Bill Gates is a very busy man, but as his admirers know, he makes time to read. The Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist regularly reviews books on his website and formulates lists of his favorite books of the year, or the best ones on a given subject. Here is every book he’s ever recommended on his website, from highly academic texts to The Hunger Games.
Note: In the assorted reviews category, we left off books that had been included in other lists — but when the same book appeared on multiple reading lists, we allowed the repetition.
My Favorite Books of 2016
- String Theory by David Foster Wallace
- Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
- The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee
- The Myth of the Strong Leader by Archie Brown
- The Grid by Gretchen Bakke
5 Books to Read This Summer, 2016
- Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
- How Not to be Wrong by Jordan Ellenberg
- The Vital Question by Nick Lane
- The Power to Compete by Ryoichi Mikitani and Hiroshi Mikitani
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Noah Yuval Harari
The Best Books I Read in 2015
- The Road to Character by David Brooks
- Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words by Randall Munroe
- Being Nixon: A Man Divided by Evan Thomas
- Sustainable Materials With Both Eyes Open by Julian M. Allwood, Jonathan M. Cullen, et al.
- Eradication: Ridding the World of Diseases Forever? by Nancy Leys Stepan
- Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck
- The Vital Question by Nick Lane
Beach Reading (and More), 2015
- Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
- The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins
- What If? by Randall Munroe
- XKCD by Randall Munroe
- On Immunity by Eula Biss
- How to Lie With Statistics by Darrell Huff
- Should We Eat Meat? by Vaclav Smil
6 Books I Recommended for TED 2015
- Business Adventures by John Brooks
- The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin
- On Immunity by Eula Biss
- Making the Modern World by Vaclav Smil
- How Asia Works by Joe Studwell
- How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff
The Best Books I Read in 2014
- Business Adventures by John Brooks
- Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty
- How Asia Works by Joe Studwell
- The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion
- Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization by Vaclav Smil
Good Disease Books, 2014
- The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years by Sonia Shah
- House on Fire: The Fight to Eradicate Smallpox by William H. Foege
- Smallpox: The Death of a Disease by D.A. Henderson
- Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues by Paul Farmer
6 Books I’d Recommend, 2014
- Business Adventures by John Brooks
- Stress Test by Timothy F. Geithner
- The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin
- (Bonus: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin)
- The Rosie Project: A Novel by Graeme Simsion
- The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert
- Reinventing American Health Care: How the Affordable Care Act Will Improve Our Terribly Complex, Blatantly Unjust, Outrageously Expensive, Grossly Inefficient, Error Prone System by Ezekiel J. Emanuel
10 Books Melinda and I Recommended to the TED Crowd, 2014
- The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker
- Getting Better by Charles Kenny
- Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
- The Man Who Fed the World by Leon Hesser
- Energy Myths and Realities by Vaclav Smil
- The Last Hunger Season by Roger Thurow
- However Long the Night by Aimee Molloy
- In the Company of the Poor by Paul Farmer and Gustavo Gutierrez
- Change by Design by Tim Brown
- Mighty Be Our Powers by Leymah Gbowee
The Best Books I Read in 2013
- The Box by Marc Levinson
- The Most Powerful Idea in the World by William Rosen
- Harvesting the Biosphere by Vaclav Smil
- The World Until Yesterday by Jared Diamond
- Poor Numbers by Morten Jerven
- Why Does College Cost So Much? by Robert B. Archibald and David H. Feldman
- The Bet by Paul Sabin
Bonuses:
- The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
- Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
My Summer Reading List, 2013
- The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? by Jared Diamond
- (Bonus: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond)
- The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger by Marc Levinson
- However Long the Night: Molly Melching’s Journey to Help Millions of African Women and Girls by Aimee Molloy
- How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character by Paul Tough
- Japan’s Dietary Transition and Its Impacts (Food, Health, and the Environment) by Vaclav Smil and Kazuhiko Kobayashi
- Made in the USA: The Rise and Retreat of American Manufacturing by Vaclav Smil
- Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do (Issues of Our Time) by Claude Steele
- Patriot and Assassin by Robert Cook
