Climate change, the state of technological innovation and our own biological evolution are among the … [+]
Bill Gates is getting in the holiday spirit, releasing his list of suggested winter reads – and listens – today. It’s a more decade-long Christmas tradition running for the billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft cofounder, who shares his choices for the best books to read by the fireside, hot chocolate in hand, each November.
This year’s list, which Gates is posting on his GatesNotes blog, features some new twists on his holiday tradition. Instead of the usual five-book list, he has substituted two of his book selections with his personal Spotify holiday music playlist and an online economics lecture series. This year also signals the return of Gates’ choice books from just the past 12 months, after he took a departure with last year’s holiday list by cataloging five of the all-time favorite books he’s ever read.
Across the books Gates recommends to readers this winter, there is a clear theme of existentialism. Climate change, the state of technological innovation and our own biological evolution are among the topics he resonates with in his selections and reviews.
When sitting down to assemble his list, Gates writes that these texts “came to mind right away, each of them deeply informative and well written.”
It’s a heavy list, partially offset by Gates’ inclusion of a cheery holiday playlist featuring artists like Donny Hathaway, Nat King Cole and Dolly Parton. One thing readers won’t find on his list is a novel: It’s all nonfiction works for the seventh richest man in the world.
Here are his recommendations:
The Song of the Cell by Siddhartha Mukherjee
A self-proclaimed non-fan of biology as a child, Gates reckons he would have developed a much stronger affinity for the subject had he read The Song of the Cell as a student. This nonfiction text tells the story of human evolution through the lens of the cell. Author and practicing physician Siddhartha Mukherjee (whose other works include the 2011 Pulitzer Prize-winning Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography Of Cancer) takes the reader from the genesis of life on earth, single-celled organisms, and explains how they became human beings, with the help of a few billion years of evolution. Gates admires how the author explains “in clear, accessible language not only how cells work but why they are the foundation of all life.” Mukherjee goes on to tackle how the science of cells influences, or rather dictates, modern biology and the study of illness. In Gates’ words, “all of us will have loved ones who get sick. To understand what’s happening in those moments — and to feel optimistic that things will get better — you need a foundational knowledge about the building blocks of life.”
Not the End of the World: How We Can Be The First Generation To Build A Sustainable Planet by Hannah Ritchie
In a somewhat contrarian take on climate change, Gates praises author Hannah Ritchie’s optimistic and solutions-oriented approach to sustainability. In Not the End of the World, Ritchie takes aim at a principle long accepted as true, that the world was once sustainable but is getting less so. The climate scholar makes the point that the world has, in fact, never been completely sustainable. Rather, different aspects of human life have wavered between sustainable and not sustainable throughout history, and the present is no different. In a genre saturated with pessimistic, doomsday-esque themes, Gates admires Ritchie’s matter-of-fact depiction of climate change. “The world is bad, but much better: Those two things can be true at once. So can a third: ‘The world can be much better,’” Gates writes. Ritchie also raises action points that companies, governments and citizens can use to mitigate each climate issue raised in the book, resulting in a list of solutions with which Gates says he “couldn’t agree more.”
Invention and Innovation: A Brief History of Hype and Failure by Vaclav Smil
No author has been featured in Gates’ reviews more than Vaclav Smil. Gates has read all 44 of his books, many of which are about technology and innovation. Gates feels Smil’s perspectives are often “too pessimistic” about the upside of new technology, though he admits the writer is almost always right when it comes to the issues around their application in the real world. In his latest work, Smil makes the contrarian argument that the current era of technological innovation is lackluster and stagnant. Gates rejects the general sentiment, though the Microsoft cofounder agrees that “the exponential growth in computing power over the past several decades has given people a false idea about growth and innovation in other areas.” Gates advises readers to take Smil’s writing with a grain of salt in order to get the most out of it, saying, “Even when I disagree with him, I learn a lot from him. Smil is not the sunniest person I know, but he always strengthens my thinking.”
Unexpected Economics, an online course taught by Stanford University Professor Timothy Taylor
While not a book, Gates sees Professor Timothy Taylor’s recorded economics lectures as one of the best guides to understanding the discipline. It was what Gates first thought of when one of his children recently asked him to recommend a book on economics. Gates highlights Unexpected Economics and two other courses, all available on the streaming platform Wondrium, that break down the fundamentals of economics in a digestible way. It’s the type of class you will get something out of “whether you’ve never taken an economics class before, or you majored in the subject and graduated with honors,” Gates writes. He adds that Taylor’s strength is his ability to communicate seemingly impossibly complex topics as coherent and straightforward, making for a viewing experience both “enlightening and accessible.” For those feeling especially festive, Gates recommends Taylor’s Altruism, Charity, and Gifts lecture in the Unexpected Economics course, which tackles the economics of gift-giving.
“Holiday Playlist 2023”
“When I think of the holidays, two things always come to mind: matching pajama sets a tradition in my family and, of course, holiday music,” Gates writes, adding that Christmas tunes can be heard in the Gates household as soon as Thanksgiving is in sight. The tunes in Gates’ Spotify playlist are an eclectic blend of old and new, domestic and international. American classics like The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You) sung by Nat King Cole and Joy to the World, performed by Dolly Parton make his list, alongside European chart toppers like Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmastime, and Happy Xmas (War Is Over) by John Lennon. A Capella group Pentatonix even sneak their way on with That’s Christmas to Me.