Here’s Every Book Bill Gates Has Ever Recommended on His Website

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 Curethe 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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