
My Favorite Books of 2016 - taylorwc
https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Best-Books-2016?linkId=31806383
======
knz
"Honorable mention: The Grid, by Gretchen Bakke. This book, about our aging
electrical grid, fits in one of my favorite genres: “Books About Mundane Stuff
That Are Actually Fascinating.” "

The author of this book was on NPR/Fresh Air in August. It was a great
listen/read if you are interested in the subject.

[http://www.npr.org/2016/08/22/490932307/aging-and-
unstable-t...](http://www.npr.org/2016/08/22/490932307/aging-and-unstable-the-
nations-electrical-grid-is-the-weakest-link)

I heard it a couple of days after a weather related power cut and ended up in
the rabbit hole of the risk from cyber warfare/terrorism and solar flares. I'm
not sure I would recommend that rabbit hole if you have any concerns about the
reliance of society on technology and just in time shipping!

~~~
Cyph0n
I think the word "mundane" is out of place.

Whoever isn't fascinated by the modern power grid is slightly dead inside. The
same applies to a ton of other "mundane" things, like road and rail networks,
sewage systems, garbage disposal and recycling, and so on.

I think a better term would be "rarely noticed".

~~~
xenihn
>Whoever isn't fascinated by the modern power grid is slightly dead inside.
The same applies to a ton of other "mundane" things, like road and rail
networks, sewage systems, garbage disposal and recycling, and so on.

I feel like the vast majority of people have absolutely no interest in
learning about these things, even in a calamitous context.

~~~
mememachine
how unfortunate for them

~~~
GavinMcG
I agree, but I down voted the comment for now because it doesn't really
contribute anything to the conversation and doesn't seem like it means to.

------
roymurdock
I really like the way he limits his list to 4 books. Most other thought
leaders/influencers/CEOs do lists of 10, 20 "hot topic" books that you know
they probably haven't read. I find the volume also diminishes the individual
importance of each book on the list.

I'll have to pick up String Theory (I love that Bill Gates reads DFW) and The
Grid per his recommendations.

~~~
maxxxxx
Whatever I know Gates is a reading machine. I am sure he has read everything
he recommends.

When Jon Stewart did the Daily Show I always wondered if he had read guests'
books because he had pretty detailed questions.

~~~
kloncks
This question has been asked a lot. He's impressive in that more often than
not, he reads the books cover-to-cover.

~~~
maxxxxx
Do you know that for sure? He certainly makes that impression.

~~~
emilga
> He doesn’t spare himself, though. “I have a habit, which I don’t recommend,
> of finishing essentially every book I start,” he said. “And if I disagree
> with a book I spend lots of time writing notes in the margins. Perversely,
> this means that the more I dislike a book, the longer I spend reading it.”

[http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/fashion/bill-gates-the-
bil...](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/fashion/bill-gates-the-billionaire-
book-critic.html)

I wonder if being "argumentative" against a book you disagree with in this way
is a good antidote to confirmation bias.

One type of person might stop reading a book when it veers in a direction they
disagree with and therefore end up never changing their mind.

------
raintrees
A humorous observation: Ever look at an HTML page created by Microsoft Word?
Quite a bit of code goes into what should have been a simple HTML document.

Now try viewing source of Mr. Gates' web page here: 6873 lines, the HTML <p>
content starts at 5816 and goes for 9 lines to describe the 4 books plus the
bonus, for a whopping total of 9 lines of content, 6864 lines of behavior and
presentation... Wow.

~~~
thirdsun
Furthermore, with uBlock Origin on Chrome the doesn't show any text /
paragraph. I see the header image followed by an endless sea of whitespace.

