Bill Gates suggests these five books for summer reading

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Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/05/24/bill-gates-suggests-these-five.html

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Needs more fiction. 20% is not enough.

Justina Ireland: Dread Nation
Guy Gavriel Kay: The Children of Earth and Sky
NK Jemisin (Pick one, start there)

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You can skip Lincoln in the Bardo. I read it but didn’t get much from it.

Read Walt Whitman’s Memoranda During the War instead. In it, you will find that Whitman and Lincoln had a nodding acquaintance, though they never spoke. My notes on the book are available at http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2018/03/memoranda-during-war.html

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Slightly better than the lists he’s published in the past. Wondering how the Leonardo book compares to “The Agony and the Ecstasy”, I loved that book when I was ten.

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Bill Gates really has rehabilitated himself in the public eye. Reminds me of George Bush. For Bill it only took some billions of dollars in alms to charity for people to forget all the bad things Microsoft did under his command. Without all that nastiness we would all surely be running Linux on our desktops and commuting to Mars by now.

Now he can give us book suggestions with a puppy in his lap. Johann Tetzel would be proud, I tell you!

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That’s not how you hold a puppy. :slight_smile:

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Well, I’d prefer:

  • David Gerard: Attack of the 50 foot blockchain
  • Stefania Capone: Searching for Africa in Brazil
  • Lydia Cabrera: El monte (AFAIK only available in Spanish)
  • Todd Ochoa: Society of the Dead
  • Alan Moore: Jerusalem
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He also recommends reading the Apple iPhone Terms and Conditions, lest you accidentally agree to become part of a human centipede.

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Adding to my “Do Not Read” list. Thanks!

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True 'dat. Like when The Guardian welcomed George W. Bush “back” when he criticized Donald Trump. What are these alt-centroids smoking?

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So it’d be a swings and roundabouts kinda situation is what you’re saying?

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  1. Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
  1. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
  1. RetroSuburbia: the downshifter’s guide to a resilient future by David Holmgren
  1. Lagaan directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, produced by Aamir Khan and Mansoor Khan, and written by Gowariker and Abbas Tyrewala (ok, technically a movie, but a great story and a nice pairing with Indian food or takeout)
  1. Growing Food in a Hotter, Drier Land: Lessons from Desert Farmers on Adapting to Climate Uncertainty by Gary Paul Nabhan
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Looked him up.

Ye gods.

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I’ve always found Bill Gates to be an interesting guy but in general every time I see his reading lists I get a little sleepy.

I’m a fiction kind of guy and while I skim a lot of non-fiction I have a really difficult time actually reading a non-fiction book in its entirety.

TNF;DR (Too Non-Fiction; Didn’t read) ?
TR;DR (Too Real; Didn’t read) ?

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I guess if I were worth billions of dollars, I’d have the time to read books like this instead of working all the damn’ day just to keep myself alive. But since I’m one of the 99.99%, I guess I’ll have to confine my reading to technical books that keep me vocationally relevant and whatever else I can jam into my free moments.

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