Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, philanthropist, and guy who made $50 million in the time it took you to read this sentence, has some book recommendations for you.
Gates took to his blog on Tuesday to recommend five books he enjoyed reading this year. His list includes four works of nonfiction and one critically acclaimed novel.
The multi-billionaire had kind words for Tayari Jones’ 2018 novel An American Marriage, about a family torn asunder by a wrongful criminal conviction. “Jones is such a good writer that she manages to make you empathize with both of her main characters, even after one makes a difficult decision,” Gates wrote.
He also praised Jill Lepore’s 2018 American history book, These Truths, writing, “Lepore has pulled off the seemingly impossible in her latest book: covering the entire history of the United States in just 800 pages. She’s made a deliberate choice to make diverse points of view central to the narrative, and the result is the most honest and unflinching account of the American story I’ve ever read.”
Gates recommended Growth, a book by one of his favorite authors, scientist Vaclav Smil. “As always, I don’t agree with everything Smil says, but he remains one of the best thinkers out there at documenting the past and seeing the big picture,” Gates wrote.
He rounded out his list of recommended books with Diane Tavenner’s Prepared and Matthew Walker’s Why We Sleep, and gave honorable-mention props to David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas and Sigrid Nunez’s The Friend.
What’s on the horizon for Gates in 2020 (besides making billions of dollars and not spending any of it on new glasses)? It turns out he might take a cue from your hipster ex-boyfriend. “Maybe next year’s end-of-year books post will finally include the [David Foster] Wallace novel I’ve been wanting to read for a while: Infinite Jest,” Gates wrote.
Michael Schaub is an Austin, Texas–based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
