Read Like a Billionaire – Bill Gates Reveals His Summer Reading List

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In what has become an annual tradition, Bill Gates has shared his summer reading list for 2018 so you too can read like a billionaire. This summer Gates has chosen five favorite books including one fiction and four non-fiction, revealing on his blog, “I realized that several of my choices wrestle with big questions,” but promising “despite the heavy subject matter, all these books were fun to read, and most of them are pretty short.”
For summer 2018 Gates recommends the following books:
“Leonardo da Vinci” by Walter Isaacson
“I think Leonardo was one of the most fascinating people ever,” Gates shares on his blog. “Isaacson does the best job I’ve seen of pulling together the different strands of Leonardo’s life and explaining what made him so exceptional.”
“Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I’ve Loved” by Kate Bowler
After Bowler, a professor at Duke Divinity School, was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer, she set out to find out why it happened to her. The result is this brilliant book with Gates promises “is a heartbreaking , surprisingly funny memoir about faith and coming to grips with your own mortality.”
“Lincoln in the Bardo” by George Saunders
In this novel about Abraham Lincoln, Saunders blends Civil War historical facts with fantastical elements through the use of conversation with 166 ghosts, including Lincoln’s deceased son. “I got new insight into the way Lincoln must have been crushed by the weight of both grief and responsibility,” Gates says of the book. “This is one of those fascinating, ambiguous books you’ll want to discuss with a friend when you’re done.”
“Origin Story: A Big History of Everything” by David Christian
This book “tells the story of the universe from the Big Bang to today’s complex societies,” writes Gates. “The book will leave you with a greater appreciation of humanity’s place in the universe.”
“Factfulness” by Hans Rosling, with Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Ronnlund
“I’ve been recommending this book since the day it came out,” Gates enthuses on his blog. “Hans, the brilliant global-health lecturer who died last year, gives you a breakthrough way of understanding basic truths about the world – how life is getting better, and where the world still needs to improve. And he weaves in unforgettable anecdotes from his life. It’s a fitting final word from a brilliant man, and one of the best books I’ve ever read.”