~~~
facepalm
works fine with Firefox+uBlock Origin

~~~
krzyk
On my Firefox+uBlock Origin I see also a photo and endless sea of whitespace

------
reubenswartz
I thought Shoe Dog was a great book, although my favorite book of the year was
a Gates Notes recommendation for summer reading-- The Vital Question, by Nick
Lane. If you're interested in biology and the origins of life, it makes some
provocative claims, and backs them up. If this doesn't change how you think
about life on earth (and elsewhere), I don't know what will...

[https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Summer-
Books-201...](https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Summer-Books-2016)

[https://www.amazon.com/Vital-Question-Evolution-Origins-
Comp...](https://www.amazon.com/Vital-Question-Evolution-Origins-
Complex/dp/0393352978)

~~~
aorth
I will put The Vital Question on my "to read" list. On a similar topic, I've
just picked up Sapiens, which was also on Gates' 2016 Summer reading list. A
few people in my circles had been talking about it so I decided to pick it up,
before even noticing Gates had recommended it.

~~~
reubenswartz
I enjoyed Sapiens, too. Just not as much as The Vital Question.

------
bduerst
Side topic: Does anyone know any good podcasts that fit his genre of “Podcasts
About Mundane Stuff That Are Actually Fascinating"?

~~~
tbihl
Econtalk. Russ Roberts is a fantastic interviewer, with only a few weak
performances in his decade of weekly podcasts.

He probably skews a bit libertarian for the typical HN'er to agree with, but
he gives voice to a lot of points of view, and he brings on good guests. At
least half of the podcasts have sufficiently interesting titles that they
could be easily voted to HN front page, and the depth of discussion is good
for the hour each guests receives.

~~~
tebuevd
It's pretty good, but sometimes boring. Do you have a few "must-listen"
episodes to recommend?

~~~
branchless
[http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2011/08/odonohoe_on_pot.htm...](http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2011/08/odonohoe_on_pot.html)

------
40acres
Shoe Dog might have been my favorite read of the year, its a very inspiring
and highly entertaining story. Regardless of what you think of Nike you can
learn a lot about determination and grit from this book. I would recommend it
to anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit.

~~~
ErikAugust
Shoe Dog is amazing. The honesty is amazing.

------
jackfrodo
Awesome to see DFW on HN. Infinite Jest's tennis scenes helped shape the way I
view the world. There's one particularly great one where a father is giving
some life lessons to his son via tennis. And it is excellent Here's a link to
(most of) the scene:
[https://books.google.com/books?id=Nhe2yvx6hP8C&pg=PT200&lpg=...](https://books.google.com/books?id=Nhe2yvx6hP8C&pg=PT200&lpg=PT200&dq=infinite+jest+not+like+that+son&source=bl&ots=K3Ns0m27li&sig=xNi2d-yEmd68jJ1M0SUwnuKBDQA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjgh6LzuN7QAhXJAcAKHb5yCQ4Q6AEIPjAF#v=onepage&q=infinite%20jest%20not%20like%20that%20son&f=false)

~~~
ahussain
The link doesn't open to a particular page for me - do you have a page number
or chapter title?

~~~
cm127
It looks like part of the section is missing. It starts at Winter B.S. 1960 --
Tucson, AZ.

------
ericzawo
I can confirm Shoe Dog is an incredible book. Bill's summation is right - a
how-to on building a company this is not, but it's still very much worth
reading.

------
kirk211
Here is my list:

\- Endurance: The story about an expedition to Antartica... gone wrong
([http://amzn.to/2g26L5i](http://amzn.to/2g26L5i))

\- Crucial conversations: Learn how to argue with people without starting
fights. Allowed me to look at the situation more objectively
([http://amzn.to/2h8w4yN](http://amzn.to/2h8w4yN))

\- Making of the atomic bomb
([http://amzn.to/2gJF6VU](http://amzn.to/2gJF6VU))

\- Relentless: the personal coach of Michael Jordan talks about how you can
become a cleaner. Great if you want to understand how great athletes think
([http://amzn.to/2gJCerW](http://amzn.to/2gJCerW))

\- Make: rockets. Some cool stuff to do with the kids
([http://amzn.to/2gZyQaQ](http://amzn.to/2gZyQaQ))

\- How to make a spaceship: The history of the Ansari XPRIZE. Interesting read
about how hard it was to build this spaceship.
([http://amzn.to/2h8xMzY](http://amzn.to/2h8xMzY))

~~~
throwaway729
"Making of the atomic bomb" is a real classic and can't come more highly
recommended.

Model rockets are great for kids. I wish there were an equivalently accessible
set of programmable RC plane projects.

------
qwertyuiop924
While these all do look like excellent books, none of them really seem to be
of particular interest to me.

