Summer reading list

View of "Lake Bill"

from the Library

Microsoft Campus, c. 1990

When I was a research librarian at Microsoft, we jumped into action when any request came in from the executive office. For example, Bill Gate's tech assistant would come to the library and pick up books for his annual "think week" vacation.  Putting together Bill's reading list was a plum assignment for the senior researcher, but quite a bit of work before the Internet made everything so easy.  It was stressful, too, and hours were spent hashing out things Bill might find interesting. Wasting Bill's time with irrelevant material was a cardinal sin, and we would hear about it later.
 
Bill was a fast, indiscriminate and greedy reader, and he would plow through hundreds of newspapers, magazines, technical reports, company reports, along with history, philosophy, fiction, etc. from the library. Yes, in those days, Bill Gates actually checked out books from his corporate library.

To make a long story short, I think it's interesting (not to mention, rather sweet) that Bill Gates, still a voracious reader, publishes his summer reading recommendations like a good, old-fashioned librarian.

These are his books for 2018:

"Leonardo da Vinci," by Walter Isaacson

"Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I've Loved," by Kate Bowler

"Lincoln in the Bardo," by George Saunders

"Origin Story: A Big History of Everything," by David Christian

"Factfulness, " by Hans Rosling