Great Books on Science and Innovation, 2013
- Smallpox: The Death of a Disease by D. A. Henderson
- The Man Who Fed the World: Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Norman Borlaug and His Battle to End World Hunger by Leon Hesser (Book Review)
- House on Fire: The Fight to Eradicate Smallpox by William H. Foege
- Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson (Book Review)
- For the Love of Physics by Walter Lewin (Book Review)
- Feynman Lectures on Physics, Vol. 1: Mainly Mechanics, Radiation, and Heat by Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton and Matthew Sands
- Feynman Lectures on Physics, Vol 2: Mainly Electromagnetism and Matter by Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton and Matthew Sands
- Feynman Lectures on Physics, Vol 3: Quantum Mechanics by Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton and Matthew Sands
- Harvesting the Biosphere by Vaclav Smil
- Energy Myths and Realities by Vaclav Smil (Book Review)
- The New Science of Strong Materials by J.E. Gordon (Book Review)
- The Hair of the Dog and other Scientific Surprises by Karl Sabbagh
- 13 Things That Don’t Make Sense by Michael Brooks
A Year-End Reading List, 2013
- The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail—but Some Don’t by Nate Silver
- The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future by Joseph E. Stiglitz
- Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson
- The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry and Invention by William Rosen
- Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practically Everything, 1966-2013 by Carol J. Loomis
My Top Reads of 2012
- The Better Angels of our Nature: Why Violence has Declined by Steven Pinker
- Deng Xiaoping by Ezra Vogel
- The Quest by Daniel Yergin
- Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer
- Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
- One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World? by Gordon Conway
- A World-Class Education by Vivien Stewart
- Academically Adrift by Richard Arum & Joshipa Roksa
- This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly by Carmen Reinhart & Kenneth Rogoff
- The City That Became Safe: New York’s Lessons for Urban Crime and Its Control by Franklin Zimring
Books I Read this Summer, 2012
- A Nation of Wusses: How America’s Leaders Lost the Guts to Make Us Great by Ed Rendel
- The Art of Being Unreasonable: Lessons in Unconventional Thinking by Eli Broad
- Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer
- Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa
- Awakening Joy: 10 Steps That Will Put You on the Road to Real Happiness by James Baraz and Shoshana Alexander
More Great Summer Reading, 2012
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
- The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
- The Art of War by Sun Tzu
- Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
- Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
- The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow
- Life of Pi by Yann Martel
- A New Kind of Science by Stephen Wolfram
- A Rogue’s Guide to Acquisition by Ranak Jones, Jayesh Mehta, Anish Sikri
- The Alchemist by Paul Coelho
Great Summer Reading, 2012
- The Better Angels of our Nature Steven Pinker
- The Quest by Daniel Yergin
- Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China by Ezra Vogel
- The Cost of Hope by Amanda Bennett
- Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
- Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update by Donella Meadows
- Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler
- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
- The Man Who Stayed Behind by Amanda Bennett
Assorted book reviews:
- When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
- The Rise and Fall of American Growth by Robert J. Gordon
- Epic Measures: One Doctor. Seven Billion Patients by Jeremy Smith
- Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World by Mark Miodownik
- The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty by Nina Munk
- The Great Escape: Health, Wealth and the Origins of Inequality by Angus Deaton
- The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal by David McCullough
- Value-Added Measures in Education: What Every Educator Needs to Know by Douglas N. Harris
- Interventions: A Life in War and Peace by Kofi Annan
- Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era by Amory Lovins
- Science Business: The Promise, the Reality, and the Future of Biotech by Gary P. Pisano
- The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande
- Unlocking Energy Innovation: How America Can Build a Low-Cost, Low-Carbon Energy System by Richard K. Lester and David M. Hart
- The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje
- Titan II: A History of a Cold War Missile Program by David Stumpf
- Why Don’t Students Like School?: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom by Daniel T. Willingham