Except maybe "The Grid". Technical infrastructure is always fascinating and
awe-inspiring.

...Which brings me to one of the two books that I reccomend on HN every time
the subject comes up, because they're just that good.

 _Exploding the Phone_ , a fascinating dive into the world of phone phreaking
that really needs more attention. It not only discusses the people and culture
of the phreaking scene, but also the technology that drew them to the phone.
It really manages to capture a bit of the magic that entranced people of the
time: If you're not a little bit in awe of the A4 crossbar switch by the end
of it... You should be.

~~~
trapperkeeper79
I agree. I've been impressed by his selection in previous years. This year
seems drab with the exception of The Grid. Also, doesn't he read fiction? My
fav book of the year was Ready Player One :)

------
tebuevd
Shoe Dog is absolutely incredible. When you hear the back stories about the
name Nike, the swoosh, Phil's original business plan... Fascinating.

I do recommend that people are generally careful with blindly taking
everything as a straight truth, especially when an author seems "trustworthy".
It is a known tactic to sneak in lies or exaggerations among the truths.

------
billconan
sigh, as an engineer, I don't seem to have time to read books.

Did he read this many books before retirement?

~~~
lbotos
It just takes picking back up the habit. A year or so ago I started reading
books (and cutting down on reading internet drivel) and read ~12 books this
year.

~~~
mgv11
Yeah that is the way to go. Wife asked me to block some her websites so that
she would have time to do more useful stuff. Suppose I need to same for myself
as well.

------
rubicon33
I wonder, did he read this much when he was founding Microsoft? I ask because,
as someone who would love to read, I feel like I never have the time. And
strangely, I feel morally guilty for prioritizing other things like career
growth etc.

~~~
wishinghand
If you can spare an hour a day, and can read at least a page every two
minutes, that's 210 pages a week. I understand if you have family obligations
and long work hours but I also like to squeeze some reading in during lunch if
it's not a social lunch or maybe right before bed. Just like everything else
in life you have to find the time for it and then make the time for it.

~~~
douche
I manage about a book a week reading for a half hour or so at lunch time. It's
not usually heavyweight stuff - fantasy, historical fiction, sci-fi, on my
kindle. But hey, it's my lunch break, right?

~~~
colmvp
Gosh, I'm a slow reader. Usually when I read books (mostly non-fiction) it
takes me a few days. If I just partitioned it to 30 minutes at lunch time like
yourself, it would've taken me two to three weeks to read The New Jim Crow!

------
perseusprime11
Not saying this is true but what if Gates's favorite books are the only books
he may have read in 2016. It would be nice to see a full run down of his list
including the ones he did not like.

------
a_c
It would be great if a similar list be curated from HN, if not every month,
every quarter. The community here has a much diverse interests and we get to
glimpse into different genres.

~~~
DanBC
There are a couple of projects that do this. I think they require the book
recommendation to also have a link to one of the booksellers.

(I noticed that I was skewing some of the results because I tend to always
include Amazon links when I mention a book.)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12365693](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12365693)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10924741](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10924741)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13041912](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13041912)

~~~
a_c
That's awesome, thanks for the links!

------
wowsig
So many book recommendations. Really suggest people to create the list of
books they read in 2016 over at [http://shelfjoy.com](http://shelfjoy.com) so
that others can bookmark them and this thread is kept alive.

------
lintiness
bill, and most people, should read and recommend more fiction (there's a
little bit of fiction in every one of his recommended books i'm sure).

------
ggregoire
The content of the blog seems blocked by uBlock Origin. (More precisely: the
scripts from gatesnotes.com, and the content is loaded in JS)

~~~
melvinmt
"My extension that blocks website content seems to block website content…"

That's how I interpret complaints by adblock users.

~~~
jlarocco
"Good thing there are millions of other websites with book suggestions which
work just fine with ad-block turned on..."

That's how I interpret pages that don't work at all when I have adblock turned
on.

Seriously, if a website is so crammed with tracking shit and advertising that
it can't even display text when I have ad-block on, then good-riddance.

~~~
praneshp
All of them with sources as credible as Bill Gates?

~~~
rhizome
To be sure, Bill Gates is a solo authority when it comes to listing his
favorite books.

