Salt breath: a deadly genetic disease, a new era in science, and the patients and families that changed medicine, by Bijal P. Trivedi
“This book is truly edifying. It documents a story of remarkable scientific innovation and how it has improved the lives of nearly all cystic fibrosis patients and their families.
“This story is especially meaningful to me because I know families who have benefited from the new medications described in this book.
“I suspect we will see many more books like this in the coming years as biomedical miracles emerge from the labs at an ever-increasing rate.”
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