- That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back by Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum
- Change.edu: Rebooting for the New Talent Economy by Andrew S. Rosen
- The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
- World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse by Lester R. Brown
- Global Health: An Introductory Textbook by Ann Lindstrand et al
- Unlocking the Gates: How and Why Leading Universities Are Opening Up Access to Their Courses by Taylor Walsh
- How to Spend $50 Billion to Make the World a Better Place ed. Bjørn Lomborg
- Global Warming: The Complete Briefing by John Houghton
- Frank Stewart’s Bridge Club by Frank Stewart
- Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo
- Prime Movers of Globalization: The History and Impact of Diesel Engines and Gas Turbines by Vaclav Smil
- Modernist Cuisine by Nathan Myhrvold
- A Champion’s Mind: Lessons From a Life in Tennis by Pete Sampras
- Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
- Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America’s Schools by Steven Brill
- Health Care Will Not Reform Itself: A User’s Guide to Refocusing and Reforming American Health Care by George C. Halvorson
- Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Era of Economic Integration by Douglas S. Massey, Jorge Durand and Nolan L. Malone
- Dirt and Disease: Polio Before FDR by Naomi Rogers
- The Grid: A Journey Through the Heart of Our Electrified World by Phillip F. Schewe
- Beyond the Crash: Overcoming the First Crisis of Globalization by Gordon Brown
- The Foundation: A Great American Secret; How Private Wealth is Changing the World by Joel L. Fleishman
- Who’s Teaching Your Children?: Why the Teacher Crisis Is Worse Than You Think and What Can Be Done About It by Vivian Troen and Katherine C. Boles
- The Making of a Tropical Disease: A Short History of Malaria by Randall M. Packard
- Priorities in Health by Dean T. Jamison et al
- Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger ed. Peter D. Kaufman
- Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System — and Themselves by Andrew Ross Sorkin
- The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman
- Showing Up for Life: Thoughts on the Gifts of a Lifetime by Bill Gates Sr.
- Open: An Autobiography by Andre Agassi
- Give Smart: Philanthropy that Gets Results by Thomas J. Tierney and Joel L. Fleishman
- Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson
- Creating the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations of 1867-1914 and Their Lasting Impact by Vaclav Smil
- Broken Genius: The Rise and Fall of William Shockley, Creator of the Electronic Age by Joel N. Shurkin
- A Separate Peace by John Knowles
- Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine’s Greatest Lifesaver by Arthur Allen
- Tropical Infectious Diseases: Principles, Pathogens and Practice by Richard L. Guerrant, David H. Walker and Peter F. Weller
- Smallpox: The Death of a Disease – The Inside Story of Eradicating a Worldwide Killer by D.A. Henderson
- Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder
- The Earth’s Biosphere: Evolution, Dynamics, and Change by Vaclav Smil
- Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution – and How It Can Renew America by Thomas L. Friedman
- Energy at the Crossroads: Global Perspectives and Uncertainties by Vaclav Smil
- Energies: An Illustrated Guide to the Biosphere and Civilization by Vaclav Smil
- Big History: From the Big Bang to the Present by Cynthia Stokes Brown
- The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time by Jeffrey Sachs
- Global Catastrophes and Trends: The Next Fifty Years by Vaclav Smil
- Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and the Transformation of World Food Production by Vaclav Smil
- Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed: Revised Edition by Jared Diamond
- Polio: An American Story by David M. Oshinsky
- Stretching the School Dollar: How Schools and Districts Can Save Money While Serving Students Best, ed. Frederick M. Hess and Eric Osberg
- Educational Economics: Where Do School Funds Go? by Marguerite Roza
- Jim Grant: UNICEF Visionary, ed. Richard Jolly
- The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves by Matt Ridley
- Why America Is Not a New Rome by Vaclav Smil
- Energy Transitions: History, Requirements, Prospects by Vaclav Smil
- Liberating Learning: Technology, Politics, and the Future of American Education by Terry M. Moe and John E. Chubb
- Life Is What You Make It: Find Your Own Path to Fulfillment by Peter Buffet
- Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food by Pamela C. Ronald and Raoul W. Adamchak
- In FED We Trust: Ben Bernanke’s War on the Great Panic by David Wessel
- SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
- Work Hard. Be Nice.: How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America by Jay Mathews
- Sustainable Energy – Without the Hot Air by David JC Mackay
This article originally appeared on Time.com
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